1.
List of National Parks of the United States
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The United States has 59 protected areas known as national parks that are operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. National parks must be established by an act of the United States Congress. The first national park, Yellowstone, was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, followed by Mackinac National Park in 1875, many current National Parks had been previously protected as National Monuments by the President under the Antiquities Act before being upgraded by Congress. Criteria for the selection of National Parks include natural beauty, unique features, unusual ecosystems. National Monuments, on the hand, are frequently chosen for their historical or archaeological significance. Fourteen national parks are designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites, while twenty one are designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, twenty-seven states have national parks, as do the territories of American Samoa and the United States Virgin Islands. California has the most, followed by Alaska, Utah, the largest national park is Wrangell–St. Elias in Alaska, at over 8 million acres, it is larger than each of the nine smallest states, the next three largest parks are also in Alaska. The smallest park is Hot Springs, Arkansas, at less than 6 thousand acres. The total area protected by national parks is approximately 52.2 million acres, for an average of 885 thousand acres but a median of only 236 thousand acres at Mount Rainier, the 30th largest park. The most-visited national park is Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee, with over 11.3 million visitors in 2016, followed by Arizonas Grand Canyon, in contrast, only 10,047 people visited the remote Gates of the Arctic in Alaska in the same year. A few former national parks are no longer designated as such, other units of the National Park Service are broadly referred to as national parks, they are listed here. S
List of National Parks of the United States
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1938 poster for Yellowstone National Park
List of National Parks of the United States
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Acadia
List of National Parks of the United States
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American Samoa
List of National Parks of the United States
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Arches
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
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Flag
United States
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The signing of the Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
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The Declaration of Independence: the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress in 1776
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
4.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
National Park Service
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In 1916, a portfolio of nine major parks was published to generate interest. Printed on each brochure was a map showing the parks and principal railroad connections.
National Park Service
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National Park Service Arrowhead
National Park Service
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In 1934, a series of ten postage stamps were issued to commemorate the reorganization and expansion of the National Park Service.
National Park Service
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Grand Canyon National Park, south rim of canyon.
5.
Sonoran Desert
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It is the hottest desert in Mexico. It has an area of 260,000 square kilometers, the western portion of the United States–Mexico border passes through the Sonoran Desert. In phytogeography, the Sonoran Desert is within the Sonoran Floristic Province of the Madrean Region in southwestern North America, the desert contains a variety of unique and endemic plants and animals, such as the saguaro and organ pipe cactus. It is bounded on the west by the Peninsular Ranges, which separate it from the California chaparral and woodlands, to the north in California and northwest Arizona, the Sonoran Desert transitions to the colder-winter, higher-elevation Mojave, Great Basin, and Colorado Plateau deserts. To the east and southeast, the transition to the coniferous Arizona Mountains forests and Sierra Madre. To the south the Sonoran–Sinaloan transition subtropical dry forest is the zone from the Sonoran Desert to the tropical dry forests of the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The deserts sub-regions include the Colorado Desert of southeastern California, many ecologists now consider Shreves Vizcaíno and Magdalena regions, which lie on the western side of the Baja California Peninsula, to be a separate ecoregion, the Baja California Desert. The Pinacate National Park includes the only active Erg dune region in North America, the nearest city to the Reserva de la Biosfera el Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar is Puerto Peñasco in the state of Sonora, Mexico. The Sonoran Desert area southeast of Tucson and near the Mexican border is vital habitat for the population of jaguars living within the United States. Many plants not only survive, but thrive in the conditions of the Sonoran Desert. Many have evolved to have specialized adaptations to the desert climate, the Sonoran Deserts biseasonal rainfall pattern results in more plant species than any other desert in the world. The Sonoran Desert includes plant genera and species from the family, palm family, cactus family, legume family. The Sonoran is the place in the world where the famous saguaro cactus grows in the wild. Cholla, beavertail, hedgehog, fishhook, prickly pear, nightblooming cereus, creosote bush and bur sage dominate valley floors. Indigo bush and Mormon tea are other shrubs that may be found, wildflowers of the Sonoran Desert include desert sand verbena, desert sunflower, and evening primroses. Ascending from the valley up bajadas, various such as velvet mesquite, palo verde, desert ironwood, desert willow. Shrubs found at higher elevations include whitethorn acacia, fairy duster, in the desert subdivisions found on Baja California, cardon cactus, elephant tree, and boojum tree occur. The California fan palm is found in the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert and it is found at spring-fed oases, such as in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree National Park, and the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
Sonoran Desert
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Sonoran Desert in Arizona.
Sonoran Desert
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The Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona during winter.
Sonoran Desert
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Velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina)
Sonoran Desert
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Washingtonia filifera in Anza Borrego Desert State Park
6.
Tucson Mountains
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The Tucson Mountains are a minor mountain range west of Tucson, Arizona. The Tucson Mountains, including Wasson Peak, are one of four mountain ranges surrounding the Tucson Basin. The Santa Catalina Mountains lie to the northeast, the Rincon Mountains are to the east of Tucson, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is located on the west flank of the Tucson Mountains. Much of the range is protected by Saguaro National Park and Tucson Mountain County Park, old Tucson Studios are located just west of the Tucson Mountains. Tucson Mountain Park was established April 1929, the Pima County Parks Commission, with C. B. Brown as its chairman, was established to oversee the park. At approximately 20,000 acres, the park is one of the largest natural resource areas owned and managed by a government in the U. S. The park has approximately 62 miles of non-motorized shared-use trails, the area is popular with hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians. Saguaro National Park was created as a National Monument in 1933, the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park ranges from an elevation of 2,180 ft to 4,687 ft and contains 2 biotic communities, desert scrub, and desert grassland. Average annual precipitation is approximately 10.27 in, common wildlife include the coyote, Gambel’s quail, and desert tortoise. Kinney who worked with Brown in the creation of the park and McCain Loop was named for J. C. McCain, the first park ranger. Old Yuma Mine Madrean Sky Islands Tucson Mountain Park official site David Leighton, Street Smarts, Successful cattleman the namesake for Kinney Road, Arizona Daily Star, April 22,2014
Tucson Mountains
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Wasson Peak is the highest point in the Tucson Mountains. Unlike what this picture shows, snow is extremely rare in these mountains, especially in the amount seen here.
Tucson Mountains
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View across the Tucson Basin towards Tumamoc Hill (left) and "A" Mountain (right), which can be seen in the center of the background.
Tucson Mountains
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The foothills south of the Tucson Mountains. Beehive Peak is at the center-left, Red Butte is at the far left. The Catalina Mountains are in the background at right.
Tucson Mountains
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Another view of the foothills south of the Tucson Mountains. Red Butte is at the right.
7.
Rincon Mountains
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The Rincon Mountains are a significant mountain range east of Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, in the United States. The Rincon Mountains are one of five mountain ranges surrounding the Tucson valley, redington Pass separates the Rincon Mountains from the Santa Catalina Mountains. The Rincon Mountains are generally less rugged than the Santa Catalina Mountains, the Rincon Mountains are also included in the Madrean sky island mountain ranges of southeast Arizona, extreme southwest New Mexico, and northern Sonora Mexico. Rincón is Spanish for corner, denoting the shape of the mountain range. Mica Mountain, the high-point of the Rincons forms the apex, with Rincon Peak forming the southern point, the interior of the corner is Rincon Valley, primarily former ranchland currently being converted to tract housing. Colossal Cave county park, a cave and popular destination, is located on the east end of the Rincon Valley. East of the Rincons are the Little Rincon Mountains, between these two ranges is Happy Valley, a popular destination for locals for camping, hunting, and off-roading. Farther east is the San Pedro River of the San Pedro Valley, south of the Rincon Mountains, beyond Rincon Valley is the Cienega Creek and Interstate 10. Most of the Rincon Mountains are within Saguaro National Park, or in the Rincon Mountain Wilderness, 32°14′50″N 110°28′02″W, the majority of the range is off-limits to motorized & bicycle travel. com Sierra club trail guide Rincon Institute - conservation
Rincon Mountains
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View to north toward Rincon Peak from Mescal Road. Mica Mountain to rear at right.
Rincon Mountains
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The west side of the Rincon Mountains, seen from Tucson's northeast corner
8.
Tohono O'odham
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The Tohono O’odham are a Native American people of the Sonoran Desert, residing primarily in the U. S. state of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora. The federally recognized tribe is known as the Tohono Oodham Nation, the Pima were competitors and referred to the people as Ba, bawĭkoʼa, meaning eating tepary beans. That word was pronounced papago by the Spanish and adopted by later English speakers, the Tohono Oodham Nation, or Tohono Oodham Indian Reservation, is a major reservation located in southern Arizona, encompassing portions of Pima County, Pinal County, and Maricopa County. The Tohono O’odham share linguistic and cultural roots with the closely related Akimel Oodham, whose lands lie just south of present-day Phoenix, the Sobaipuri are ancestors to both the Tohono O’odham and the Akimel O’odham, and they resided along the major rivers of southern Arizona. Ancient pictographs adorn a rock wall that juts up out of the desert near the Baboquivari Mountains, debates surround the origins of the O’odham. Claims that the O’odham moved north as recently as 300 years ago compete with claims that the Hohokam, recent research on the Sobaipuri, the now extinct relatives of the Oodham, shows that they were present in sizable numbers in the southern Arizona river valleys in the fifteenth century. In the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library are materials collected by a Franciscan friar who worked among the Tohono Oodham and these include scholarly volumes and monographs. Historically, the Oodham-speaking peoples were at odds with the nomadic Apache from the seventeenth until the beginning of the twentieth centuries. The Oodham were an agricultural people who raised crops. According to their history, the Apache would raid when they ran short on food, conflict with European settlers encroaching on their lands resulted in the Oodham and the Apache finding common interests. The Oodham word for the Apache enemy is ob, the relationship between the Oodham and Apache was especially strained after 92 Oodham joined the Mexicans and Anglo-Americans and killed close to 144 Apaches during the Camp Grant massacre in 1871. All but eight of the dead were women and children,29 children were captured, considerable evidence suggests that the Oodham and Apache were friendly and engaged in exchange of goods and marriage partners before the late seventeenth century. Oodham oral history, however, suggests that intermarriages resulted from raiding between the two tribes and it was typical for women and children to be taken captive in raids, to be used as slaves by the victors. Often women married into the tribe in which they were held captive, both tribes thus incorporated enemies and their children into their cultures. Oodham musical and dance activities lack grand ritual paraphernalia that call for attention, instead, they wear muted white clay. Oodham songs are accompanied by hard wood rasps and drumming on overturned baskets, dancing features skipping and shuffling quietly in bare feet on dry dirt, the dust raised being believed to rise to atmosphere and assist in forming rain clouds. The original Oodham diet consisted of regionally available wild game, insects, through foraging, Oodham ate a variety of regional plants, such as, ironwood seed, honey mesquite, hog potato, and organ-pipe cactus fruit. While the Southwestern United States did not have a climate for cultivating crops, Oodham cultivated crops of white tepary beans, Papago peas
Tohono O'odham
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Carlos Rios, a Tohono O'Odham headman, photograph by Edward Curtis before 1907
Tohono O'odham
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Shrine at Covered Wells, Arizona
Tohono O'odham
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Traditional basketmaking, 1916
Tohono O'odham
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Luzi, a Tohono O'odham woman photograph by Edward Curtis circa 1905
9.
Homesteading
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Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. Pursued in different ways around the world—and in different historical eras—homesteading is generally differentiated from rural village or commune living by isolation of the homestead, use of the term in the United States dates back to the Homestead Act and before. In sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in nations formerly controlled by the British Empire, in the UK, the term smallholder is the rough equivalent of homesteader. Modern homesteaders often use renewable energy options including solar electricity and wind power, many also choose to plant and grow heirloom vegetables and to raise heritage livestock. Homesteading is not defined by where someone lives, such as the city or the country, renewed interest in homesteading was brought about by U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelts program of Subsistence Homesteading in the 1930s and 1940s. The attractiveness of back-to-the-land movements dates from the Roman era, and has noted in Asian poetry. The ideas of modern homesteading proponents, such as Ralph Borsodi, self-sufficiency movements in the 1990s and 2000s began to apply the concept to urban and suburban settings, known as urban homesteading. According to author John Seymour, urban homesteading incorporates small-scale, sustainable agriculture, in homesteading, social and government support systems are frequently eschewed in favor of self-reliance and relative deprivation, in order to maximize independence and self-determination. The degree of independence occurs along a spectrum, with many homesteaders creating foodstuffs or crafts to appeal to niche markets in order to meet financial needs. Careful choice of homesteading location is essential for economic success, actual financial savings from adopting a homesteading lifestyle can be significant if planned and executed properly. Many homesteaders express deep satisfaction with their standard of living and feel that their lifestyle is healthier, “Homesteading Remembered, A Sesquicentennial Perspective, ” Agricultural History,87, 1–29. Mid-America Homesteading Conference Modern Homesteading State of Alaska Land Offerings and Remote Recreation Cabins Staking Program Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Homesteading
Homesteading
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Home farming: Bill Stagg turning up his beans, Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940. He will next pile them for curing.
10.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
United States Congress
United States Congress
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United States Congress
United States Congress
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In 1868, this committee of representatives prosecuted president Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial, but the Senate did not convict him.
United States Congress
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George Washington presiding over the signing of the United States Constitution.
11.
Avra Valley
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The Avra Valley is a 50-mile long northwest-southeast valley, bordering the west of Tucson, Arizona. The Tucson Mountains are at the valleys center-east, with suburbs ranging east of the Tucson Mountains and this entire northwest stretch from Tucson contains the northwest trending Interstate 10, the route to Casa Grande and Phoenix. The northeast of the valley contains Marana on I-10, the Pinal Airpark, an aircraft storage park, Avra Valley Airport is a general aviation airport in Marana, located about 15 miles northwest of Tucson and being used for storage of classic propeller-era airliners. The center- of the valley is at Cocoraque Butte,32. 22119°N111. 34205°W /32.22119, -111. 34205, Cocoraque Buttes height is 2,758 feet. Avra Valley is a valley, only about 10 miles wide in some locations. From the northwest, the mountains are the West Silver Bells, Silver Bell Mountains, Watermans, south of the Roskruge, Arizona Route 86 enters the valley from the Tohono Oodham Nation to the west. Robles Junction, Arizona, is also in the southwest, at the junction of the valley going southwest to Sasabe, robles Junction is also at the northwest of the mountain range on Avra Valleys southern border, the Sierrita Mountains. The north of the Avra Valley narrows at the Silver Bell Mountains, the region merges into the wider flatlands associated with the floodplain regions of the northwestern Santa Cruz River where it begins to merge with the Gila River. The Saguaro National Park, mostly on Tucsons southeast in the Rincon Mountains has a section made up of much of the Tucson Mountains. The National Park is famous for the Saguaro, Carnegiea gigantea, the southeast corner of the Avra Valley contains the San Xavier Mission. Mission San Xavier del Bac Cocoraque Butte Archaeological District Cocoraque Butte Summit, mountainzone
Avra Valley
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view of valley lands Tucson Mountains, center east valley
Avra Valley
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Convair 240, stored at Pinal Airpark in Avra Valley
Avra Valley
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view westward over southern Avra Valley, Mission San Xavier del Bac
12.
