Rio Altar, Sonora

Rio Altar near Oquitoa, Sonora around 2013. The Rio Altar is the westernmost Sonoran creek with perennial water, until the Rio Sonoyta, which has very little, if any, perennial water left.

This valley has had small-scale agriculture for many decades, but recently started seeing huge nut tree farms by big ag, which could spell doom for the surface water and groundwater, and potentially some of the riparian gallery forests as well. There are still large stretches of cottonwood and willows forests that depend on the shallow groundwater of this valley bottom.

Rio Altar with water, Sonora

Bird Abundance and Richness in a Desert Riparian Area Following Beaver Re-introduction

I measured bird abundance and richness along the upper San Pedro River in 2005 and 2006 to investigate how beavers (Castor canadensis) may act as ecosystem engineers after reintroduction to a southwestern U.S. desert riparian area. In areas where beavers colonized, I found higher bird abundance and richness of bird groups such as all breeding birds, insectivorous birds, and riparian specialists, and higher relative abundance of many individual species—including several avian species of conservation concern.

Riparian Gallery Forest

Water! Water in this dry region makes it possible for a large variety of water-loving species to flourish... really it allows life generally to flourish. Riparian Gallery Forest in our region has a few tree species that dominate, which include Populus fremontii, Salix gooddingii, Salix bonplandiana, Platanus wrightii, Fraxinus velutina among many less dominate species.

Biodiversity and Conservation of the Ciénega de Saracachi area, Sonora, Mexico

The Ciénega de Saracachi area, including Arroyo Santo Domingo and Cañón Quemado, is in the Municipio de Cucurpe in north-central Sonora (30°21’33”N 110°35’29”W), ca. 105 km south of the Arizona border. The vegetation is cottonwood-willow riparian forest in the Ciénega and rocky stream canyons with desert grassland on the slopes above. These upper tributaries of the Río San Miguel are natural corridors on the west side of the Sierras San Antonio and Azul. The flora contains 419 species in 99 families and the fauna 301 species of animals in 83 families.