San Rafael Valley

Interest in the new philosophy of ecosystem management led the Forest Service to sponsor a study of past land use in the Lone Mountain/San Rafael Valley Ecosystem Project Area, part of the Sierra Vista Ranger District of Coronado National Forest in southern Arizona. In order to better understand the cumulative impacts on the project area, the agency requested an historical chronology of human occupation of the area, with a focus on natural resource use and an analysis of the impacts of historic land use, over the period from Euroamerican contact to the twentieth century.