PHOENIX — Animal lovers now have a new piece of good news to go nuts over: a population of endangered red squirrels unique to Arizona is growing slightly.

Wildlife officials found there are 233 Mount Graham red squirrels, which can only be found in the Pinaleño Mountains of southeastern Arizona.

These numbers reflect a sharp boost from the population of 144 squirrels in last year’s survey from the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD), Coronado National Forest, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

Holly Hicks, AZGFD’s small mammal project coordinator, said this year’s bigger number was a pleasant surprise for all involved.

“We all knew that we were seeing a lot of squirrels and middens during this last survey,” Hicks said in a Thursday news release. “But I don’t think any of us expected such a dramatic increase.”

Endangered red squirrels unique to Arizona bouncing back

This increase is a hopeful sign for conservation efforts, as the species has been struggling for decades.

In the late 1990s, there were around 550 Mount Graham red squirrels, but the 2017 Frye Fire destroyed much of their habitat.

At one point, the animal’s population collapsed to around 35.

Some of the top threats they face are insect infestations, poor pine cone drops due to Arizona’s drought, wildfires and competition with non-native squirrels.

Marit Alanen, the lead Mount Graham squirrel biologist for the FWS, said the latest annual interagency population survey is exciting news.

“We were all extremely concerned for the subspecies after the 2017 Frye Fire caused the squirrel’s population to drop drastically,” Alanen said in the release. “So seeing a number now over 200 is really fantastic news.”

Finding out population of endangered red squirrels populations rose

The partnering agencies who survey the endangered squirrel come to their findings by systematically searching for active middens. That word refers to a large pile of shredded pine cones and nut debris red squirrels create to store their food.

Surveyors can tell a midden is active if there are signs of feeding. Each red squirrel typically has its own midden, so the wildlife officials use these middens to estimate the amount of squirrels are in the survey plots.

Coronado National Forest Supervisor Kervin Dewberry attributed the rising population to a shift in land management practices.

“This survey process allows us to obtain a more accurate picture of the population numbers,” Dewberry said in the release. “We are excited to see that current land management practices being implemented in the Pinaleño mountain range are proving to be beneficial for the Mount Graham red squirrel population.”

YUMA, AZ (AZFamily) — The Yuma Police Department is combating car theft this holiday season and helping to inform drivers about how to stay protected.

They say simple measures can prevent your car from being trafficked into Mexico. They say this ongoing trend affects car owners across Arizona.

“Being so close to the border, sometimes by the time the vehicle owner recognizes their car is gone it’s too late,” said Yuma Police Det. Ernesto Prieto.

Prieto is assigned to the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s vehicle theft task force, helping track down stolen cars in southern Arizona.

This year, he’s worked on 170 stolen car cases, and they’re not all from the Yuma area.

“The group of people will bring the car down from Phoenix. Another group of people here in the area will get a hold of the vehicle, swap out the plates and go down south,” said Prieto.

In a recent case, San Luis Police recovered two stolen vehicles from the Scottsdale area.

A RAM truck and Jeep Wrangler were reported stolen and were found hundreds of miles away in a Walmart parking lot in San Luis, just blocks from the border.

Prieto said these cars are often taken to Mexico, where they’re sold, which makes it impossible to recover them once they’ve crossed into Mexico.

“There are cases where we have the vehicle roaming around town and we do make an arrest on the case,” said Prieto.

Prieto said he often works on these cases with the San Luis Police Department, which recently installed a camera system to help locate these cars.

“We recently installed Fleet 3 Axon systems in most of our police fleet. It’s a camera system that serves as an automated license plate reader that will detect stolen vehicles,” said San Luis Lt. Emmanuel Botello.

Yuma police distributed about 200 steering wheel locks on Friday to combat the ongoing issue, which was donated by the local Hyundai car dealership.

Yuma resident Joaquin Camacho made sure to get his hands on one. He said he’s heard too many horror stories.

“They steal cars, take them to Mexico and sell the parts and everything. It’s hard because you pay for your car , it’s new and somebody takes it from you,” said Camacho.

Police said a visual deterrent like a steering wheel lock can keep your car from getting stolen.

“Roll up your windows, lock your doors, and park in well-lit areas. For the holidays, everyone is shopping. Put your bags in the trunk. Don’t leave any valuables in your car,” said Yuma PD’s public information officer, Cristina Fernandez.

Fernandez said car thieves look for any opportunity to steal a car, and Prieto said cars are often stolen in parking lots and gas stations.

