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Tucson Audubon Society
Know Your Habitat
by Larry
Liese (see Know Your
Habitat home page)
(Articles in this series first appeared
in the Vermilion Flycatcher, newsletter of the Tucson Audubon
Society. To receive the Vermilion Flycatcher in the mail, become a Friend
of Tucson Audubon.)
Habitat 6: Transition Life-Zone (Ponderosa Pine Forest community)
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Upon relocating here to the Sonoran Desert, like many of us I fell in love with the desert and all its varied life forms—so different yet so easy to see. But while it was nice encountering all these new plants and animals, it was comforting to have access to forests of large trees, sort of a nice respite to remember one’s roots. Besides, big trees are wonderful!
On our slow journey up Mount Wrightson, we now move up to the Transition Life-Zone, which ranges from about six to nine thousand feet in elevation. It is dominated by the ponderosa pine, often in almost pure stands. This tree is one of the most economically important species for timber in the West. It can grow to 125 feet in height and commonly live 200–400 years and on up to 500+. Older stands can have extensive litter on the forest floor preventing undergrowth; but in areas of younger trees, buckbrush, boxleaf myrtle, Arizona rose, and New Mexican locust are found in the understory. Other pines that can occur here include Apache pine and Chihuahua pine, while species such as Arizona madrone, alligator juniper, Arizona white oak, gray oak, and Gambel oak are found in mixed stands. At the high end of the range, the pines merge in with bigtooth maple, aspen, alder, and mulberry which occur with the spruces and firs of our next climate zone. I won’t vouch for being able to find all of these trees on our hike, but at least you’ll have a watch list if you care to try finding out what’s here.
Grasses are few, mostly due to the steep, rocky topography usually associated with this zone in the sky islands of southeast Arizona. Streams are narrowly confined and gradients steep, but where flat terrain is found, park-like areas with bare grassy clearings can exist. These are easier to find in the Chiricahuas, but one fine example exists on the back side of Mount Wrightson, partway down the Gardner Canyon Trail. Interestingly, the huge trees here show the scars of fires that came through but didn’t adversely affect them due to their maturity.
Temperatures are warm in summer but long months of snow-covered ground exist in winter. Precipitation here varies from 18–26 inches per year. The lower edge of ponderosa pine forest is controlled by this critical level of available soil moisture and represents the lower precipitation limit of the entire conifer forest in Arizona.
The birdlife changes along with the vegetation as temperatures, food sources, nest sites, and available water change with elevation. An example is the change in woodpecker species as we rise up the mountain. Gone are the Gila and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers—replaced by Acorn and Arizona Woodpeckers, Northern Flicker, and at higher elevations Hairy Woodpecker. Similar changes occur in other bird families. Characteristic birds found nesting in this zone include Band-tailed Pigeon, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Steller’s Jay, Pygmy Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Warbling Vireo, Greater Pewee, Olive and Red-faced Warblers, and Hepatic Tanagers. Many of these birds can be seen in the zones above and below, but they’re right at home in the ponderosa pine forest. Some of the winter visitors from the north that add to the mix and can be found in this zone include Western Bluebird, Townsend’s Solitaire, Pine Siskin, and Red Crossbill.
To visit this zone here in the Santa Rita Mountains, you’ll need to get out your hiking boots, or you can cheat and take a drive up Mount Lemmon to the areas around Rose Canyon Lake or Bear Wallow. If you do try Madera Canyon, take the Super Trail up the mountain for a more gradual ascent and, for variety, try the Old Baldy Trail for a shorter return. The two trails meet both at Josephine Saddle halfway up the mountain and again at Baldy Saddle right at tree line (8800’) just shy of a mile below the summit (9453’). Both trails offer fine views of the habitat described above, of Mount Wrightson itself, and of the whole canyon below. Quite pretty! (Note that both of these trails have been closed by the Forest Service due to effects of this summer’s fire. The Vault Mine Trail may be used to access some higher elevation areas.)
In the next installment of our journey, we visit the Canadian Life-Zone, or fir forest. Until then!
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This page was updated on 02/21/06