Coronado National Forest
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The Coronado National Forest includes an area of about 1.78 million acres spread throughout mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. It is located in parts of Cochise, Graham, Santa Cruz, Pima, and Pinal counties in Arizona, the National Forest is divided into five ranger districts. The districts themselves are not contiguous, each consists of sky island mountain ranges. The Santa Catalina Ranger District near the city of Tucson comprises the Santa Catalina, included in this area is the highest peak of the Santa Catalinas, Mount Lemmon, the rugged Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area, and the popular Sabino Canyon. Much of this district was part of Santa Catalina National Forest before its inclusion in Coronado, the Safford Ranger District comprises the mountain ranges surrounding the city of Safford, Arizona. These five ranges are the Pinaleño, Galiuro, Santa Teresa, Winchester, included in this area is the highest peak of the Pinaleños, Mount Graham. Mount Graham National Forest was a separate national forest, combined into Crook National Forest on July 1,1908. In 1953 part of Crook was absorbed into Coronado, the Nogales Ranger District comprises four mountain ranges north and west of Nogales, Arizona. These ranges are the Santa Rita, Tumacacori, Pajarito, included in this area are Mount Hopkins, Mount Wrightson, and Madera Canyon, all located in the Santa Ritas. In the early 20th century this included two national forests which were absorbed into Coronado, Santa Rita National Forest and Tumacacori National Forest. The Douglas Ranger District comprises three mountain ranges north and east of Douglas, Arizona and these ranges are the Chiricahua, Dragoon, and Peloncillo Mountains. A portion of the Ranger District in the Peloncillos extends into New Mexico, the district comprises three formerly separate national forests, Chiricahua National Forest, Dragoon National Forest and Peloncillo National Forest, all combined into Coronado. The Sierra Vista Ranger District comprises three mountain ranges west of Sierra Vista, Arizona and these ranges are the Huachuca, Patagonia, and Whetstone Mountains. Included in this area is the highest peak in the Huachucas, Miller Peak, the district includes the formerly separate Huachuca National Forest ¡Three Amigos. was partially filmed here in addition to Old Tucson Studios. The Coronado National Forest contains eight designated wilderness areas, with at least one in each Ranger District, congress defines wilderness as an area untrammeled by man. Common activities in the Coronado National Forest wilderness areas include hiking, horseback riding, camping, hunting, the use of mechanized or motorized equipment, including bicycles, generators, and chain saws, is prohibited. Most requiring a fee, though some do not. It became a National Forest on March 4,1907, on July 1,1908 the entire forest was combined with Baboquivari National Forest and Tumacacori National Forest to establish Garces National Forest, and the name was discontinued
Coronado National Forest
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Coronado National Forest
Coronado National Forest
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Wilderness areas in the Coronado National Forest
13.
Santa Cruz River (Arizona)
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The Santa Cruz River is a river in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. It is approximately 184 miles long, between Nogales and Tucson the river valley is flanked by the San Cayetano and Santa Rita Mountains on the east and the Atascosa, Tumacacori, and Sierrita Mountains on the west. Most of the Santa Cruz River is usually a dry riverbed and this was not always the case, as it was a combination of human errors and natural catastrophes in the late nineteenth century that led to the decline of the Santa Cruz. The city of Nogales, Sonora, has been releasing treated sewage into the Santa Cruz River and this has resulted in the revival of several miles of riverbank within and north of the city of Nogales, Arizona. The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail parallels much of the Santa Cruz, in Marana, there are approximately ten paved miles of multi-use recreational path along the Santa Cruz, located on Tangerine Road and through the Gladden Farms community park
Santa Cruz River (Arizona)
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The Santa Cruz River near Red Rock.
Santa Cruz River (Arizona)
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Santa Cruz River
Santa Cruz River (Arizona)
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Little waterfalls along the Santa Cruz River in downtown Tucson in 1889.
Santa Cruz River (Arizona)
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The Santa Cruz during a flood, c. 1903.
14.
Flash flood
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A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas, washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a thunderstorm, hurricane, tropical storm. Flash floods may occur after the collapse of an ice or debris dam, or a human structure such as a man-made dam. Flash floods are distinguished from regular floods by a timescale of less than six hours, the water that is temporarily available is often used by foliage with rapid germination and short growth cycles, and by specially adapted animal life. Flash floods can occur under several types of conditions, Flash flooding occurs when it rains rapidly on saturated soil or dry soil that has poor absorption ability. The runoff collects in gullies and streams and, as they join to form larger volumes, often forms a fast flowing front of water, in areas on or near volcanoes, flash floods have also occurred after eruptions, when glaciers have been melted by the intense heat. Flash floods are known to occur in the highest mountain ranges of the United States and are common in the arid plains of the Southwestern United States. Flash flooding can also be caused by extensive rainfall released by hurricanes and other tropical storms, human activities can also cause flash floods to occur. When dams fail, a quantity of water can be released. Many people tend to underestimate the dangers of flash floods, what makes flash floods most dangerous is their sudden nature and fast-moving water. A vehicle provides little to no protection against being swept away, it may make people overconfident, more than half of the fatalities attributed to flash floods are people swept away in vehicles when trying to cross flooded intersections. As little as 2 feet of water is enough to carry away most SUV-sized vehicles. The U. S. National Weather Service reported in 2005 that, using a national 30-year average, more people die yearly in floods,127 on average, than by lightning, tornadoes, in deserts, flash floods can be particularly deadly for several reasons. First, storms in arid regions are infrequent, but they can deliver an enormous amount of water in a short time. Second, these rains often fall on poorly absorbent and often clay-like soil, in fact, in some areas, desert roads frequently cross dry river and creek beds without bridges. From the drivers perspective, there may be clear weather, when a river unexpectedly forms ahead of or around the vehicle in a matter of seconds. Finally, the lack of rain to clear water channels may cause flash floods in deserts to be headed by large amounts of debris, such as rocks, branches. 1889, Johnstown Flood, Pennsylvania, U. S. more than 2,200 people dead 1903, Heppner Flood of 1903, Oregon, United States,247 dead, 25% of the city 1938, Los Angeles Flood of 1938, California, U. S. S
Flash flood
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Driving through a flash-flooded road
Flash flood
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Nepal Monsoon
Flash flood
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A flash flood after a thunderstorm in the Gobi, Mongolia
15.
Spring (hydrology)
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A spring is any natural situation where water flows from an aquifer to the Earths surface. It is a component of the hydrosphere, a spring may be the result of karst topography where surface water has infiltrated the Earths surface, becoming part of the area groundwater. The groundwater then travels through a network of cracks and fissure—openings ranging from intergranular spaces to large caves, the water eventually emerges from below the surface, in the form of a karst spring. The forcing of the spring to the surface can be the result of an aquifer in which the recharge area of the spring water table rests at a higher elevation than that of the outlet. Spring water forced to the surface by elevated sources are artesian wells and this is possible even if the outlet is in the form of a 300-foot-deep cave. In this case the cave is used like a hose by the higher elevated area of groundwater to exit through the lower elevation opening. Non-artesian springs may simply flow from a higher elevation through the earth to a lower elevation, still other springs are the result of pressure from an underground source in the earth, in the form of volcanic activity. The result can be water at elevated temperature such as a hot spring, the action of the groundwater continually dissolves permeable bedrock such as limestone and dolomite, creating vast cave systems. The term seep refers to springs with small flow rates in which the water has filtered through permeable earth. Fracture springs, discharge from faults, joints, or fissures in the earth, tubular springs, in which the water flows from underground caverns. Spring discharge, or resurgence, is determined by the springs recharge basin, factors that affect the recharge include the size of the area in which groundwater is captured, the amount of precipitation, the size of capture points, and the size of the spring outlet. Water may leak into the system from many sources including permeable earth, sinkholes. In some cases entire creeks seemingly disappear as the water sinks into the ground via the stream bed, grand Gulf State Park in Missouri is an example of an entire creek vanishing into the groundwater system. The water emerges 9 miles away, forming some of the discharge of Mammoth Spring in Arkansas, human activity may also affect a springs discharge--withdrawal of groundwater reduces the water pressure in an aquifer, decreasing the volume of flow. Springs are often classified by the volume of the water they discharge, the largest springs are called first-magnitude, defined as springs that discharge water at a rate of at least 2800 liters or 100 cubic feet of water per second. The scale for spring flow is as follows, Minerals become dissolved in the water as it moves through the underground rocks and this may give the water flavor and even carbon dioxide bubbles, depending on the nature of the geology through which it passes. This is why spring water is bottled and sold as mineral water. Springs that contain significant amounts of minerals are sometimes called mineral springs, Springs that contain large amounts of dissolved sodium salts, mostly sodium carbonate, are called soda springs
Spring (hydrology)
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On an average day nearly 303 million US gallons (1,150,000 m 3) of water flow from Big Spring in Missouri at a rate of 469 cubic feet per second (13.3 m 3 /s).
Spring (hydrology)
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A natural spring on Mackinac Island in Michigan
Spring (hydrology)
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Sunrise at Middle Spring, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Utah
Spring (hydrology)
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Fontaine de Vaucluse or Spring of Vaucluse in France discharges about 470 million US gallons (1,800,000 m 3) of water per day at a rate of 727 cubic feet (21 m 3) per second.
16.
Arroyo (creek)
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An arroyo, also called a wash, is a dry creek, stream bed or gulch that temporarily or seasonally fills and flows after sufficient rain. Flash floods are common in arroyos following thunderstorms, in Latin America any small river might be called an arroyo, even if it flows continually all year and is never dry. The Arabic terms rambla or wadi are used in North Africa, arroyos provide a water source to desert animals. The desert dry wash biome is restricted to the arroyos of the southwestern United States, arroyos can be natural fluvial landforms or constructed flood control channels. The term usually applies to a sloped or mountainous terrain in xeric, flash flooding can cause the deep arroyos or deposition of sediment on flooded lands. This can lower the level of the surrounding area, making it unsuitable for agriculture. However a shallow water table lowered in desert arroyo valleys can reduce saline seeping and alkali deposits in the topsoil, research has been conducted in the hydrological modeling relative to arroyos. Natural arroyos are made through the known as arroyo-cutting. This occurs in regions such as New Mexico, where heavy rains can lead to enlargement of rivers cutting into surrounding rock creating ravines which are dry under normal weather conditions. It is argued, however, whether these excessively stormy periods are the cause of arroyo-cutting as other factors such as long-term climate changes must also be taken into account. Arroyo cutting which occurred in the 1900s in the southwestern United States caused serious farming issues such as a water table. In agriculture areas in climates needing irrigation, farmers relied on small constructed arroyos, acequias, zanjas or aqueduct channels. An example of larger constructed arroyos is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, there are several miles of open-air concrete lined drainage channels that drain an area into the main North Diversion Channel, a tributary of the Rio Grande joining upstream of Albuquerque. After the San Juan Project Water Treatment Plant here, the Rio Grandes flow exceeding that needed for the silvery minnow habitat is available for municipal water supply diversion. Signs are posted at the constructed arroyos warning to keep out due to danger of flash flooding, the Arroyo Seco and Los Angeles River are more famous examples in Southern California of former natural arroyo seasonal watercourses that became constructed open drainage system arroyos
Arroyo (creek)
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Arroyo North Fork of Las Cruces, New Mexico, looking east.
Arroyo (creek)
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An arroyo in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona
Arroyo (creek)
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A flash flood hits a dry streambed in the Gobi Desert
17.
Mortar (masonry)
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In its broadest sense mortar includes pitch, asphalt, and soft mud or clay, such as used between mud bricks. Mortar comes from Latin mortarium meaning crushed, mortars are typically made from a mixture of sand, a binder, and water. The most common binder since the early 20th century is Portland cement, there are several types of cement mortars and additives. The first mortars were made of mud and clay, because of a lack of stone and an abundance of clay, Babylonian constructions were of baked brick, using lime or pitch for mortar. According to Roman Ghirshman, the first evidence of using a form of mortar was at the Mehrgarh of Baluchistan in Pakistan. The ancient sites of Harappan civilization of third millennium BCE are built with kiln-fired bricks, gypsum mortar, also called plaster of Paris, was used in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids and many other ancient structures. It is made from gypsum, which requires a firing temperature. It is therefore easier to make lime mortar and sets up much faster which may be a reason it was used as the typical mortar in ancient, brick arch. Gypsum mortar is not as durable as other mortars in damp conditions, in early Egyptian pyramids, which were constructed during the Old Kingdom, the limestone blocks were bound by mortar of mud and clay, or clay and sand. In later Egyptian pyramids, the mortar was made of gypsum or lime. Gypsum mortar was essentially a mixture of plaster and sand and was quite soft, in the Indian subcontinent, multiple cement types have been observed in the sites of the Indus Valley Civilization, such as the Mohenjo-daro city-settlement that dates to earlier than 2600 BCE. Bitumen mortar was used at a lower-frequency, including in the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro. Historically, building with concrete and mortar next appeared in Greece, the excavation of the underground aqueduct of Megara revealed that a reservoir was coated with a pozzolanic mortar 12 mm thick. This aqueduct dates back to c.500 BCE, pozzolanic mortar is a lime based mortar, but is made with an additive of volcanic ash that allows it to be hardened underwater, thus it is known as hydraulic cement. The Greeks obtained the volcanic ash from the Greek islands Thira and Nisiros, or from the then Greek colony of Dicaearchia near Naples, the Romans later improved the use and methods of making what became known as pozzolanic mortar and cement. Even later, the Romans used a mortar without pozzolana using crushed terra cotta, introducing aluminum oxide and this mortar was not as strong as pozzolanic mortar, but, because it was denser, it better resisted penetration by water. Hydraulic mortar was not available in ancient China, possibly due to a lack of volcanic ash, around 500 CE, sticky rice soup was mixed with slaked lime to make an inorganic−organic composite mortar that had more strength and water resistance than lime mortar. It is not understood how the art of making hydraulic mortar and cement, during the Middle Ages when the Gothic cathedrals were being built, the only active ingredient in the mortar was lime
Mortar (masonry)
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Mortar holding weathered bricks
Mortar (masonry)
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Roman mortar on display at Chetham's School of Music.
Mortar (masonry)
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Laying bricks with Portland cement mortar
Mortar (masonry)
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Mortar mixed inside a 5-gallon bucket using clean water and mortar from a bag. When it's the right consistency as in the photo (trowel stands up) it's ready to apply.
18.
