Experts say that less than two percent of the landscape in the western U.S. is made up of rivers, and the region's booming population is stretching its scant waters even further. But with help from unlikely sources, scientists are hoping to protect these delicate areas.
In southern Arizona, members of the the Sonoran Institute and other organizations are analyzing the water and creatures of the Santa Cruz River, which still flows near Tumacacori and Tubac. The Sonoran Institute is a non-profit organization that deals with environmental issues and human communities by encouraging science, discussion and cooperation.
Emily Brott and Claire Zugmeyer are taking part in the river study near Tumacacori and Tubac, where the river's underground flow is supplemented by treated effluent from the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Cabeza Prieta Wildlife RefugeI have spent time at Cabeza Prieta since the early 90's and think allowing ATV's is a terrible idea. Most of Cabeza is Wilderness and inviting ORV's into the middle of a vast Wilderness (with little enforcement and an impossible enforcement situation) is just a bad and non-sensical decision.
Rosemont mine siteGrassy Santa RitasThis is where the Canadian company Augusta Resource Corp. wants to dig a
huge open pit mine in the Santa Rita Mountains and shove all the
leftover tailings onto Forest Service land.
I visited the site a few days ago and will be hunting Coues White-tail there in a few days.
Sierra Nevada, Tamarack LakeLate August and early September were spent on a voyage from Tucson to Canada and back. Awesome sights were seen throughout the West. Always good to travel and see what other regions biotic communities and geology are like... and what strange and interesting humans inhabit these areas. Here is a few photos from the trip for you peruse.
Micro$oft would like you to think
there are no options in the computing world. Thankfully Macintosh and
Linux are rising stars due to the failures and poor products from
Microsoft... especially with the horrible Windows Vista OS.
I use
Mac as my primary OS, but there is a huge array of other, fully
functional and great OS's out there. My second computer has several of
them which I use regularly. There are many great OS's that are completely free and that are being tested and improved
continuously by 1000's of volunteers.
See a Powerpoint I made years ago then forgot about till recently.
It details what I learned visiting the Rodeo-Chedeski fire one year
after the burn. Far from the destruction I was expecting, it looked
like it was a healthy burn for most areas... another lesson learned
about believing what you hear from media reports about wildfires! See it here
Eurasian Collared Dove: Image from WikipediaBuffelgrass has become well known
as an invasive exotic species, but many other dangerous exotics
threaten parts of the southwest and have garnered much less attention.
One in particular comes to mind from my experiences: Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii).
This mustard has an affinity for sandy or bottomland soil in the middle and especially lower elevation Sonoran Desert. It has spread rapidly across large
areas of southwestern Arizona and southeastern California. I've
recently seen it in several disturbing places including the Pinacate
Biosphere Reserve, in Bear Canyon in the Catalinas, and Saguaro
National Park (east and west!). The Arizona/Sonora Desert Museum has a
good webpage on this mustard it which you can see here.
Vermilion Flycatcher Spring 2010One of my Pygmy-owl photos was printed on the cover of the Tucson
Audubon Magazine, The Vermilion Flycatcher. Also inside is an article
by Pygmy-owl guru Aaron Flesch as well as a couple more photos.
Sky Island Alliance has
begun a multi-year project to inventory wildlife and plants in several
Sky Islands of Northern Sonora. There is a dearth of information on
species distributions and other natural history about the region. Read more »
Sierra Pinito PinesIn June I trekked with a friend to the top of the Sierra El Pinito, a good-sized range just Southeast of Nogales. The Sierra El Pinito nudge their way into the pine forest community at 2230 meters, high enough to compete for serious Sky Island status in Sonora. They are just South of the border from the Santa Ritas and Patagonias on the US side, but because of the the political boundary they are a world away when it comes to fire suppression and natural fire regimes.
To drive the point home the Sierra Azul, just to the south, was actively burning. The fire had burned a significant percentage of the range by the time we laid eyes on it. By the time we left the area it had burned itself out naturally. Little is done to combat wildfires and indeed, in contrast to U.S. fire policy, people don't treat every wildfire as an utterly dire situation.
