Carl-
If you're preference is to stay in Southern Arizona, there are a number of "sky
islands" which are a series of islands that rise up out of an old sea bed, what
you and I might call mountains. To the south and east and immediately to the
east of Tucson is Mt. Lemmon, which suffered the indignity of a wildfire during
the last decade. I know that it devastated the little town up there, but
haven't seen where the fire went...if you're in a sturdy pickup, you can head
south to Florence and Oracle and take an interesting backroad up the backside
of Mt. Lemmon (9157'). The LARGEST WILD sycamore trees I've ever seen were
along this backroad IN a campground that I believe was called Peppersauce
Cmpgd, or something like that. Very nice campground, shaded. Dozens of
sycamores. Going up the backside of Mt. Lemmon, you rise up out of the desert,
and pass through several vegetation zones, ending up in a subalpine veg zone,
as I recall.
Two more mountain ranges of note are the Pinalenos and the Chiricauhuas...the
Pinalenos are north of Willcox (which is on I-10 East heading towards New
Mexico border), and is home to the Mt Graham (10720') observatory, and again a
subalpine veg zone. South of I-10 are the Chiracauhua mountains (9759') with a
mountain road that ascends to a pass (high as you're going to get without
hiking) and down into Paradise and Portal...this area is incredibly interesting
geologically and biologically, with very special habitats...birders love this
area and well they should...lifelisters make it a 'must-do'.
But it's hot as heck down there, and I'd personally recommend running up from
Phoenix onto the Moggolon Rim, so you can pass through the largest contiguous
ponderosa pine forest in the world. There are some big trees still left (Long
Valley I'm told has some, and is in between Strawberry and Happy Jack which is
a nice ponderosa forest road that will take you into the back way to
Flagstaff). Immediately to the north of Flagstaff are the San Francisco Peaks
(12,633', rising above the town of Flagstaff at 6500'), with a road that
accesses the sky area at around 9000', with trails that access the north
side...Schultz Road crosses over the base from east to west on the south side
of the Peaks...the Peaks were made famous among ecologists in 1890 by C.H.
Miriam who recognized that the vegetation zones that occupied the Peaks had
latitudinal equivalents that ranged from sonoran desert to alpine.
These vegetative communities represent a relict alpine tundra
flora definitely related to
the high peaks tundra of the Rocky
Mountains north and northeast
(Moore,
1965). Twenty of about 50
species of
the alpine tundra flora on
San Francisco Peaks are
arctic-alpine disjuncts that
also live in arctic tundra zones. Fifteen of the
20 are circumpolar, growing
in Arctic Eurasia as well as
Arctic North America. Moore (
1965) believed that at least
90 percent
of the alpine tundra vascular
species on San Francisco
Peaks migrated from the north
during Pleistocene time, possibly as
recently as 65,000 to 75,000
years ago, coinciding with the last period of
glaciation described by Sharp
(
1942). Updike
and Péwé (
1976) provided evidence of
more recent
glaciation. However, this
last glaciation in the San Francisco
Peaks was fairly limited in
areal extent. Moore (
1965) suggested further that
relict
alpine tundra on San
Francisco Peaks has been losing its
true alpine tundra character
for at least 10,000 years.
This from http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/azso/body.1_div.4.html
as well as this probably helpful summary of AZ spruce-fir forest species:
Spruce-alpine fir forests cover about
97,130 ha (240,000 ac) on and
around the summits of the highest mountains,
including San Francisco Peaks
and the Chuska, White, Pinaleno and Chiricahua mountains, and
on the large summit area of
the Kaibab Plateau. These
Rocky Mountain forests reach
their southernmost extension
in Arizona and New Mexico
(Dye and Moir,
1977). Spruce-alpine fir
forests generally lie between 2,430 to
2,730 m (8,000 to 9,000 ft)
and extend to the mountain summits, except for
San Francisco Peaks where the
upper limit is
approximately 3,490 m (11,500
ft). The mean annual precipitation ranges from
760 to 1,140 mm (30 to 45
in), much of it as snow, and exceeds mean annual
potential evapotranspiration
(Beschta,
1976).
Seven coniferous and one deciduous species variously mixed
characterize these forests.
The principal boreal conifers are Engelmann spruce,
blue spruce, corkbark fir,
white fir, Douglas fir,
bristlecone pine and limber
pine.
Quaking aspen is the dominant
deciduous
species, both intermixed with
various coniferous species and in pure
stands. Dense overstories
common to these forests severely limit or
prevent growth of herbaceous
vegetation. Quaking aspen is considered to be a
seral species that invades an
area following a disturbance such as fire.
Moir and Ludwig (
1979) have classified the
Lowe and Brown (
1973) spruce-alpine fir
forests into
eight spruce-fir and 11 mixed
conifer habitat types based on the concept of
Daubenmire and Daubenmire (
1968). The dominant climax
species
within the spruce-fir
habitats are either Engelmann spruce or corkbark fir.
Climax dominants or
codominants in the mixed conifer habitats include white
fir, blue spruce and Douglas
fir. Kuchler's (
1964) southwestern spruce-fir
forest
and spruce-fir-Douglas fir
forest zones are included
within the spruce-alpine fir
forest zone on the vegetation map (Plate 11).
But if I had only a couple of days, and again a sturdy truck or passable SUV,
I'd drive directly north for hours and hours and go to the North Rim of the
Grand Canyon. You can take a back road (if it hasn't been made a wilderness
yet) that accesses Fire Point, Swamp Point which are in very much undisturbed
classic ponderosa pine old-growth forest, and to really see them with the most
minimal disturbance, drop down from Swamp Point, down through a saddle to the
west, and up to the Powell Plateau, where the Plateau is isolated by the hike
down and up, and by the relatively remote location...much of the research on
ponderosa pine fire behavior has been done there because of its uniquely
undisturbed state. Otherwise, just taking state highway 64 down from Jacob Lake
(best cookies at the bakery there, and the thickest best milkshakes in ALL of
Arizona).
Hope this helps, it's been fun bringing back up great memories of a great place.
-Don
> Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:12:26 -0700
> Subject: [ENTS] Arizona Forests
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
>
>
> I'll be traveling to Phoenix later in the month for work and have a
> couple free days to see what Arizona has to offer. Can anyone
> recommend a few interesting forests in northern Arizona or southern
> Utah? I'll bring my laser and clinometer just in case.
>
> Carl
> >
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