[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 1736]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO SONJA LILLIAN MACYS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. RAUL M. GRIJALVA

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 18, 2007

  Mr. GRIJALVA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to take the opportunity to 
honor an environmental leader who has made an indelible mark on the 
Sonoran Desert region and on the community of Tucson, Arizona. Five 
years ago, Sonja Lillian Macys came to Tucson and took the town by 
storm. As an undergraduate, Sonja had mastered the Spanish language in 
6 months and lived and worked in Mexico, promoting environmental 
education and ecotourism. Originally from the horse country of 
Virginia, she came to Tucson by way of Colorado, where she had skied 
her way to a Master of Science degree in Protected Area Management 
specializing in International Conservation, with extensive training in 
non-profit leadership and management.
  Sonja rapidly immersed herself in her new community in the role of 
the Tucson Audubon Society's Executive Director. Sonja quickly moved to 
create a broad-based conservation strategy with a significant cross-
border element. Sonja's deep commitment to environmental and social 
justice, sustainability, and public participation soon became Audubon's 
trademark.
  Her contributions to the Southern Arizona community and the U.S.-
Mexico borderlands are numerous: creating multi-jurisdictional 
partnerships to conserve riparian areas and desert landscapes; 
partnering agencies, conservationists, ranchers, business interests, 
and students; educating scores of birders and other citizens to become 
active policy-makers and advisors; protecting critical habitats from 
devastation wrought by mining, development, overgrazing, and other 
harmful activities; and creating a community more literate in the 
articulation of social and environmental justice.
  Sonja Macys will leave a legacy that cannot be adequately expressed 
in words, and gives all of us who have known and worked with her hope 
that we can truly achieve the goals that we set out to accomplish 
together. The Tucson community and the wildlife of the Sonoran Desert 
will sorely miss Ms. Macys, but I have no doubt she will go on to 
accomplish great things in her future endeavors. I wish her the best of 
luck.

                          ____________________