Field Notes: From Closed Doors to Open Roads

MARCH’S WHIRLWIND MEETS JUNE’S RESOLVE
When we closed Catena Commons’ physical doors in March, it felt like an ending. Federal chaos had frozen critical conservation funding mid-project, leaving communities like the Middle Rio Grande Valley in limbo. I wrote then about fighting unpaid and unhoused – a raw reality born of systems failing those they were designed to protect.

BUT SOIL SCIENTISTS KNOW DISTURBANCE IS NATURAL.

Those months of uncertainty forced us to reinvent. We asked:

ENTER THE MOBILE CONSERVATION STATION SW

For two years, we’ve envisioned a nimble unit capable of deploying engineering, mapping, and ecological monitoring expertise directly into gaps left by hollowed-out agencies. This spring, we piloted that vision in Arizona’s toughest landscapes – where ghost-town infrastructure meets deadly floods, drought, and underserved communities.

90 DAYS. 3 LESSONS FROM THE FIELD:

1. Chaos → Clarity
   Eastern AZ’s resource gaps aren’t abstract – they’re eroding arroyos, parched pastures, and farmers holding terminated contracts. Our mobile unit became a bridge: part technical SWAT team, part community listening post.

2. Digital Roots Anchor Mobile Work
   While the Conservation Station hauled gear down dirt roads, Catena Commons evolved into our digital nervous system:
   → DIY soil health kits mailed to remote schools
   → Updated contract terms and conditions that center respect and safety
   → Artists, farmers, and engineers co-designing our tools and operations

3. Your Name on Our Shovels
   To critics who say we work too fast yet they take years to implement local conservation programs and decry bureaucratic paralysis: We see you.

   Growing up in places like the Western US—where catastrophe lies around every corner with help years to come—we learned:
   

   Impact outlives inertia.
   Urgency honors community.

   
   Together, our teams navigate broken systems so ranchers and farmers don’t lose another growing season due to systemic in-action.
   

   Our shovels bear the names of those failed by ‘process’:

   
   ☞ The South Valley farmer who lost 3 crops waiting for NRCS designs
   ☞ The AZ ranchers that need brush management, not biochar
   ☞ Your field staff, drowning in paperwork while berms collapse

   Speed isn’t our whim—it’s our witness.

🚑️ THE ROAD AHEAD: CONSERVATION’S URGENT CARE UNIT

This fall, we’re scaling with surgical precision:

• 🚐 Mobile Conservation Station SW: Deploying to 8 Western communities before snow falls: Tucson, ABQ, Santa Fe, Salt Lake City, Elko, Reno and more!

• 🌐 Catena Commons: Launching Soil Crisis Toolkits (emergency planning hacks + community SOP zines)

• 🔬 Catena Environmental: Formalizing emergency watershed partnerships and industry collaborations

Join our next phase:
→ [Support a mobile unit deployment]
→ [Download our WRRI AgWRP Funding Guide]

→ [Request a Dirt Nerd]

Conservation isn’t waiting for permission anymore.