Tectonic plate
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The theoretical model builds on the concept of continental drift developed during the first few decades of the 20th century. The geoscientific community accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor spreading was validated in the late 1950s, the lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet, is broken up into tectonic plates. The Earths lithosphere is composed of seven or eight major plates, where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of boundary, convergent, divergent, or transform. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along plate boundaries. The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 100 mm annually, tectonic plates are composed of oceanic lithosphere and thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust. Along convergent boundaries, subduction carries plates into the mantle, the material lost is balanced by the formation of new crust along divergent margins by seafloor spreading. In this way, the surface of the lithosphere remains the same. This prediction of plate tectonics is also referred to as the conveyor belt principle, earlier theories, since disproven, proposed gradual shrinking or gradual expansion of the globe. Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earths lithosphere has greater strength than the underlying asthenosphere. Lateral density variations in the result in convection. Plate movement is thought to be driven by a combination of the motion of the seafloor away from the ridge and drag, with downward suction. Another explanation lies in the different forces generated by forces of the Sun. The relative importance of each of these factors and their relationship to other is unclear. The outer layers of the Earth are divided into the lithosphere and asthenosphere and this is based on differences in mechanical properties and in the method for the transfer of heat. Mechanically, the lithosphere is cooler and more rigid, while the asthenosphere is hotter, in terms of heat transfer, the lithosphere loses heat by conduction, whereas the asthenosphere also transfers heat by convection and has a nearly adiabatic temperature gradient. The key principle of plate tectonics is that the lithosphere exists as separate and distinct tectonic plates, Plate motions range up to a typical 10–40 mm/year, to about 160 mm/year. The driving mechanism behind this movement is described below, tectonic lithosphere plates consist of lithospheric mantle overlain by either or both of two types of crustal material, oceanic crust and continental crust. Average oceanic lithosphere is typically 100 km thick, its thickness is a function of its age, as passes, it conductively cools
Tectonic plate
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Remnants of the Farallon Plate, deep in Earth's mantle. It is thought that much of the plate initially went under North America (particularly the western United States and southwest Canada) at a very shallow angle, creating much of the mountainous terrain in the area (particularly the southern Rocky Mountains).
Tectonic plate
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The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century.
Tectonic plate
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Plate motion based on Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite data from NASA JPL. The vectors show direction and magnitude of motion.
Tectonic plate
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Alfred Wegener in Greenland in the winter of 1912-13.
19.
Laramide orogeny
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The Laramide orogeny was a period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous,70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the orogeny are in dispute, the Laramide orogeny occurred in a series of pulses, with quiescent phases intervening. The phenomenon is named for the Laramie Mountains of eastern Wyoming, the Laramide orogeny is sometimes confused with the Sevier orogeny, which partially overlapped it in time and space. The orogeny is commonly attributed to events off the west coast of North America, most hypotheses propose that oceanic crust was undergoing flat-slab subduction, i. e. One cause for shallow subduction may have been a rate of plate convergence. Another proposed cause was subduction of thickened oceanic crust, magmatism associated with subduction occurred not near the plate edges, but far to the east, called the Coast Range Arc. Geologists call such a lack of volcanic activity near a subduction zone a magmatic null and this particular null may have occurred because the subducted slab was in contact with relatively cool continental lithosphere, not hotter asthenosphere. One result of angle of subduction and the drag that it caused was a broad belt of mountains. Part of the proto-Rocky Mountains would be modified by extension to become the Basin. According to paleontologist Thomas M. Lehman, the Laramide orogeny triggered the most dramatic event that affected Late Cretaceous dinosaur communities in North America prior to their extinction, the Laramide orogeny produced intermontane structural basins and adjacent mountain blocks by means of deformation. This style of deformation is typical of continental plates adjacent to convergent margins of long duration that have not sustained continent/continent collisions and this tectonic setting produces a pattern of compressive uplifts and basins, with most of the deformation confined to block edges. Twelve kilometers of structural relief between basins and adjacent uplifts is not uncommon, the basins contain several thousand meters of Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks that predate the Laramide orogeny. As much as 5,000 meters of Cretaceous and Cenozoic sediments filled these orogenically-defined basins, deformed Paleocene and Eocene deposits record continuing orogenic activity. During the Laramide orogeny, basin floors and mountain summits were much closer to sea level than today, after the seas retreated from the Rocky Mountain region, floodplains, swamps, and vast lakes developed in the basins. Drainage systems imposed at that time persist today, since the Oligocene, episodic epeirogenic uplift gradually raised the entire region, including the Great Plains, to present elevations. Topographically, the basin floors resemble the surface of the western Great Plains, at most boundaries, Paleozoic through Paleogene units dip steeply into the basins off uplifted blocks cored by Precambrian rocks. The eroded steeply dipping units form hogbacks and flatirons, many of the boundaries are thrust or reverse faults. Although other boundaries appear to be monoclinal flexures, faulting is suspected at depth, most bounding faults show evidence of at least two episodes of Laramide movement, suggesting both thrust and strike-slip types of displacement
Laramide orogeny
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Topographic map of the Bighorn Basin (highlighted in orange), formed by the Laramide Orogeny
Laramide orogeny
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The Laramide orogeny was caused by subduction of a plate at a shallow angle.
20.
Breccia
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Breccia is a rock composed of broken fragments of minerals or rock cemented together by a fine-grained matrix that can be similar to or different from the composition of the fragments. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means either loose gravel or stone made by cemented gravel. A breccia may have a variety of different origins, as indicated by the named types including sedimentary breccia, tectonic breccia, igneous breccia, impact breccia, and hydrothermal breccia. Sedimentary breccia is a type of sedimentary rock which is made of angular to subangular. A conglomerate, by contrast, is a rock composed of rounded fragments or clasts of pre-existing rocks. Both breccia and conglomerate are composed of fragments averaging greater than 2 millimetres in size, the angular shape of the fragments indicates that the material has not been transported far from its source. Sedimentary breccia consists of angular, poorly sorted, immature fragments of rocks in a finer grained groundmass which are produced by mass wasting and it is lithified colluvium or scree. Thick sequences of sedimentary breccia are generally formed next to fault scarps in grabens, Breccia may occur along a buried stream channel where it indicates accumulation along a juvenile or rapidly flowing stream. Sedimentary breccia may be formed by debris flows. Turbidites occur as fine-grained peripheral deposits to sedimentary breccia flows, in a karst terrain, a collapse breccia may form due to collapse of rock into a sinkhole or in cave development. Fault breccia results from the action of two fault blocks as they slide past each other. Subsequent cementation of these fragments may occur by means of the introduction of mineral matter in groundwater. Volcanic pyroclastic rocks are formed by explosive eruption of lava and any rocks which are entrained within the eruptive column and this may include rocks plucked off the wall of the magma conduit, or physically picked up by the ensuing pyroclastic surge. Lavas, especially rhyolite and dacite flows, tend to form volcanic rocks by a process known as autobrecciation. This occurs when the thick, nearly solid lava breaks up into blocks, the resulting breccia is uniform in rock type and chemical composition. Lavas may also pick up rock fragments, especially if flowing over unconsolidated rubble on the flanks of a volcano, within the volcanic conduits of explosive volcanoes the volcanic breccia environment merges into the intrusive breccia environment. There the upwelling lava tends to solidify during quiescent intervals only to be shattered by ensuing eruptions, clastic rocks are also commonly found in shallow subvolcanic intrusions such as porphyry stocks, granites and kimberlite pipes, where they are transitional with volcanic breccias. Intrusive rocks can become brecciated in appearance by multiple stages of intrusion and this may be seen in many granite intrusions where later aplite veins form a late-stage stockwork through earlier phases of the granite mass
Breccia
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Basalt breccia; green groundmass is composed of epidote
Breccia
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Megabreccia (left) at Titus Canyon Narrows, Death Valley National Park, California
Breccia
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Tertiary breccia at Resting Springs Pass, Mojave Desert, California
Breccia
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Unusual breccia cemented by azurite and malachite, Morenci Mine, Arizona
21.
Detachment fault
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Detachment faulting is associated with large-scale extensional tectonics. Detachment faults often have very large displacements and juxtapose unmetamorphosed hanging walls against medium to high-grade metamorphic footwalls that are called metamorphic core complexes. They are thought to have formed as either initially low-angle structures or by the rotation of initially high-angle normal faults modified also by the effects of tectonic denudation. These detachment faults are associated with the development of oceanic core complex structures, continental detachment faults are also called décollements, denudational faults, low-angle normal faults and dislocation surfaces. The low-angle nature of these faults has sparked debate among scientists. Faults of the type are present, for example, in the Yerington district of Nevada. There, evidence for rotation of the plane comes from tilted volcanic dikes. However, other authors disagree that these should be called detachment faults, detachments faults of this kind can be found in the Whipple Mountains of California and the Mormon Mountains of Nevada. They initiate at depth in zones of intracrustal flow, where mylonitic gneisses form, shear along the fault is ductile at mid to lower crustal depths, but brittle at shallower depths. The footwall can transport mylonitic gneisses from lower levels to upper crustal levels. The hanging wall, composed of extended, thinned and brittle crustal material and these either merge into the detachment fault at depth or simply terminate at the detachment fault surface without shallowing. The unloading of the footwall can lead to isostatic uplift and doming of the more ductile material beneath, low angle normal faulting is not explained by Andersonian fault mechanics. However, slip on low angle normal faults could be facilitated by fluid pressure, detachment faults may also initiate on reactivated thrust fault surfaces. Oceanic detachment faults occur at spreading ridges where magmatic activity is not enough to account for the entire plate spreading rate and they are characterized by long domes parallel to the spreading direction. Slip on these faults can range from 10s to 100s of km and they cannot be structurally restored, as slip on the fault exceeds the thickness of oceanic crust. While occurring at relatively amagmatic spreading centres, the footwalls of these detachment faults are more influenced by magmatism than in continental settings. In fact, they are created by ‘continuous casting’, new footwall is continually being generated by mantle or melt from a magma chamber as slip occurs on the fault. The lithology is dominated by gabbro and peridotite, resulting in a mineralogy of olivine, serpentine, talc and this is in contrast to continental settings, where the mineralogy is dominantly quartz and feldspar
Detachment fault
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View of Jeff Davis Peak, Snake Range, Nevada, which was formed by detachment faulting.
22.
Cylindropuntia
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Cylindropuntia is a genus of cacti, containing the cholla, native to northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States. They are known for their barbed spines that tenaciously attach to skin, fur, stands of cholla are called cholla gardens. Individuals within these colonies often exhibit the same DNA as they were formerly tubercles of an original plant, Cylindropuntia was formerly treated as a subgenus of Opuntia, but have now been separated based on their cylindrical stems and the presence of papery epidermal sheaths on the spines. A few species of mat- or clump-forming opuntioid cacti are currently placed in the genus Grusonia, collectively, opuntias, chollas, and related plants are sometimes called opuntiads. The roughly 35 species of Cylindropuntia are native to the southwest and southcentral United States, Mexico, the Flora of North America recognizes 22 species. Some species have been introduced to South America and South Africa
Cylindropuntia
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Cholla
Cylindropuntia
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Cane Cactus, in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Cylindropuntia
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Blooming cholla cactus with bird's nest in Anza Borrego Desert State Park
23.
Opuntia
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Opuntia is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae. The most common species is the Indian fig opuntia. Most culinary uses of the prickly pear refer to this species. Prickly pears are also known as tuna, sabra, nopal from the Nahuatl word nōpalli for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word nōchtli for the fruit, or paddle cactus. The genus is named for the Ancient Greek city of Opus, where, according to Theophrastus, like all true cactus species, prickly pears are native only to the Americas, but they have been introduced to other parts of the globe. Prickly pear species are found in abundance in Mexico, especially in the central and western regions, Prickly pear cactus is also native to coastal beach scrub environments and low open areas of the East Coast from Florida to Connecticut/Long Island. Prickly pears also produce a fruit, commonly eaten in Mexico and in the Mediterranean region, known as tuna, the fruit can be red, wine-red, green, or yellow-orange. The first introduction of prickly pears into Australia is ascribed to Governor Philip, brought from Brazil to Sydney, prickly pear grew in Sydney, New South Wales, where they were rediscovered in a farmers garden in 1839. They appear to have spread from New South Wales and caused great damage in the eastern states. In the Galápagos Islands, six different species are found, O. echios, O. galapageia, O. helleri, O. insularis, O. saxicola and these species are divided into 14 different varieties, most of these are confined to one or a few islands. For this reason, they have described as an excellent example of adaptive radiation. On the whole, islands with tall, trunked varieties have giant tortoises, Prickly pears are a prime source of food for the common giant tortoises in the Galápagos islands so they are important in the food web. Charles Darwin was the first to note that these cacti have thigmotactic anthers and this movement can be seen by gently poking the anthers of an open Opuntia flower. The same trait has evolved convergently in other cacti, chollas, now recognized to belong to the distinct genus Cylindropuntia, are distinguished by having cylindrical, rather than flattened, stem segments with large barbed spines. The barbed spines can remain embedded in the skin, causing discomfort, collectively, opuntias, chollas, and related plants are sometimes called opuntiads. When Carl Linnaeus published Species Plantarum in 1753 – the starting point for botanical nomenclature – he placed all the species of cactus known to him in one genus, Cactus. In 1754, the Scottish botanist Philip Miller divided cacti into several genera and he distinguished the genus largely on the form of its flowers and fruits. Also, not all species listed here may actually belong in this genus, – quipá Opuntia insularis Opuntia invicta syn. O. leptocarpa MacKensen, O. tenuispina Engelm
Opuntia
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Opuntia
Opuntia
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Typical habitus of an Opuntia with fruit
Opuntia
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Bud appears ►
Opuntia
24.
Mission San Xavier del Bac
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Mission San Xavier del Bac is a historic Spanish Catholic mission located about 10 miles south of downtown Tucson, Arizona, on the Tohono Oodham San Xavier Indian Reservation. It was founded in 1692 by Padre Eusebio Kino in the center of a centuries-old Indian settlement of the Tohono O’odham, the mission was named for Francis Xavier, a Christian missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus in Europe. The mission was built at a site near the historic 1700 church first constructed here and this served the mission until being razed during an Apache raid in 1770. Todays Mission was built between 1783-1797, it is the oldest European structure in Arizona, the labor was provided by the Oodham, widely considered to be the finest example of Spanish Colonial architecture in the United States, it hosts some 200,000 visitors each year. The site is known in Tohono Oodham language as the “place where the water appears. The Santa Cruz River, once critical to the communitys survival, the Mission is a pilgrimage site, with thousands visiting each year on foot and on horseback, in what are called cabalgatas in Spanish. San Xavier Mission was established in 1692 by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, the little hill is believed to be that southeast of San Xavier del Bac. Charles III of Spain distrusted Jesuits and in 1767 banned them from Spanish lands in the Americas and he installed what he considered the more pliable and “reliable” Franciscans as replacements. The original church proved vulnerable to Apache attacks, which destroyed it in about 1770. The present Mission building was constructed under the direction of Franciscan fathers Juan Bautista Velderrain, with 7,000 pesos borrowed from a Sonoran rancher, they hired architect Ignacio Gaona, who employed a large workforce of Oodham to create todays church. Following Mexican independence in 1821, what was known as Alta California was administered from Mexico City. In 1822, the Mission was included under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Diocese of Sonora, in 1828, the Mexican government banned all Spanish-born priests, with the last resident Franciscan departing San Xavier for Spain in 1837. Left vacant, the Mission began to decay, concerned about their church, local Indians began to preserve what they could. With the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, San Xavier was brought under U. S. rule as part of the Territory of Arizona, the church was re-opened in 1859 when the Santa Fe Diocese added the Mission to its jurisdiction. It ordered repairs paid for with money, and assigned a priest to serve the community. In 1868 the Diocese of Tucson was established and it provided for regular services to be held again at the church. In 1872 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet opened a school at the Mission for the Tohono O’odham children, in 1895 a grant of $1,000 was given to repair the building. More classrooms were added in 1900, the Franciscans returned to the Mission in 1913
Mission San Xavier del Bac
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Mission San Xavier del Bac in 2003
Mission San Xavier del Bac
Mission San Xavier del Bac
Mission San Xavier del Bac
25.
Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón was a presidio located within Tucson, Arizona. The original fortress was built by Spanish soldiers during the 18th century and was the structure of what became the city of Tucson. After the American arrival in 1856, the walls were dismantled. A reconstruction of the northeast corner of the fort was completed in 2007 following an excavation that located the forts northeast tower. A company of Spanish Army soldiers, led by Captain Hugh OConor, the site was on the east terrace overlooking the Santa Cruz River floodplain. Nearby was the Oodham village of S-cuk Son at the San Agustin Mission, the following year, soldiers marched north from the Presidio at Tubac and began construction of the fort. Initially, it consisted of a scattering of buildings, some inside a wooden palisade, mismanagement of the funds that were to be spent on adobe walls stalled their construction. A near disastrous attack by Apache raiders in June 1782 resulted in renewed efforts to complete the fort, the fort measured about 670 ft to a side with square towers at the northeast and southwest corners. The massive adobe walls required constant maintenance, especially in times when attacks by Native Americans were anticipated, the fortress remained intact until the American arrival in 1856, two years after the Gadsden Treaty transferred southern Arizona to the United States. Afterward, it was dismantled, with the last standing portion torn down in 1918. Tucson flourished under Spanish rule, but the population didnt exceed 500 until much later, the colony managed to grow with the help of the fort and its occupants, who launched several expeditions into Indian country to fight the Seris, Opatas, Papago and primarily the Apache. The expeditions helped keep the natives from the area, to prevent raids on Spanish property, throughout the Spanish period the Pimas were mostly peaceful, with the exception of two rebellions about 25 years before the Tucson Presidio was constructed. Over Tucsons history, several different Native American groups lived in the city, groups of Pimas, Apaches, Papago, Oaptas, Seris, and others, all eventually lived at the Spanish settlements in the Santa Cruz River Valley. Many of the men became scouts for the Spanish Army during the wars against the native tribes, at one point the entire garrison of Fort Tubac consisted solely of Papago warriors. By the time the Spanish period ended in 1821 the old Spanish frontier settlements were being abandoned, the population of Tucson and Tubac each reached about 350 at their peaks during this time. Tumacacori had about 100 Spaniards during its years, and the remaining population of the forts. Fort Tubac was abandoned several times over 110 years due to repeated attacks at or near the fort, the garrisons remained relatively small, usually cavalry and some artillery. Lt. Juan de Olivas took command of Tucson after OConnor from 1775 to 1777 and he also commanded many of the advances into Apacheria and Seri country
Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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The reconstructed northeastern bastion of Fort Tucson in 2009.
Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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A statue of Hugh O'Conor.
Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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San Xavier Mission in 1913.
Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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San Agustin church in the early 19th century.
26.
New Spain
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New Spain was a colonial territory of the Spanish Empire, in the New World north of the Isthmus of Panama. It was established following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521, after 1535 the colony was governed by the Viceroy of New Spain, an appointed minister of the King of Spain, who ruled as monarch over the colony. The capital of New Spain was Mexico City and it developed highly regional divisions, which reflect the impact of climate, topography, the presence or absence of dense indigenous populations, and the presence or absence of mineral resources. The areas of central and southern Mexico had dense indigenous populations with complex social, political, silver mining not only became the engine of the economy of New Spain, but vastly enriched Spain, and transformed the global economy. New Spain was the New World terminus of the Philippine trade, although New Spain was a dependency of Spain, it was a kingdom not a colony, subject to the presiding monarch on the Iberian Peninsula. Every privilege and position, economic political, or religious came from him and it was on this basis that the conquest, occupation, and government of the New World was achieved. The Viceroyalty of New Spain was established in 1535 in the Kingdom of New Spain and it was the first New World viceroyalty and one of only two in the Spanish empire until the 18th century Bourbon Reforms. The Spanish Empire comprised the territories in the north overseas Septentrion, from North America, to the west of the continent, New Spain also included the Spanish East Indies. To the east of the continent, it included the Spanish West Indies and this was not occupied by many Spanish settlers and were considered more marginal to Spanish interests than the most densely populated and lucrative areas of central Mexico. To shore up its claims in North America starting in the late 18th century, Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest explored and claimed the coast of what is now British Columbia and Alaska. The indigenous societies of Mesoamerica brought under Spanish control were of unprecedented complexity, the societies could provide the conquistadors, especially Hernán Cortés, a base from which the conquerors could become autonomous, or even independent, of the Crown. As a result, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, since the time of the Catholic Monarchs, central Iberia was governed through councils appointed by the monarch with particular jurisdictions. Thus, the creation of the Council of the Indies became another, the crown had set up the Casa de Contratación in 1503 to regulate contacts between Spain and its overseas possessions. A key function was to gather information about navigation to make trips less risky and they were accompanied by maps of the area discussed, many of which were drawn by indigenous artists. The Francisco Hernández Expedition, the first scientific expedition to the New World, was sent to gather information medicinal plants, an earlier Audiencia had been established in Santo Domingo in 1526 to deal with the Caribbean settlements. That Audiencia, housed in the Casa Reales in Santo Domingo, was charged with encouraging further exploration, management by the Audiencia, which was expected to make executive decisions as a body, proved unwieldy. Therefore, in 1535, King Charles V named Don Antonio de Mendoza as the first Viceroy of New Spain. After the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 opened up the vast territories of South America to further conquests, the Crown established an independent Viceroyalty of Peru there in 1540
New Spain
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"Vázquez de Coronado Sets Out to the North" (1540) by Frederic Remington, oil on canvas, 1905
New Spain
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Flag
New Spain
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Indian Wedding and Flying Pole, circa 1690
New Spain
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Route from Philippines to Acapulco, México
27.
Levi Manning
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Levi Howell Manning served as Mayor of Tucson, Arizona from 1905 to 1907. Manning was born second in a family of four brothers and four sisters in Halifax County, North Carolina to Vannoy Hartrog Manning, representative from Mississippi and an officer in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War. In 1883, during summer break while attending the University of Mississippi, Manning, the elephant escaped from Manning and rampaged through town. Upon hearing the story, Mannings mother advised him to get out of town before his father found out, consequently he came to Tucson, Arizona in early spring 1884. Upon arrival Manning worked as a reporter for the The Daily Arizona Citizen and he later bought a controlling interest in and was general manager of the Tucson Ice & Electric Light Company for two years, making a “considerable fortune” when he sold it. He was chief of the Mineral Department in the office of US Surveyor during the half of Grover Clevelands first administration. In 1893 President Cleveland appointed Manning as Surveyor-General of Arizona, which he held until 1897, on May 28,1898, Manning married Gussie Lovell OConnell, who had been born in San Jose, Calif. Manning developed several mines in Sonora, Mexico, and founded the Owl Club of Tucson, in 1900 Manning became president and general manager of a general mercantile firm in Tucson, renamed the L. H. Manning Co. with the acquisition of Norton & Drake, in 1904 Manning, Charles M. Shannon, and Epes Randolph opened the Santa Rita Hotel in Tucson. He also developed agricultural districts in the Santa Cruz valley, in 1904 Manning homesteaded 160 acres in the Rincon Mountains to the east of Tucson, building a cabin that still exists today. The same year, along with Frank H. Hereford and W. H. Barnes, he helped establish the first Tucson Country Club, Manning was elected mayor on an anti-gambling ticket. Though gambling was legal in territorial Arizona, Manning and the city council enacted local ordinances that put the Tucson gambling houses out of business, in 1906 Manning was instrumental in bringing an electric trolley system to Tucson that replaced horse and mule drawn vehicles. He died August 1,1935, in Beverly Hills, Calif. and is buried Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson, Manning was described as far-seeing, a man of vast schemes, and ranked with the most important builders Southwest. The Manning House, and the street Manning House Way are in downtown Tucson, Manning History Levi Howell Manning at Find a Grave
Levi Manning
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Levi Manning
28.
United States Postmaster General
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The Postmaster General of the United States is the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence, benjamin Franklin was appointed by the Continental Congress as the first Postmaster General in 1775, serving just over 15 months. Until 1971, the general was the head of the Post Office Department. From 1829 to 1971, he was a member of the Presidents Cabinet, the Cabinet post of Postmaster General was often given to a new Presidents campaign manager or other key political supporter, and was considered something of a sinecure. The Postmaster General was in charge of the partys patronage. In 1971, the Post Office Department was re-organized into the United States Postal Service, therefore, the Postmaster General is no longer a member of the Cabinet and is no longer in Presidential succession. The Postmaster General is the second-highest paid U. S. government official, based on publicly available salary information, as of July 2016, there are seven living former Postmasters General, the oldest being W. Marvin Watson. The most recent Postmaster General to die was Preston Robert Tisch, on November 15,2005
United States Postmaster General
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Samuel Osgood (1747–1813)
29.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and emerged as a figure in world events during the mid-20th century. He directed the United States government during most of the Great Depression and he is often rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U. S. Presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt was born in 1882 to an old, prominent Dutch family from Dutchess County and he attended the elite educational institutions of Groton School, Harvard College, and Columbia Law School. At age 23 in 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, and he entered politics in 1910, serving in the New York State Senate, and then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, Roosevelt was presidential candidate James M. Coxs running mate and he was in office from 1929 to 1933 and served as a reform governor, promoting the enactment of programs to combat the depression besetting the United States at the time. In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover in a landslide to win the presidency, Roosevelt took office while in the United States was in the midst of the worst economic crisis in its history. Energized by his victory over polio, FDR relied on his persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit. He created numerous programs to support the unemployed and farmers, and to labor union growth while more closely regulating business. His support for the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 added to his popularity, the economy improved rapidly from 1933–37, but then relapsed into a deep recession in 1937–38. The bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented his packing the Supreme Court, when the war began and unemployment ended, conservatives in Congress repealed the two major relief programs, the WPA and CCC. However, they kept most of the regulations on business, along with several smaller programs, major surviving programs include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wagner Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security. His goal was to make America the Arsenal of Democracy, which would supply munitions to the Allies, in March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to Britain and China. He supervised the mobilization of the U. S. economy to support the war effort, as an active military leader, Roosevelt implemented a war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and initiate the development of the worlds first atomic bomb. His work also influenced the creation of the United Nations. Roosevelts physical health declined during the war years, and he died 11 weeks into his fourth term. One of the oldest Dutch families in New York State, the Roosevelts distinguished themselves in other than politics. One ancestor, Isaac Roosevelt, had served with the New York militia during the American Revolution, Roosevelt attended events of the New York society Sons of the American Revolution, and joined the organization while he was president
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt in 1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt in 1884, 2 years old.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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The birthplace of FDR at Springwood.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt sailing with half-niece Helen and father James, 1899.
30.
Civilian Conservation Corps
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The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families as part of the New Deal. Originally for young men ages 18–25, it was expanded to young men ages 17–28. Robert Fechner was the head of the agency, the CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men, and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States. At the same time, it implemented a general natural resource conservation program in every state, maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000. Over the course of its nine years in operation,3 million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them shelter, clothing. The American public made the CCC the most popular of all the New Deal programs, principal benefits of an individuals enrollment in the CCC included improved physical condition, heightened morale, and increased employability. The CCC operated separate programs for veterans and Native Americans, approximately 15,000 Native Americans participated in the program, helping them weather the Great Depression. Despite its popular support, the CCC was never a permanent agency and it depended on emergency and temporary Congressional legislation and funding to operate. By 1942, with World War II and the draft in operation, the need for work relief declined, as governor of New York, Roosevelt had run a similar program on a much smaller scale. He promised this law would provide 250,000 young men with meals, housing, uniforms, the Emergency Conservation Work Act was introduced to Congress the same day and enacted by voice vote on March 31. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6101 on April 5,1933 which established the CCC organization and appointed a director, Robert Fechner, the organization and administration of the CCC was a new experiment in operations for a federal government agency. A CCC Advisory Council was composed of a representative each of the supervising departments. In addition, the Office of Education and Veterans Administration participated in the program, to end the opposition from labor unions Roosevelt chose Robert Fechner, vice president of the American Machinists Union, as director of the corps. William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor, was taken to the first camp to demonstrate that there would be no job training involved beyond simple manual labor. Reserve officers from the U. S. Army were in charge of the camps, General Douglas MacArthur was placed in charge of the program but said that the number of Army officers and soldiers assigned to the camps was affecting the readiness of the Regular Army. But the Army also found benefits in the program. When the draft began in 1940, the policy was to make CCC alumni corporals, CCC also provided command experience to Organized Reserve Corps officers. Through the CCC, the Regular Army could assess the performance of both Regular and Reserve Officers
Civilian Conservation Corps
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Poster by Albert M. Bender, Illinois WPA Art Project Chicago (1935)
Civilian Conservation Corps
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CCC workers constructing a road, 1933.
Civilian Conservation Corps
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CCC camps in Michigan; the tents were soon replaced by barracks built by Army contractors for the enrollees.
Civilian Conservation Corps
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A CCC map of the planned route of a parkway in Texas, drafted in 1934. The Corps worked in numerous parks throughout the state during the early 1930s, constructing everything from benches to highways.
31.
