SIERRA VISTA — The Nature Conservancy is using grant funds it received to conserve 9,500 acres in Cochise County near the Arizona-New Mexico border.

A portion of a $13 million Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant The Nature Conservancy received, along with matching funds from the Malpai Borderlands Group, helped bring about a voluntary land protection agreement between the Malpai group and the Cloudt Family Partnership, according to The Nature Conservancy.

The family partnership owns the Cloudt Ranch, which was involved in the conservation agreement.

The Nature Conservancy said the agreement allows the Malpai group to extend its protected lands to nearly 85,000 acres and provide a buffer to subdivisions or other development.

The Malpai Borderlands Group is a nonprofit organization with landowners in southwestern New Mexico and Southeastern Arizona that are trying to “implement ecosystem management on nearly 1 million acres of virtually unfragmented open-space landscape,” according to the group’s Web site.

“This property secures a corridor of wildlife habitat from the grasslands of the San Simon Valley to the oak woodlands of the Coronado National Forest and contributes to a vital migratory corridor for wildlife along the United States-Mexico border, preserving the migration of several species, including the northern-most occurrence of jaguars,” according to The Nature Conservancy’s news release.

Holly Ritcher, Upper San Pedro program manager for The Nature Conservancy, said Friday that her group is optimistic that some of the grant’s funds many be used to protect key areas along the San Pedro River, especially those closest to the river and that have the most immediate impact on river flow.

The goal of the grant, she said, is to create positive impacts for nature and people.

On the Net

• The Nature Conservancy: www.nature.org/

• Malpai Borderlands Group:

www.malpaiborderlandsgroup.org/