San Bernardino Lagunas Airport

Change in land use and priorities. The airport was a private airstrip serving the historic San Bernardino Ranch. In the 1980s, the ranch was acquired by the Cuenca Los Ojos (CLO) foundation, a private organization dedicated to ecological restoration and conservation. The closure was not due to an accident, economic failure, or military conversion, but rather a deliberate decision aligned with the foundation's mission. Maintaining an active airstrip became unnecessary and inconsistent with the goal of rewilding the landscape and preserving it as a nature sanctuary.

The former airport site has been fully reclaimed by nature as part of a dedicated conservation area. The land is owned and managed by the Cuenca Los Ojos (CLO) foundation. The dirt runway is no longer maintained, is heavily overgrown with native grasses and shrubs, and is effectively erased from the landscape except when viewed from above. The site is now an integral part of a large-scale habitat restoration project focused on restoring wetlands and grasslands for native and migratory species.

The airport's significance is purely logistical and private. It was never a public, commercial, or military facility. Its sole purpose was to serve as a private-use airfield for the vast and remote Rancho San Bernardino. When active, it would have handled small general aviation aircraft (e.g., Cessna, Piper) used to transport the ranch's owners, personnel, guests, and essential supplies. For a remote borderland property, the airstrip provided crucial, rapid access that would have otherwise required long drives over rural roads.

Effectively zero. There are no plans or prospects for reopening the San Bernardino Lagunas Airport. The land's current status as a protected, private nature preserve is fundamentally incompatible with aviation operations. The landowners' mission is conservation, and reopening an airport would directly contradict that purpose. Regional aviation needs are met by the nearby Agua Prieta Federal Airport (IATA: AGT, ICAO: MMAP).