Stewart Udall
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Stewart Lee Udall was an American politician and later, a federal government official. After serving three terms as a congressman from Arizona, he served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969, under presidents John F. Kennedy, born January 31,1920, in Saint Johns, Arizona, to Louisa Lee Udall and Levi Stewart Udall. He had five siblings, Inez, Elma, Morris, Eloise, as a young boy Stewart worked on the family farm in St. Johns. Stewart was remembered by his mother as a child with tremendous energy, Stewart Udall attended the University of Arizona for two years until World War II. He returned to the University of Arizona in 1946, where he attended law school, in 1947, Udall, along with his brother Mo, helped integrate the University of Arizona cafeteria. Mo and Stewart were respected student athletes and Mo was student body president, on their way to lunch at the Student Union one day, they saw a group of black students eating lunch outside the building. Black students were allowed to buy food in the cafeteria, but had to eat outside, when Mo and Stewart invited Morgan Maxwell Jr. a black freshman, to share their table in the cafeteria, it helped to calm some long-simmering racial issues surrounding segregation at the university. Udall received his law degree and was admitted to the Arizona bar in 1948 and he began his law practice in Tucson shortly thereafter. Udall became increasingly active in service, being elected to the School Board of Amphitheater Public Schools in Tucson in June 1951. As a school board member, he participated in desegregating the Amphitheater School District before the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education, Udall was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives from Arizonas Second District in 1954. He served with distinction in the House for three terms on the Interior and Education and Labor committees, Udall served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Under his leadership, the Interior Department aggressively promoted an expansion of public lands. Marshall integrated the team in 1962, during Udalls tenure as Secretary of the Interior, in September 1962, he was summoned unexpectedly into a meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev while on a tour of the Soviet Union. It was during this meeting that Khrushchev famously hinted at his secret deployment of nuclear missiles to Cuba by telling Udall, now we can swat your ass. This was a prelude to the Cuban Missile Crisis, upon Udalls recommendation President Kennedy asked former U. S. Poet Laureate Robert Frost to read a poem at his inauguration. A pioneer of the movement, Udall warned of a conservation crisis in the 1960s with his best-selling book on environmental attitudes in the United States. In the book, he wrote about the dangers of pollution, overuse of natural resources, along with Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, The Quiet Crisis is credited with creating a consciousness in the country that led to the environmental movement
Stewart Udall
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Stewart Udall
Stewart Udall
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Udall (rear) standing next to Mrs. John F. Kennedy at the president's Swearing In Ceremony, January 21, 1961
Stewart Udall
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Lady Bird Johnson and Udall on a trip to Grand Teton National Park, August 1964
Stewart Udall
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Robert Frost and Stewart Udall in 1962
32.
United States Secretary of the Interior
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The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the U. S. Department of the Interior. The Secretary also serves on and appoints the private citizens on the National Park Foundation board, the Secretary is a member of the Presidents Cabinet. The U. S. Department of the Interior should not be confused with the Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries. Ministries of the Interior in these other countries correspond primarily to the Department of Homeland Security in the U. S, Cabinet and secondarily to the Department of Justice. On December 13,2016, President-elect Donald Trump picked Ryan Zinke for the position of Interior Secretary, the most recent to die was William P. Clark, Jr. on August 10,2013. List of Secretaries of the Interior List of Secretaries of the Interior The Department of Everything Else, Highlights of Interior History
United States Secretary of the Interior
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Incumbent Sally Jewell since April 12, 2013
United States Secretary of the Interior
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Seal of the U.S. Department of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
33.
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest
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Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial biome, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. The term Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is used by the World Wildlife Fund in global biogeography as one of the biome designations under which to organize ecoregions, the typical structure of these forests includes four layers. The uppermost layer is the canopy composed of mature trees ranging from 30 to 61 m high. Below the canopy is the three-layered, shade-tolerant understory that is roughly 9 to 15 m shorter than the canopy, the top layer of the understory is the sub-canopy composed of smaller mature trees, saplings, and suppressed juvenile canopy layer trees awaiting an opening in the canopy. Below the sub-canopy is the layer, composed of low growing woody plants. Typically the lowest growing layer is the cover or herbaceous layer. In the Northern hemisphere, characteristic dominant broadleaf trees in this biome include oaks, beeches, maples, the term mixed forest comes from the inclusion of coniferous trees as a canopy component of some of these forests. Typical coniferous trees include, Pines, firs, and spruces, in some areas of this biome the conifers may be a more important canopy species than the broadleaf species. In the Southern hemisphere, endemic genera such as Nothofagus and Eucalyptus occupy this biome, Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests occur in areas with distinct warm and cool season, which give it a moderate annual average temperature —3 to 15.6 °C. These forests occur in warm and rainy climates, sometimes also with a distinct dry season. A dry season occurs in the winter in East Asia and in summer on the wet fringe of the Mediterranean climate zones. Other areas, as in the central and upper eastern United States and southeastern Canada, have an even distribution of rainfall, annual rainfall is typically over 600 mm
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest
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Temperate mixed forest in Yunnan, southwest China
34.
Non-vascular plant
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Non-vascular plants are plants without a vascular system consisting of xylem and phloem. Although non-vascular plants lack these particular tissues, many possess simpler tissues that are specialized for internal transport of water, non-vascular plants do not have a wide variety of specialized tissue types. Mosses and leafy liverworts have structures that look like leaves, but are not true leaves because they are single sheets of cells with no stomata, consequently, they are unable to control the rate of water loss from their tissues and are said to be poikilohydric. These organisms do, however, contain an elementary cuticle which was important in the evolution of land plants, in these plants, the sporophytes grow from and are dependent on gametophytes for taking in water and mineral nutrients and for provision of photosynthate, the products of photosynthesis. In all bryophytes, the plants are the haploid gametophytes, with the only diploid portion being the attached sporophyte, consisting of a stalk. Because these plants lack lignified water-conducting tissues, they cant become as tall as most vascular plants, algae - especially the green algae. Recent studies have demonstrated that the algae consist of unrelated groups. It turns out that the features of living in water. Only those groups of algae included in the Viridiplantae are still considered relatives of land plants, non-vascular plants are often among the first species to move into new and inhospitable territories, along with prokaryotes and protists, and thus function as pioneer species
Non-vascular plant
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Algae, a type of non-vascular plant
35.
Fungus
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A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from the other eukaryotic life kingdoms of plants, a characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria and some protists, is chitin in their cell walls. Similar to animals, fungi are heterotrophs, they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, growth is their means of mobility, except for spores, which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems and this fungal group is distinct from the structurally similar myxomycetes and oomycetes. The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology, in the past, mycology was regarded as a branch of botany, although it is now known fungi are genetically more closely related to animals than to plants. Abundant worldwide, most fungi are inconspicuous because of the size of their structures. Fungi include symbionts of plants, animals, or other fungi and they may become noticeable when fruiting, either as mushrooms or as molds. Fungi perform a role in the decomposition of organic matter and have fundamental roles in nutrient cycling. Since the 1940s, fungi have been used for the production of antibiotics, Fungi are also used as biological pesticides to control weeds, plant diseases and insect pests. Many species produce bioactive compounds called mycotoxins, such as alkaloids and polyketides, the fruiting structures of a few species contain psychotropic compounds and are consumed recreationally or in traditional spiritual ceremonies. Fungi can break down manufactured materials and buildings, and become significant pathogens of humans, losses of crops due to fungal diseases or food spoilage can have a large impact on human food supplies and local economies. The fungus kingdom encompasses a diversity of taxa with varied ecologies, life cycle strategies. However, little is known of the biodiversity of Kingdom Fungi. Advances in molecular genetics have opened the way for DNA analysis to be incorporated into taxonomy, phylogenetic studies published in the last decade have helped reshape the classification within Kingdom Fungi, which is divided into one subkingdom, seven phyla, and ten subphyla. The English word fungus is directly adopted from the Latin fungus, used in the writings of Horace, a group of all the fungi present in a particular area or geographic region is known as mycobiota, e. g. the mycobiota of Ireland. Like plants, fungi grow in soil and, in the case of mushrooms, form conspicuous fruit bodies. The fungi are now considered a kingdom, distinct from both plants and animals, from which they appear to have diverged around one billion years ago. Fungi have membrane-bound cytoplasmic organelles such as mitochondria, sterol-containing membranes and they have a characteristic range of soluble carbohydrates and storage compounds, including sugar alcohols, disaccharides, and polysaccharides
Fungus
Fungus
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Omphalotus nidiformis, a bioluminescent mushroom
Fungus
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Bracket fungi on a tree stump
Fungus
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Two types of edible fungi
36.
Ferocactus wislizeni
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Ferocactus wislizeni, the fishhook barrel cactus, also called Arizona barrel cactus, candy barrel cactus, and Southwestern barrel cactus, is a cylindrical barrel-shaped cactus. Some sources mistakenly spell the epithet wislizenii, correct spelling is with one i, per ICN article 60C.2. The fishhook barrel cactus typically grows to a diameter of two feet and a height of three to six feet. However, specimens as wide as three feet and tall as ten feet have been recorded, the common name comes from the spines, which are thick and hooked. It has a leathery asparagus green cortex with approximately 15-28 ribs per cactus and its flowers are yellow to red-orange and appear atop the cactus fruit during the summer months. The fruits are green when unripe, yellow after the flower dries up, in adulthood, fishhook barrel cacti generally leans southward, toward the sun, earning it the nickname compass barrel cactus. One theory about why this happens is, the sun is so intense it slows the growth on the exposed side. Older barrels can lean so far they uproot themselves and fall over especially after rains when the soil is loose. Its life cycle is 50-100 years, like Sclerocactus, Ferocactus typically grows in areas where water flows irregularly or depressions where water can accmulate for short periods of time. They are not associated with washes and arroyos but rather grow along rocky ridges, the fishhook spines and the armored web of spines enclosing the cactus body are a defense against herbivory. Rarely a mature barrel cactus is found hollowed out by javalina, Barrel cactus spines pose an extreme hazard for handling, penetrating boots and gloves. The roots are quite long but very shallow, the fishhook barrel cactus is native to southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. More specifically, it can be found in southern Arizona, southern New Mexico, El Paso County, Texas and northern Sonora and Chihuahua and it grows in gravelly or sandy soil, more commonly on bajadas than steep slopes, at 1000 to 5300 feet elevation. It prefers full sun, and does well in hot arid climates and it is, however, frost-tolerant to 5 °F The flowers are pollinated by cactus bees. Mule deer, birds, and javelina eat the fruit, the birds especially like the seeds. The people of the Sonoran Desert use the fruit for candy, the Seri and Oodham eat the flowers and use the fruit, which is sour, as emergency food. Tradition says that the cactus is a source of water for people lost without water in the desert. There are records of the southwestern Native Americans using it for that purpose, the skin thickens with age, making older cacti more fire resistant
Ferocactus wislizeni
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Ferocactus wislizeni
Ferocactus wislizeni
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Large fishhook barrel cactus near Sahuarita, Arizona
Ferocactus wislizeni
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Young Fishhook barrel cactus (Ferocactus wislizeni)
Ferocactus wislizeni
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Fishhook barrel cactus cluster near Sahuarita, Arizona.
37.
Cylindropuntia echinocarpa
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Cylindropuntia echinocarpa is a species of cactus known by the common names silver cholla, golden cholla, and Wiggins cholla. It was formerly named Opuntia echinocarpa, C. echinocarpa is native to the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico, where it can be found the Sonoran Desert, the Mojave Desert, and Colorado Desert in California and other states. It commonly occurs in desert dry wash, creosote scrub, Joshua tree woodland. It ranges from Mono County to Baja California Peninsula, silver cholla is a large, tree-like cactus which may exceed 2 m in height. Its stems and branches are made up of cylindrical green tubercles up to 1.5 cm wide, the fleshy tubercles each bear up to 20 long, straight, grayish or yellowish spines which may be nearly 4 cm long. The width of the tubercles is less than twice the length, which helps to distinguish it from buckhorn cholla, the flowers are usually greenish yellow, sometimes pinkish or brownish in color. The fruit is lumpy, spiny, and tan in color, with white seeds and it measures up to two centimeters long. Very few fruits reach maturity, and many immature fruits can often be seen lying on the ground below
Cylindropuntia echinocarpa
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Cylindropuntia echinocarpa
38.
Opuntia engelmannii
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Opuntia engelmannii is a prickly pear common across the south-central and Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The nomenclatural history of species is somewhat complicated due to the varieties. The Opuntia engelmannii range extends from California to Louisiana in the United States, in the Sonoran Desert, terminal pads face predominantly east-west, so as to maximize the absorption of solar radiation during summer rains. Although found occasionally in the Mojave Desert, it tends to be replaced by Opuntia basilaris, the overall form of Opuntia engelmannii is generally shrubby, with dense clumps up to 3.5 metres high, usually with no apparent trunk. The pads are green, obovate to round, about 15–30 cm long, the glochids are yellow initially, then brown with age. Spines are extremely variable, with anywhere from 1-8 per areole, and often absent from lower areoles, they are yellow to white, slightly flattened, the flowers are yellow, occasionally reddish, 5–8 cm in diameter and about as long. Flowering is in April and May, with each lasting only one day, opening at about 8AM. Pollinators include solitary bees, such as the Antophoridae, and sap beetles, the purple fleshy fruits are 3–7 cm long. Opuntia engelmannii var. cuija — endemic to Mexico, in Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Opuntia engelmannii var. engelmannii — Engelmanns prickly-pear, Mexico, southwestern U. S. California Opuntia engelmannii var. flavispina Opuntia engelmannii var. flexospina Opuntia engelmannii var. lindheimeri — Texas pricklypear, endemic to U. S. in Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas. Opuntia engelmannii var. linguiformis — cowtongue pricklypear, Texas The fruits were a summer food for Native American tribes. The Tohono Oodham of the Sonoran Desert, in particular, classified the fruits by color, time of ripening, Opuntia engelmannii is cultivated as an ornamental plant, for use in drought tolerant gardens, container plantings, and natural landscaping projects
Opuntia engelmannii
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Opuntia engelmannii
Opuntia engelmannii
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Opuntia engelmannii var. lindheimeri in habitat.
Opuntia engelmannii
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Fruits of Opuntia engelmannii.
39.
Cylindropuntia bigelovii
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Cylindropuntia bigelovii, the teddy bear cholla, is a cholla cactus species native to Northwestern Mexico, and to the United States in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Cylindropuntia bigelovii has an appearance due to its solid mass of very formidable spines that completely cover the stems. The teddy-bear cholla is a plant,1 to 5 ft tall with a distinct trunk. The branches are at the top of the trunk and are nearly horizontal, Lower branches typically fall off, and the trunk darkens with age. The silvery-white spines, which are actually a form of leaf, almost completely obscure the stem with a fuzzy-looking, the spines are 1 in long and are covered with a detachable, paper-like sheath. The yellow-green flowers emerge at the tips of the stems in May and June, flowers are usually 3.6 cm in length. The fruit is 1.9 cm in diameter, tuberculate and these cacti produce few seeds, as the plant usually reproduces from dropped stems. These stems are often carried for some distance by sticking to the hair of animals, often small stands of these chollas form that are largely clones of one individual. Like its cousin the jumping cholla, the stems detach easily, when a piece of this cholla sticks to an unsuspecting person, a good method to remove the cactus is with a hair comb. The spines are barbed, and hold on tightly, Desert pack rats such as the Desert Woodrat gather these balls around their burrows, creating a defense against predators. In the Lower Colorado River Valley, the most dense Cylindropuntia bigelovii stands are at higher elevations, there are fewer Sonoran Desert or Colorado Desert plant association species, but two are common though reduced in size, Ocotillo and Saguaro
Cylindropuntia bigelovii
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Cylindropuntia bigelovii Teddy-bear Cholla
Cylindropuntia bigelovii
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A stand of Cylindropuntia bigelovii
Cylindropuntia bigelovii
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Close up of teddy-bear cholla
Cylindropuntia bigelovii
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Flowering Cylindropuntia bigelovii
40.
