The weekend of April 26th through 28th, 2013 marked an exciting event for the community of Patagonia, Arizona. Biologists from all over the state gathered to document and celebrate the tremendous biodiversity of the Patagonia Mountains, one of the southernmost Sky Island ranges in the United States, and an area threatened by four proposed mining operations.
In this paper, we describe and present the results of our effort to establish a spatial delineation of the Mogollon Highlands region—an ecologically fascinating North American transition zone of continental importance.
Sky Island Alliance in 2009 has started a multi-year biodiversity assessment of the Sonoran Sky Islands called the Madrean Archipelago Biodiversity Assessment (MABA). This project is much needed as there is a dirth of information about the region. Aaron Flesch is working with Sky Island Alliance on this project and is already collecting bird, plant, and other data.