“In the mornings people leave their vehicles running at Circle K. They go in for coffee and when they come out their car is gone. It happens all the time,” said Prieto.

Prieto said they are working to get more locks donated for residents in the San Luis area.

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When the State Bar of Arizona decided to learn what its members thought about disciplinary procedures, it needed someone to poll its nearly 25,000 lawyers and other legal professionals.

The bar reached out to Arizona State University’s School of Public Affairs (SPA) to create and administer a survey, which uncovered several opportunities for organizational improvement.

The project began, interestingly enough, at a Sun Devil football game.

Early in the 2023 football season, SPA Director Shannon Portillo, the Lattie and Elva Coor Presidential Chair, was invited to view a game from ASU President Michael Crow’s suite at Mountain America Stadium. There, she met 2023–24 State Bar of Arizona President Benjamin Taylor, an attorney with the Phoenix law firm of Taylor & Gomez LLP.

Portillo said Taylor talked about some member concerns regarding disciplinary procedures, and how California had recently studied outcomes of its own process.

“We talked during the game about replicating it in Arizona, but we determined Arizona didn’t have the same kind of data,” Portillo said. “But we could do a broad survey to see how lawyers understand the disciplinary process.”

Portillo sent Taylor a two-page proposal. Within a month, she met with the bar’s board of governors, where she presented it. Portillo donated her time to conduct the study, as did ASU Assistant Vice President for Community Engagement Kenja Hassan, who recently earned her PhD, and SPA Associate Professor Susan Miller. The State Bar Foundation funded the cost of a graduate student assistant, Andrew Bertucci, who is pursuing a PhD degree.

The board approved the study, which was open for recipients to fill out from late November 2023 to early January 2024. A total of 2,481 members (9.4%) completed the survey.

‘An opportunity for self-examination’

More than 1,100 of those completing it also gave written comments in addition to answering its multiple-choice questions. The number of written comments demonstrated that members were definitely interested in the subject and what they were thinking, Portillo said.

“This said to us this was an important topic,” she said. “Typically, we see a small number of people in surveys writing out comments. This shows they care about the process and whatever it takes to make it better.”

Portillo, Hassan and Miller, a fellow in SPA’s Center for Organization Research and Design, completed survey data analysis over the course of the year and released the results Dec. 1.

The survey gauged respondents’ perceptions of bias and overall effectiveness of the state bar’s disciplinary process, asking some specific questions of lawyers and other legal professionals who had participated in the process themselves, or knew someone who had.

Taylor said he found the ASU research team to be thorough and professional.

“The report showed that the State Bar of Arizona needs to address aspects of the discipline process so that it can best serve our members and the public,” Taylor said. “People who took the survey perceived that there is a difference in how lawyers are treated based on political status, financial resources, type of practice area and race/gender/ethnicity of the attorney, and that the bar is more punitive than supportive of small firms.”

Taylor said the report gives the bar “an opportunity for self-examination and to decide how to more effectively communicate the discipline process so that everyone involved is treated fairly. I thank Dr. Shannon Portillo, Dr. Susan Miller, Dr. Kenja Hassan and doctoral student Andrew Bertucci for their work.”

A ‘no-brainer’ to work with ASU team

Ted Schmidt, an attorney with the Tucson law firm Schmidt, Sethi & Akmajian, succeeded Taylor as state bar president for 2024–25. Schmidt said when his organization determined it should survey its members on the discipline system, its leaders “immediately recognized the need for help from social scientists with the expertise to craft the survey and analyze its results.”

As a result, Schmidt said, it was a “no-brainer” to turn to Portillo, Hassan, Miller and Bertucci.

“This exceptional and experienced team met with our leadership many times over the last year to properly create and administer the survey,” Schmidt said. “It was an amazing collaboration, which went above and beyond our expectations in terms of both the quality of the survey and its results, as well as the insightful analysis of the results by the ASU team of experts.”

Recently, other nonprofits and government entities have similarly partnered with the School of Public Affairs, Portillo said, from county supervisors to state education officials to veterans’ organizations. School faculty members also have developed educational tools for middle and high school students learning about public budgeting.

Portillo said she is eager for the state bar’s next steps.

“We had received incredible ideas to work with the membership to improve the process,” she said. “We look forward to seeing what they’re going to do moving forward.”

The state bar magazine, Arizona Attorney, published a story about the survey in its December issue, which contains a link to the survey results.