Cylindropuntia fulgida
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Cylindropuntia fulgida, the jumping cholla, also known as the hanging chain cholla, is a cholla cactus native to the Southwestern United States and Sonora. It does occur on the islands in the Gulf of California, including the islands of Tiburon. In the Southwestern United States, the range extends into the Colorado Desert of California, there it occurs south and southwest of the Arizona transition zone of the Mogollon Rim, in the northwest-central Sonoran Desert of Arizona, it is in a few selected locales. It also reaches into the northeast section of the Mojave Desert in southern Nevada and Utah and it also occurs just south of the east-west section of the Bill Williams River, east of the Colorado River in the Yuma Desert. Cylindropuntia fulgida grows at elevations ranging from 300 to 1,000 m, while the name jumping cholla is applied especially to this species, it is also used as a general term for all chollas. The jumping cholla is an arborescent plant with one low-branching trunk and it often grows to heights of 4 m, with drooping branches of chained fruit. The stems are green and are strongly tuberculate, with tubercles measuring 6 to 9 mm. Together. Leaves have been reduced to spines,6 to 12 of which grow from each areole, young branches are covered with 2 to 3 cm silvery-yellow spines, which darken to a gray color with age. These spines form a layer that obscures the stems. Slower growing or older branches have sparse and/or shorter spines, as the spines fall off of older parts, the brown-black bark is revealed. It becomes rough and scaly with age, flowers are white and pink, streaked with lavender. They are about one wide, and are displayed at the joint tips. Most of the fleshy, green fruits are sterile, pear-shaped to nearly round and they are typically about 4 cm long, often producing flowers the following year which add new fruits to those of previous seasons. It is these hanging chains of fruit which give it the name hanging chain cholla, the jumping cholla name comes from the ease with which the stems detach when brushed. Often the merest touch will leave a person with bits of cactus hanging on their clothes to be discovered later when either sitting or leaning on them. The ground around a plant will often be covered with dead stems. They attach themselves to animals and are dispersed for short distances. Other names for this cactus include chain fruit cholla, cholla brincadora, during droughts, animals like the bighorn sheep rely on the juicy fruit for food and water
Cylindropuntia fulgida
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Cylindropuntia fulgida
Cylindropuntia fulgida
Cylindropuntia fulgida
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Closeup image of a cholla spine showing microscopic barbs which make removal extremely painful.
41.
Pennisetum
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Pennisetum /ˌpɛnᵻˈsiːtəm/ is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family, native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. They are known commonly as fountaingrasses, Pennisetum is closely related to the genus Cenchrus, and the boundary between them is unclear. Cenchrus was derived from Pennisetum and the two are grouped in a monophyletic clade, some species now in Pennisetum were once members of Cenchrus, and some have been moved back. A main morphological character used to them is the degree of fusion of the bristles in the inflorescence. Authors recently proposed to transfer Pennisetum into Cenchrus, along with the related genus Odontelytrum, as currently envisioned, Pennisetum is a genus of 80 to 140 species. The various species are native to Africa, Asia, Australia and they are annual or perennial grasses. Some are petite while others can produce stems up to 8 meters tall, the inflorescence is a very dense, narrow panicle containing fascicles of spikelets interspersed with bristles. There are three kinds of bristle, and some species have all three, while others do not, some bristles are coated in hairs, sometimes long, showy, plumelike hairs that inspired the genus name, the Latin penna and seta. The genus includes pearl millet, an important food crop, napier grass is used for grazing livestock in Africa. African fountaingrass is used as an ornamental plant, many Pennisetum grasses are noxious weeds, including kikuyu grass and feathertop grass. The herbage and seeds of grasses are food for herbivores, such as the chestnut-breasted mannikin, the caterpillar of the butterfly Melanitis phedima. The genus is a host of the pathogenic fungus Cochliobolus sativus. Br
Pennisetum
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Pennisetum
Pennisetum
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Invasive Pennisetum setaceum growing on a lava flow in Hawaii
Pennisetum
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Pennisetum alopecuroides
Pennisetum
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Pennisetum hohenackeri
42.
North American cougar
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The North American cougar, is the cougar subspecies once commonly found in eastern North America and still prevalent in the western half of the continent. Many extinct populations, such as the Wisconsin cougar, which was extirpated in 1925, are included in the subspecies. It was believed to be extirpated there in the early 1900s, cougars in Michigan were thought to have been killed off and extinct in the early 1900s. Today there is evidence to support that cougars could be on the rise in Mexico, some mainstream scientists believe that small relict populations may exist, especially in the Appalachian Mountains and eastern Canada. Recent scientific findings in hair traps in Fundy National Park in New Brunswick have confirmed the existence of at least three cougars in New Brunswick, the Ontario Puma Foundation estimates that there are currently 850 cougars in Ontario. Reported sightings of cougars in the eastern United States continue today, Wisconsin Genetic analysis of DNA from a cougar sighting in Wisconsin in 2008 indicated that a cougar was in Wisconsin and that it was not captive. It is speculated that the migrated from a native population in the Black Hills of South Dakota, however. It is also uncertain whether there are other, perhaps breeding, a second sighting was reported and tracks were documented in a nearby Wisconsin community. Unfortunately, a genetic analysis could not be done and a determination could not be made and this cougar later made its way south into the northern Chicago suburb of Wilmette. On June 3,2013, a sighting was made in Florence County. The cougar was photographed by a trail camera, and confirmed by DNR biologists in October,2013. Tennessee On September 26,2015, a sample was submitted by a hunter in Carroll County, Tennessee. Illinois On April 14,2008, a cougar triggered a flurry of reports before being cornered and killed in the Chicago neighborhood of Roscoe Village while officers tried to contain it. The cougar was the first sighted in the city limits of Chicago since the city was founded in 1833, on November 22,2013, a cougar was found on a farm near Morrison, Illinois in Whiteside County, Illinois. An Illinois Department of Natural Resource officer subsequently shot and killed the cougar after determining it posed a risk to the public. Connecticut In 2011, a cougar was sighted in Greenwich, Connecticut, while the origin of these animals is unknown, cougar experts believe some are captive animals that have been released or escaped. The Eastern Panther, A Question of Survival, toronto, Clarke, Irwin and Company,1972
North American cougar
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North American cougar
43.
Mearns coyote
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The Mearns coyote is a subspecies of coyote native to the Southwestern United States. It is found in Nevada, Arizona, southern Utah, deserts of southeastern California, west of Rio Grande in New Mexico, the Mearns coyote is a small subspecies, with medium-sized ears, a small skull, and small teeth. The fur is richly and brightly colored, the fulvous tints are exceedingly bright, covering the hind and forelegs
Mearns coyote
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Mearns coyote
44.
Mule deer
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The mule deer is a deer indigenous to western North America, it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. There are believed to be several subspecies including the black-tailed deer, unlike the related white-tailed deer, mule deer are generally more associated with the land west of the Missouri River, and more specifically with the Rocky Mountain region of North America. Mule deer have also introduced to Argentina and Kauai, Hawaii. The most noticeable differences between white-tailed and mule deer are the size of their ears, the color of their tails, in many cases, body size is also a key difference. The mule deers tail is black-tipped, whereas the whitetails is not, mule deer antlers are bifurcated, they fork as they grow, rather than branching from a single main beam, as is the case with white-tails. Each spring, a bucks antlers start to regrow almost immediately after the old antlers are shed, shedding typically takes place in mid-February, with variations occurring by locale. Although capable of running, mule deer are often seen stotting, the mule deer is the larger of the two Odocoileus species on average, with a height of 80–106 cm at the shoulders and a nose-to-tail length ranging from 1.2 to 2.1 m. Of this, the tail may comprise 11.6 to 23 cm, adult bucks normally weigh 55–150 kg, averaging around 92 kg, although trophy specimens may weigh up to 210 kg. Does are rather smaller and typically weigh from 43 to 90 kg, an exception to this is the subspecies, the Sitka black-tailed deer. This race is smaller than other mule deer, with an average weight of 54.5 kg and 36 kg in males and females. In addition to related to available shelter and food, the breeding cycle is important in understanding deer behavior. The rut or mating season begins in the fall as does go into estrus for a period of a few days and males become more aggressive. Does may mate more than one buck and go back into estrus within a month if they did not become pregnant. The gestation period is about 190–200 days, with fawns born in the spring, staying with their mothers during the summer, mule deer females usually give birth to two fawns, although if it is their first time having a fawn, they often have just one. A bucks antlers fall off during the winter, to again in preparation for the next seasons rut. The annual cycle of growth is regulated by changes in the length of the day. For a guide to identify the sex and age class of Rocky Mountain mule deer at various seasons see S1 File, for more information see the main article on deer. The size of mule deer groups follow a seasonal pattern
Mule deer
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Mule deer
Mule deer
Mule deer
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A small herd of mule deer in the Sulphur Springs Valley of southern Arizona.
Mule deer
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Mule deer grazing in Zion National Park
45.
Gray fox
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The gray fox, or grey fox, is a carnivorous mammal of the family Canidae ranging throughout most of the southern half of North America from southern Canada to the northern part of South America. No other canids natural range spans both North and South America and it is the only American canid that can climb trees. This species and its congener, the diminutive Channel Island fox, are the only living members of the genus Urocyon. Though it was once the most common fox in the eastern United States, the Pacific States still have the gray fox as a dominant. Its specific epithet cinereoargenteus means ashen silver, the gray fox appeared in North America during the mid-Pliocene epoch 3. Genetic analyses of the fox-like canids confirmed that the fox is a distinct genus from the red foxes. Genetically, the gray fox often clusters with two other ancient lineages, the east Asian raccoon dog and the African bat-eared fox, faunal remains at two northern California cave sites confirm the presence of the gray fox during the late Pleistocene. Genetic analysis has shown that the gray fox migrated into the northeastern United States post-Pleistocene in association with the Medieval Climate Anomaly warming trend, recent mitochondrial genetic studies suggests divergence of North American eastern and western gray foxes in the Irvingtonian mid-Pleistocene into separate sister taxa. The gray foxs dwarf relative, the Channel Island fox, is descended from mainland gray foxes. These foxes apparently were transported by humans to the islands and from island to island, there is little sexual dimorphism, save for the females being slightly smaller than males. The gray fox ranges from 76 to 112.5 cm in total length, the tail measures 27.5 to 44.3 cm of that length and its hind feet measure 100 to 150 mm. The gray fox typically weighs 3.6 to 7 kg and it is readily differentiated from the red fox by the lack of black stockings that stand out on the latter and the stripe of black hair that runs along the middle of the tail. In contrast to all Vulpes and related foxes, the fox has oval pupils. The gray foxs ability to climb trees is shared only with the Asian raccoon dog among canids and its strong, hooked claws allow it to scramble up trees to escape many predators, such as the domestic dog or the coyote, or to reach tree-bound or arboreal food sources. It can climb branchless, vertical trunks to heights of 18 meters and it descends primarily by jumping from branch to branch, or by descending slowly backwards as a domestic cat would do. The gray fox is nocturnal or crepuscular and makes its den in hollow trees, such gray fox tree dens may be located 30 ft above the ground. In areas where red and gray foxes exist, the gray fox is dominant. The breeding season of the gray fox varies geographically, in Michigan, the gestation period lasts approximately 53 days
Gray fox
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Gray fox
Gray fox
Gray fox
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Gray fox kit at the Palo Alto Baylands in California
Gray fox
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A yawning gray fox, northern Florida
46.
Ring-tailed cat
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The ringtail is a mammal of the raccoon family, native to arid regions of North America. It is also known as the cat, ring-tailed cat, miners cat or bassarisk. The ringtail is sometimes called a cacomistle, though this seems to be more often used to refer to Bassariscus sumichrasti. The ringtail is buff to brown in color with white underparts and a black and white ringed tail that has 14–16 white and black stripes. The claws are short, straight, and semi-retractable, the eyes are large and black, each surrounded by a patch of light fur. It is smaller than a cat and is one of the smallest extant procyonids. It measures 30–42 cm long to the base of the tail with the tail adding another 31–44 cm and it can weigh from 0.7 to 1.5 kg. Ringtails have occasionally hunted for their pelts, but the fur is not especially valuable. Typically weighing around three pounds, ringtails possess superb hearing and eyes allow them to move about at night. A nocturnal creature, the large eyes and upright ears make it easier for it to move about in the dark. Its fur ranges in coloring from tawny to grayish, and a muzzle with long whiskers resembles that of a fox - which is appropriate in that its very name means ‘clever little fox’. Its tail is about a long, with seven to nine black rings and is about the same length as the animals body. Like its namesake, the ringtail uses this tail for balancing when moving about its habitat, the tail also serves another purpose, acting as a distraction for potential predators. The white rings provide predators with an other than the ringtail itself, by grabbing the tail rather than the body. Additionally, their claws and long tail provide the ringtail with tools ideal for climbing. In areas with a source of water, as many as 50 ringtails/sq. Ranging from 50 to 100 acres, the territories of male ringtails occasionally intersect with several females It has been suggested that ringtails utilize feces as a way to mark territory, ringtails prefer a solitary existence but may share a den or be found mutually grooming one another. They exhibit limited interaction except during the season, which occurs in the early spring
Ring-tailed cat
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Ringtail
Ring-tailed cat
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Ringtail in Phoenix, Arizona
47.
White-nosed coati
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The white-nosed coati, also known as the coatimundi, is a species of coati and a member of the family Procyonidae. Local names include pizote, antoon, and tejón, however, males are much larger than females, and small females weigh as little as 2.5 kg and large males as much as 12.2 kg. On average, the length is about 110 cm, about half of that being the tail length. White-nosed coatis inhabit wooded areas of the Americas and they are found at any altitude from sea level to 3,000 m, and from as far north as southeastern Arizona and New Mexico, through Mexico and Central America, to far northwestern Colombia. There has been confusion over its southern range limit, but specimen records from most of Colombia. They are smaller than white-nosed coatis from the adjacent mainland, the level of other differences also support its status as a subspecies rather than separate species. White-nosed coatis have also found in the U. S. state of Florida. It is unknown precisely when introduction occurred, a specimen in the Florida Museum of Natural History, labeled an escaped captive. There are several documented cases of coatis escaping captivity, and since the 1970s there have been a number of sightings. These reports have occurred over an area of southern Florida. They are omnivores, preferring small vertebrates, fruits, carrion, insects, snakes and they can climb trees easily, where the tail is used for balance, but they are most often on the ground foraging. Their predators include boas, raptors, hunting cats, and Tayras and they readily adapt to human presence, like raccoons, they will raid campsites and trash receptacles. They can be tamed easily, and have been verified experimentally to be quite intelligent, while the raccoon and ringtail are nocturnal, coatis are active by day, retiring during the night to a specific tree and descending at dawn to begin their daily search for food. However, their habits are adjustable, and in areas where they are hunted by humans for food, or where they raid human settlements for their own food, adult males are solitary, but females and sexually immature males form social groups. They use many vocal signals to communicate with one another, and also spend time grooming themselves and each other with their teeth, during foraging times, the young cubs are left with a pair of babysitters, similar to meerkats. The young males and even some females tend to play-fight, many of the coatis will have short fights over food. Smithsonian Institution – North American Mammals, Nasua narica Smithsonian Wild, Nasua narica
White-nosed coati
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White-nosed coati
White-nosed coati
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Coati in Rincón de la Vieja Volcano National Park, Costa Rica
White-nosed coati
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Coati in the Philadelphia Zoo
White-nosed coati
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White-nosed Coati at Arenal, Costa Rica
48.
