Biological Resources

Bird surveys were conducted in the vicinity of RCM's holdings, near Superior, Arizona. This report provides an inventory of the birds observed as well as a discussion of results from the data collection efforts.

The Research Ranch, near Elgin in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, is administered by the National Audubon Society. It consists of about 8000 acres of federal and private lands that are managed for ecosystem research projects by the National Audubon Society, which has cooperative agreements with the federal land management agencies. This summary of the early history of land settlement of the Research Ranch area and some of the subsequent land transactions is taken primarily from information in the land records of the BLM and ASLD.

The 7B Ranch falls within Audubon's identified "Lower San Pedro River Important Bird Area". The San Pedro River riparian corridor from the "Narrows" to the Gila River confluence was identified as a state Important Bird Area by the Arizona IBA Science Committee in January 2007. The Audubon IBA bird survey data collection coordinated by the Tucson Audubon-IBA Program, Avian Science Initiative, at 7B Ranch provided key "mesquite bosque avian habitat" data for these reviews.

A bat survey was conducted on the approximately 1,224-hectare Federal Parcel, in the Tonto National Forest. The purpose of this survey was to determine which bat species could be confirmed present on Parcel.