Buffel-grass converted desert
This area was cleared and tilled for buffelgrass. Now it is a virtual monoculture of buffelgrass, which provides poor forage for cattle, the whole point of the operation.
Grazing
Protecting El Pitayal
This presentation is meant to stimulate action by informing others of the nature of our goals and the urgency of the need for persons with the expertise in real estate law and land acquisition to engage our problem.
For the last 12 years, the Alamos Wildlands Alliance, a non-profit conservation group, has been operating a biological field station in the southwest corner of Sonora, a long day’s drive from Tucson. From mid-November through March, we teach and study the flora and fauna of this diverse landscape on the shores of the Agiabampo Estuary.
Heavily overgrazed bottomland in the Sonoran Desert
This area once had good bottomland soil supporting mesquite bosques as well as fields of sacaton grass. It has been decimated by cattle grazing. Much of the soil has (and continues to) blow away in the wind and wash away during the rainy season.
Tilling the Sonoran Desert for cattle
Some Sonoran ranchers are convinced tilling of the desert soils will result in more forage for their cows. Needless to say in a desert environment this does not work. It may promote some extra grass for 1 or or 2 years max, but over the long run forage is reduced. The natural soil ecosystem is disrupted, harming all vegetation including plants cattle feed on. Roots of plants are torn up and worst of all the soil is exposed leading to desiccation, a sure way to kill desert plants.
Cow with cholla on its face
Cows in the dry Sonoran Desert often must resort to eating cactus, including the famously painful jumping cholla. Seeing cattle in Sonora with cholla balls on their face or prickly pear spines sticking out of their lips and mouth is not uncommon.
Petition To List The Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy Owl As A Threatened Or Endangered Species Under The Endangered Species Act
The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife hereby formally petition the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (also “Service”) to list one of the following entities of cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl: 1) the Arizona distinct population segment (“DPS”) of the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl; 2) the Sonoran Desert DPS of the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl; or 3) the western subspecies of cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl (G.
Fishes Of The Rio Yaqui Basin, Mexico And United States
The Rio Yaqui drainage basin of northwestern Mexico comprises about 73,000 km of the most inaccessible and rugged terrain in western North America (Blásquez 1959). An average annual discharge of almost 2,800 ha2 makes the Rio Yaqui one of the major watersheds of that region (Tamayo and West 1964). The small percentage of this system that lies within southwestern United States contributes a substantial proportion of the native ichthyofauna of that area - 6 to 8 species of fishes were originally present, of which 5 did not occur elsewhere in the United States.
Celebrating Arizona’s Rivers - the San Pedro River
Created as part of a collection of Arizona river overview documents titled "River of the Month Series, Celebrating Arizona’s Rivers".