Light pollution
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Light pollution, also known as photopollution, is excessive, misdirected or obtrusive artificial light. As a major side-effect of urbanization, it is blamed for compromising health, disrupting ecosystems, Light pollution is the adding-of/added light itself, in analogy to added sound, carbon dioxide, etc. Adverse consequences are multiple, some of them may not be known yet, scientific definitions thus include the following, The degradation of photic habitat by artificial light. The alteration of light levels in the outdoor environment owing to artificial light sources. The alteration of light levels in the environment due to man-made sources of light. Indoor light pollution is such alteration of light levels in the environment due to sources of light. The introduction by humans, directly or indirectly, of light into the environment. The first three of the four scientific definitions describe the state of the environment. The fourth one describes the process of polluting by light, Light pollution is a side effect of industrial civilization. Its sources include building exterior and interior lighting, advertising, commercial properties, offices, factories, streetlights, since the early 1980s, a global dark-sky movement has emerged, with concerned people campaigning to reduce the amount of light pollution. The International Dark-Sky Association is one non-profit advocacy group involved in this movement, several industry groups also recognize light pollution as an important issue. For example, the Institution of Lighting Engineers in the United Kingdom provides its members with information about light pollution, the problems it causes, and how to reduce its impact. Since not everyone is irritated by the same lighting sources, it is common for one persons light pollution to be light that is desirable for another. One example of this is found in advertising, when an advertiser wishes for particular lights to be bright and visible, other types of light pollution are more certain. For instance, light that crosses a property boundary and annoys a neighbor is generally wasted. Where objective measurement is desired, light levels can be quantified by field measurement or mathematical modeling, authorities have also taken a variety of measures for dealing with light pollution, depending on the interests, beliefs and understandings of the society involved. Measures range from doing nothing at all, to implementing strict laws, Light pollution is a broad term that refers to multiple problems, all of which are caused by inefficient, unappealing, or unnecessary use of artificial light. Specific categories of light pollution include light trespass, over-illumination, glare, light clutter, a single offending light source often falls into more than one of these categories
Light pollution
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Aerial view of Paris at night (France)
Light pollution
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This time exposure photo of New York City at night shows skyglow, one form of light pollution.
Light pollution
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An example of a light pollution source, using a broad spectrum metal halide lamp, pointing upward in Uniqema Gouda, the Netherlands.
Light pollution
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An office building is illuminated by high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps shining upward, of which much light goes into the sky and neighboring apartment blocks and causes light pollution.
49.
Roadkill
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RoadKill is an open world action-adventure video game developed by Terminal Reality and published in 2003 by Midway Games. The game has been described by Midway as “the only mission-based combat driving game set in a post-apocalyptic world. ”RoadKill is a combat game. The player starts with one vehicle to choose, though more can be unlocked as the game progresses. Vehicles range from simple cars to modified pickup trucks and a variety of armored vehicles, all are armed with a machine gun in the front. Additional weapons, such as rockets, guided missiles or explosives, the main goal of the game is to increase the criminal reputation of the player in the form of ranks. Criminal ranks can be achieved by killing or attacking rival gangs, destroying vehicles, main storyline missions are given by characters as the games bosses, most of whom engage in a battle, usually in their final encounter with the player. Completing storyline missions will unlock more parts of the city to explore, as well as various customizations, weapons, upon completion of certain missions or side jobs, the player is able to purchase upgrades in modification garages around the city. Upgrades allow any vehicle to have its performance improved, increased ammunition capacity, as the game progresses, the player will unlock and obtain more weapons and vehicles. Unlocked vehicles can be accessed in the home garage. Driving a gang-affiliated vehicle will cause a certain opposing gang to become hostile, likewise, driving a police vehicle will cause all gangs in the entire city to attack and attempt to kill the protagonist, making the game more challenging. Optionally, the attack can be used to advantage to increase the criminal ranks. The story of game is set in an alternate history inspired by classic post-apocalyptic road films like the Mad Max series. Mason is hired by the Daredevils, a gang of Irish immigrants led by the biracial Uncle Woody, after being falsely accused of being a rat, Mason kills Uncle Woody. He finds a new employer, The Section Eights - a gang of War Veterans at war with rival gangs, after defending a convoy, he captures the interest of South League - a gang that is trying to destroy The Sentinels. After doing a few jobs, he destroys The Sentinels generators that power their propaganda broadcasts with bomb-planted RC cars, Mason confronts their leader Axl and, in a battle, kills him. Mason hears a radio broadcast from survivors, pleading for help, Mason gets into a vehicle and says Buckle up kids, here we go again before driving to an unknown location. The game received mixed or average reviews on all platforms according to the aggregation website Metacritic
Roadkill
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RoadKill
Roadkill
50.
Vertebrate
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Vertebrates /ˈvɜːrtᵻbrᵻts/ comprise all species of animals within the subphylum Vertebrata /-ɑː/. Vertebrates represent the majority of the phylum Chordata, with currently about 66,000 species described. Vertebrates include the fish and the jawed vertebrates, which include the cartilaginous fish. A bony fish known as the lobe-finned fishes is included with tetrapods, which are further divided into amphibians, reptiles, mammals. Extant vertebrates range in size from the frog species Paedophryne amauensis, at as little as 7.7 mm, to the blue whale, vertebrates make up less than five percent of all described animal species, the rest are invertebrates, which lack vertebral columns. The vertebrates traditionally include the hagfish, which do not have proper vertebrae due to their loss in evolution, though their closest living relatives, hagfish do, however, possess a cranium. For this reason, the vertebrate subphylum is sometimes referred to as Craniata when discussing morphology, molecular analysis since 1992 has suggested that hagfish are most closely related to lampreys, and so also are vertebrates in a monophyletic sense. Others consider them a group of vertebrates in the common taxon of craniata. The word origin of vertebrate derives from the Latin word vertebratus, the Proto-Indo-European language origins are still unclear. Vertebrate is derived from the vertebra, which refers to any of the bones or segments of the spinal column. All vertebrates are built along the basic body plan, a stiff rod running through the length of the animal, with a hollow tube of nervous tissue above it. In all vertebrates, the mouth is found at, or right below, the remaining part of the body continuing after the anus forms a tail with vertebrae and spinal cord, but no gut. However, a few vertebrates have secondarily lost this anatomy, retaining the notochord into adulthood, such as the sturgeon, jawed vertebrates are typified by paired appendages, but this trait is not required in order for an animal to be a vertebrate. All basal vertebrates breathe with gills, the gills are carried right behind the head, bordering the posterior margins of a series of openings from the pharynx to the exterior. Each gill is supported by a cartilagenous or bony gill arch, the bony fish have three pairs of arches, cartilaginous fish have five to seven pairs, while the primitive jawless fish have seven. The vertebrate ancestor no doubt had more arches than this, as some of their relatives have more than 50 pairs of gills. In amphibians and some primitive fishes, the larvae bear external gills. These are reduced in adulthood, their function taken over by the gills proper in fishes, some amphibians retain the external larval gills in adulthood, the complex internal gill system as seen in fish apparently being irrevocably lost very early in the evolution of tetrapods
Vertebrate
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Fossilized skeleton of Diplodocus carnegii, showing an extreme example of the backbone that characterizes the vertebrates.
Vertebrate
Vertebrate
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Gill arches bearing gills in a pike
Vertebrate
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The early vertebrate Haikouichthys
51.
Endangered species
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An endangered species is a species which has been categorized as likely to become extinct. In 2012, the IUCN Red List featured 3079 animal and 2655 plant species as endangered worldwide, the figures for 1998 were, respectively,1102 and 1197. Many nations have laws that protect conservation-reliant species, for example, population numbers, trends and species conservation status can be found in the lists of organisms by population. The conservation status of a species indicates the likelihood that it will become extinct, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Over 40% of the species are estimated to be at risk of extinction. Internationally,199 countries have signed an accord to create Biodiversity Action Plans that will protect endangered, in the United States, such plans are usually called Species Recovery Plans. Those species of Near Threatened and Least Concern status have been assessed and found to have relatively robust and healthy populations, though these may be in decline. The IUCN categories, with examples of animals classified by them, include, Extinct Extinct in the wild Captive individuals survive, critically endangered Faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Endangered Faces a high risk of extinction in the near future, vulnerable Faces a high risk of endangerment in the medium term. Near-threatened May be considered threatened in the near future, Least concern No immediate threat to species survival. A population size reduction of ≥ 50%, projected or suspected to be met within the next 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, based on any of to under A1. E) Quantitative analysis showing the probability of extinction in the wild is at least 20% within 20 years or five generations, there is data from the United States that shows a correlation between human populations and threatened and endangered species. Under the Endangered Species Act in the United States, species may be listed as endangered or threatened, the Salt Creek tiger beetle is an example of an endangered subspecies protected under the ESA. Some endangered species laws are controversial, also lobbying from hunters and various industries like the petroleum industry, construction industry, and logging, has been an obstacle in establishing endangered species laws. The Bush administration lifted a policy that required federal officials to consult an expert before taking actions that could damage endangered species. Under the Obama administration, this policy has been reinstated, being listed as an endangered species can have negative effect since it could make a species more desirable for collectors and poachers. This effect is potentially reducible, such as in China where commercially farmed turtles may be reducing some of the pressure to poach endangered species. Another problem with the species is its effect of inciting the use of the shoot, shovel
Endangered species
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by IUCN Red List category
Endangered species
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The Siberian tiger is an Endangered (EN) tiger subspecies. Three tiger subspecies are already extinct (see List of carnivorans by population).
Endangered species
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Blue-throated macaw, an endangered species
Endangered species
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Brown spider monkey, an endangered species
52.
Vermilion flycatcher
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The vermilion flycatcher or common vermilion flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the Tyrannidae, or tyrant flycatcher family. Most flycatchers are rather drab, but the vermilion flycatcher is a striking exception and it is a favorite with birders, but is not generally kept in aviculture, as the males tend to lose their vermilion coloration when in captivity. In 1839, John Gould created the current genus Pyrocephalus for the vermilion flycatcher, there are 9 widely recognized subspecies, which differ primarily in the color and saturation of the males plumage and the color and amount of streaking of the females. The boundaries between some of the subspecies are not well defined, P. o. ardens, described by John Todd Zimmer in 1941, is found in northern Peru, in extreme eastern Piura, Cajamarca and Amazonas. P. o. blatteus, described by Outram Bangs in 1911, is found in southeastern Mexico, Belize, P. o. cocachacrae, described by John Todd Zimmer in 1941, is found from southwestern Peru south to extreme northern Chile. P. o. obscurus, described by John Gould in 1839, is found in the Lima region of western Peru, P. o. pinicola, described by T. R. Howell in 1965, is found in eastern Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua. P. o. piurae, described by John Todd Zimmer in 1941, is found from western Colombia south to northwestern Peru. P. o. saturatus, described by Hans von Berlepsch and Ernst Hartert in 1902, is found in northeastern Colombia, western and northern Venezuela, Guyana and northern Brazil. The validity of a subspecies, P. o. major, has been questioned. The vermilion flycatcher is a bird, measuring 13–14 cm in length, with a mass between 11 and 14 g. It strongly dimorphic, males are red, with dark brown plumage. Females have a belly with a dark gray upperside, and are similar to Says phoebe. Vermilion flycatchers generally prefer somewhat open areas, and are found in trees or shrubs in savannah, scrub, agricultural areas, riparian woodlands, and desert as well, but usually near water. Their range includes almost all of Mexico, it extends north into the southwestern United States and it has ranged as far north as Canada. The flycatchers feed mostly on such as flies, grasshoppers. These are usually taken in mid-air, after a short flight from a perch. It is a feeder, and has been observed eating small fish. The vermilion flycatchers nest is a cup made of small twigs and soft materials, lined with hair
Vermilion flycatcher
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Vermilion flycatcher
Vermilion flycatcher
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Male P. r. mexicanus, photographed in Harlingen, Texas
Vermilion flycatcher
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Female on nest
53.
Whiskered screech owl
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The whiskered screech owl, is a small scops owl found in North and Central America. Adults occur in 2 color morphs, in brown or dark grey plumage. They have a head with ear tufts, yellow eyes. The bird looks similar to a western screech owl, but has heavier barring on the breast. The whiskered screech owls range extends from southeasternmost Arizona in the United States, southwards through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and their breeding habitat is dense coniferous or oak woodlands, and coffee plantations usually occurring at higher elevations than the western screech owl. These birds wait on a perch and swoop down on prey, they also capture targeted food items in flight and they mainly eat small mammals and large insects, with grasshoppers, beetles, and moths making up a large portion of their diet. They are active at night or near dusk, using their excellent hearing, the most common call is a series of about 8 regularly spaced boo notes, slightly higher in the middle, slightly lower at each end. 3 to 4 eggs are laid in April or May
Whiskered screech owl
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Whiskered screech owl
54.
Turkey vulture
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One of three species in the genus Cathartes of the family Cathartidae, the turkey vulture ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of South America. It inhabits a variety of open and semi-open areas, including forests, shrublands, pastures. Like all New World vultures, it is not closely related to the Old World vultures of Europe, Africa, the two groups strongly resemble each other because of convergent evolution, natural selection often leads to similar body plans in animals that adapt independently to the same conditions. The turkey vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion and it finds its food using its keen eyes and sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gases produced by the beginnings of the process of decay in dead animals. In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air and it roosts in large community groups. Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses and it nests in caves, hollow trees, or thickets. Each year it generally raises two chicks, which it feeds by regurgitation and it has very few natural predators. In the United States, the vulture receives legal protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, the word buzzard is used by North Americans to refer to this bird, yet in the Old World that term refers to members of the genus Buteo. The generic term Cathartes means purifier and is the Latinized form from the Greek kathartēs/καθαρτης, the turkey vulture was first formally described by Linnaeus as Vultur aura in his Systema Naturae in 1758, and characterised as V. fuscogriseus, remigibus nigris, rostro albo. Like other New World vultures, the turkey vulture has a chromosome number of 80. The taxonomic placement of the vulture and the remaining six species of New World vultures has been in flux. Though both are similar in appearance and have similar roles, the New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors in different parts of the world. Some earlier authorities suggested that the New World vultures were more related to storks. More recent authorities maintained their position in the order Falconiformes along with the Old World vultures or place them in their own order. However, recent genetic studies have made it clear that neither New World nor Old World vultures are close to falcons, there are five subspecies of turkey vulture, C. a. aura is the nominate subspecies. It is found from Mexico south through South America and the Greater Antilles and this subspecies occasionally overlaps its range with other subspecies. It is the smallest of the subspecies but is nearly indistinguishable from C. a. meridionalis in color, C. a. jota, the Chilean turkey vulture, is larger, browner, and slightly paler than C. a. ruficollis. The secondary feathers and wing coverts may have gray margins, C. a. meridionalis, the western turkey vulture, is a synonym for C. a. teter
Turkey vulture
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Turkey vulture
Turkey vulture
Turkey vulture
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In flight over Florida
Turkey vulture
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Spread-winged adult
55.
Gila woodpecker
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The Gila woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker of the desert regions of the southwestern United States and western Mexico. In the U. S. they range through southeastern California, southern Nevada, Arizona and this woodpeckers habitat consists of low desert scrub typical of the Sonoran Desert. They build nests in holes made in saguaro cacti or mesquite trees, cavities excavated by these woodpeckers in saguaro cacti are later used by a variety of other species, including the elf owl. There, they typically lay 3–5 white eggs, the back and wings of this bird are spotted and barred with a black and white zebra-like pattern. The neck, throat, belly and head are greyish-tan in color, the male has a small red cap on the top of the head. Females and juveniles are similar, but both lack the red cap of the adult male, white wing patches are prominent in flight. The dark tail has white bars on the tail feathers. They range from 8–10 in in length and this woodpeckers voice is a rolling churr sound. It also makes a yip yip yip sound and a kee-u, kee-u, kee-u sound and its drum is long and steady. New York, Western Publishing Company, Inc, the Nature Conservancys Species Profile, Gila Woodpecker This Woodpecker Will Drill Into Your Skull And Eat Your Brains—If You’re a Baby Dove Gila woodpecker media. Gila woodpecker photo gallery at VIREO Interactive range map of Melanerpes uropygialis at IUCN Red List maps
Gila woodpecker
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Gila woodpecker
Gila woodpecker
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Illustration
Gila woodpecker
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In Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico
Gila woodpecker
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A Gila woodpecker drinking water
56.
Quail
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Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New World quail are placed in the family Odontophoridae, the species of buttonquail are named for their superficial resemblance to quail, and form the family Turnicidae in the order Charadriiformes. The king quail, an Old World quail, often is sold in the pet trade, in 2007,40 million quail were produced in the U. S. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey or bevy
Quail
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Quail
57.
Desert tortoise
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The desert tortoises are two species of tortoise native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico and the Sinaloan thornscrub of northwestern Mexico. G. agassizii is distributed in western Arizona, southeastern California, southern Nevada, the specific name agassizii is in honor of Swiss-American zoologist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. G. morafkai occurs east of the Colorado River in Arizona, as well as in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa and this species may be a composite of two species. The desert tortoises live about 50 to 80 years, they slowly and generally have low reproductive rates. They spend most of their time in burrows, rock shelters and they are most active after seasonal rains and are inactive during most of the year. This inactivity helps reduce water loss during hot periods, whereas winter hibernation facilitates survival during freezing temperatures, Desert tortoises can tolerate water, salt, and energy imbalances on a daily basis, which increases their lifespans. These tortoises may attain a length of 10 to 14 in, a male tortoise has a longer gular horn than a female, his plastron is concave compared to a female tortoise. Males have larger tails than females do and their shells are high-domed, and greenish-tan to dark brown in color. Desert tortoises can grow to 4–6 in in height and they can range in weight from.02 to 5 kg. The front limbs have sharp, claw-like scales and are flattened for digging, back legs are skinnier and very long. Desert tortoises can live in areas with ground temperatures exceeding 140 °F because of their ability to dig underground burrows, at least 95% of their lives are spent in burrows. There, they are protected from freezing winter weather while dormant. Within their burrows, these create a subterranean environment that can be beneficial to other reptiles, mammals, birds. Scientists have divided the desert tortoise into two types, Agassizs and Morafkas desert tortoises, with a third type in northern Sinaloan and southern Sonora. An isolated population of Agassizs desert tortoise occurs in the Black Mountains of northwestern Arizona and they live in a different type of habitat, from sandy flats to rocky foothills. They have a strong proclivity in the Mojave Desert for alluvial fans, washes and they range from near sea level to around 3,500 feet in elevation. Tortoises show very strong site fidelity, and have well-established home ranges where they know where their food, water, and mineral resources are. Desert tortoises inhabit elevations from below sea level in Death Valley to 5,300 feet in Arizona
Desert tortoise
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Desert tortoise
Desert tortoise
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Agassiz's desert tortoise in Rainbow Basin near Barstow, California
Desert tortoise
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A captive male Sonoran Desert tortoise with visible chin glands eats strawberries.
Desert tortoise
58.
Western diamondback rattlesnake
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The western diamondback rattlesnake or Texas diamond-back is a venomous rattlesnake species found in the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is likely responsible for the majority of fatalities in northern Mexico. Adults commonly grow to 120 cm in length, specimens over 150 cm are infrequently encountered, while those over 180 cm are very rare. The maximum reported length considered to be reliable is 213 cm, males become much larger than females, although this difference in size does not occur until after they have reached sexual maturity. Rattlesnakes of this species considered medium-sized weighed 1.8 to 2.7 kg, the color pattern generally consists of a dusty-looking gray-brown ground color, but it may also be pinkish-brown, brick red, yellowish, pinkish, or chalky white. This ground color is overlaid dorsally with a series of 24–25 dorsal body blotches that are dark gray-brown to brown in color, the first of these may be a pair of short stripes that extend backwards to eventually merge. Its postocular stripe is smoky gray or dark gray-brown and extends diagonally from the edge of the eye across the side of the head. This stripe is bordered below by a white stripe running from the upper preocular scale down to the supralabial scales just below. Its off-white belly is usually unmarked, its scale is undivided. The wide range of this species overlaps, or is close to and it may be confused with them, but differences exist. The Mohave rattlesnake, C. scutulatus, also has tail rings, the timber rattlesnake, C. horridus, has no tail rings. In the western rattlesnake, C. oreganus, the pale tail rings are the color as the ground. The tail of the rattlesnake, C. molossus, is a uniform black. The Mexican west coast rattlesnake, C. basiliscus, also has a dark tail with obscure or absent rings. The tiger rattlesnake, C. tigris, has a small head. The Middle American rattlesnake, C. simus, has a uniform gray tail without any rings. Members of the genus Sistrurus lack tail rings and have enlarged head plates and it is found in the United States from central Arkansas to southeastern and Central California, south into Mexico as far as northern Sinaloa, Hidalgo and northern Veracruz. Disjunct populations exist in southern Veracruz and southeastern Oaxaca, the type locality given is Indianola
Western diamondback rattlesnake
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Western diamondback rattlesnake
Western diamondback rattlesnake
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C. atrox
Western diamondback rattlesnake
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C. atrox, patternless specimen
Western diamondback rattlesnake
59.
Zebra-tailed lizard
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Zebra-tailed lizards are a genus of phrynosomatid lizards endemic to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. They live in open desert with fairly hard-packed soil, scattered vegetation and scattered rocks, typically flats, washes and they range in size from 2.5 to 4 inches in snout-to-vent length. These lizards are grey to brown, usually with series of paired dark gray spots down their backs. The underside of tail is white with black bands, males have a pair of black blotches on their sides, extending to blue patches on their bellies. Females have no blue patches, and the bars are either faint or completely absent. They rise early and are active in all but the hottest weather, during the hottest times of day, lizards may stand alternately on two legs, switching to the opposite two as needed in a kind of dance. When threatened they will run swiftly with their toes curled up, when stopped, they wag their curled tails side-to-side to distract predators. They can even run on their legs for short distances. In areas of creosote scrub this lizard seems to reach highest densities and this lizard burrows into fine sand for retreat at night and usually seeks day shelter in the shade of bushes. They are also known to burrow under sand for safety when being chased by predators, in summer,2 to 8 eggs are typically laid, hatching anywhere from July to November. However, more than 1 clutch can be laid during a season, eggs are laid, presumably, in friable, sandy soil. Being a prey species for many animals, including birds, other lizards and it feeds on a variety of prey from insects, such as moths, ants and bees, as well as spiders and other smaller lizards. Its diet occasionally includes vegetation, such as spring buds and flowers, the zebra-tailed lizard is common and widely distributed throughout the southwestern United States, ranging from the Mojave and Colorado deserts north into the southern Great Basin. The genus Callisaurus is monotypic, containing one species, Callisaurus draconoides. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians, ISBN 0-394-50824-6 Halliday, Tim and OShea, Mark, Smithsonian Handbooks, Reptiles and Amphibians
Zebra-tailed lizard
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Callisaurus draconoides
Zebra-tailed lizard
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Callisaurus draconoides: Dorsal (top) and ventral (bottom) views
60.
Amphibian
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Amphibians are ectothermic, tetrapod vertebrates of the class Amphibia. They inhabit a variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Thus amphibians typically start out as larvae living in water, the young generally undergo metamorphosis from larva with gills to an adult air-breathing form with lungs. Amphibians use their skin as a respiratory surface and some small terrestrial salamanders and frogs lack lungs. They are superficially similar to lizards but, along with mammals and birds, reptiles are amniotes, the earliest amphibians evolved in the Devonian period from sarcopterygian fish with lungs and bony-limbed fins, features that were helpful in adapting to dry land. They diversified and became dominant during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, over time, amphibians shrank in size and decreased in diversity, leaving only the modern subclass Lissamphibia. The three modern orders of amphibians are Anura, Urodela, and Apoda, the number of known amphibian species is approximately 7,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. The smallest amphibian in the world is a frog from New Guinea with a length of just 7.7 mm. The largest living amphibian is the 1.8 m Chinese giant salamander, the study of amphibians is called batrachology, while the study of both reptiles and amphibians is called herpetology. The word amphibian is derived from the Ancient Greek term ἀμφίβιος, the term was initially used as a general adjective for animals that could live on land or in water, including seals and otters. Traditionally, the class Amphibia includes all tetrapod vertebrates that are not amniotes, the numbers of species cited above follows Frost and the total number of known amphibian species is over 7,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. With the phylogenetic classification, the taxon Labyrinthodontia has been discarded as it is a group without unique defining features apart from shared primitive characteristics. Classification varies according to the phylogeny of the author and whether they use a stem-based or a node-based classification. The phylogeny of Paleozoic amphibians is uncertain, and Lissamphibia may possibly fall within groups, like the Temnospondyli or the Lepospondyli. If the common ancestor of amphibians and amniotes is included in Amphibia, all modern amphibians are included in the subclass Lissamphibia, which is usually considered a clade, a group of species that have evolved from a common ancestor. The three modern orders are Anura, Caudata, and Gymnophiona, although the fossils of several older proto-frogs with primitive characteristics are known, the oldest true frog is Prosalirus bitis, from the Early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona. It is anatomically similar to modern frogs. The oldest known caecilian is another Early Jurassic species, Eocaecilia micropodia, the earliest salamander is Beiyanerpeton jianpingensis from the Late Jurassic of northeastern China
Amphibian
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Triadobatrachus massinoti, a proto-frog from the Early Triassic of Madagascar
Amphibian
Amphibian
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Top: Restoration of Eusthenopteron, a fully aquatic lobe-finned fish Bottom: Restoration of Tiktaalik, an advanced tetrapodomorph fish
Amphibian
61.
Couch's spadefoot toad
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Couchs spadefoot toad or Couchs spadefoot is a species of North American spadefoot toad. Unlike other toads which have horizontal pupils, spadefoot toads have vertical pupils, on the underside of the hind foot is a hard, dark spade that gives spadefoot toads their name. These creatures can grow to be 3.5 in length and these spades are used by the toads to burrow into the ground to prevent water loss and hide from predators. There are two species in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and California. Couchs spadefoot toad has a spade, whereas the western spadefoot toad has a rounded spade. Spadefoots are not true toads and should simply be called spadefoots. Couchs spadefoot toad is native to the United States southwest of southeastern Colorado and central Oklahoma, northern Mexico and they can be found throughout the Sonoran Desert, which includes parts of southern Arizona and California. Water is a medium for the fertilization of spadefoot eggs. Because of the importance of water, spadefoots are active during the wet season, when a summer thunderstorm arrives, the male toads emerge from underground and look for pools of rainwater. When they find water, the produce a mating call that attracts female toads. Because the pools of water may be short-lived, mating occurs the first night after rainfall begins, during reproduction, the male mounts the female and releases sperm to fertilize the eggs, which are deposited in the pools of water in the form of a floating mass. The eggs hatch into tadpoles, which mature into adults. They must reach this stage before the pool of water evaporates, western spadefoot toads take longer to mature. The small pools of water are warmed by the sun, which speeds up the growth of the tadpoles, tadpoles will eat a variety of foods, such as small insects near the pool and algae, which they scrape off rocks. They also filter microorganisms from the water as it is passed over their gills, tadpoles gather in wriggling masses, stir up the muck on the bottom of the pool, and filter out the organic nutrients. Unlike most tadpoles, which are herbivores and filter feeders. They also eat insects and tadpoles, as well as fairy shrimp
Couch's spadefoot toad
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Couch's spadefoot toad
62.
Lowland leopard frog
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The Lowland Leopard Frog, is a species of frog in the Ranidae family that is found in Mexico and the United States, in Spanish it is known as rana de Yavapai. Its natural habitats are forests, rivers, intermittent rivers, freshwater lakes. It is not considered threatened by the IUCN, frost, J. S. & Wright, D. A. Phylogeny and biogeography of the Rana pipiens complex, A biochemical evaluation. Systematics of the Rana pipiens complex, Puzzle and paradigm, annual Review of Systematics and Ecology 19, 39-63. Phylogeny of the New World true frogs, hillis, D. M. Constraints in naming parts of the Tree of Life. Santos-Barrera, G. & Hammerson, G. Rana yavapaiensis,2012 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Lowland leopard frog
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Lowland Leopard Frog
63.
United States Forest Service
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The United States Forest Service is an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nations 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. Major divisions of the include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations. Managing approximately 25% of federal lands, it is the major national land agency that is outside the U. S. Department of the Interior. The concept of the National Forests was born from Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation group, Boone and Crockett Club, in 1876, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Hough was appointed the head of the office, in 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the domain as forest reserves. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry, gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. As of 2009, the Forest Service has a budget authority of $5.5 billion. The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, including 10,050 firefighters,737 law enforcement personnel, and 500 scientists. The mission of the Forest Service is To sustain the health, diversity and its motto is Caring for the land and serving people. As the lead agency in natural resource conservation, the US Forest Service provides leadership in the protection, management, and use of the nations forest, rangeland. The agencys ecosystem approach to management integrates ecological, economic, and social factors to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to meet current, the everyday work of the Forest Service balances resource extraction, resource protection, and providing recreation.5 billion trees per year. Further, the Forest Service fought fires on 2,996,000 acres of land in 2007, the Forest Service organization includes ranger districts, national forests, regions, research stations and research work units and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions, the Chief of the Forest Service is a career federal employee who oversees the entire agency. The Chief reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, there are five deputy chiefs for the following areas, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Research and Development, Business Operations, and Finance. The Forest Service Research and Development deputy area includes five stations, the Forest Products Laboratory. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief, Research stations include Northern, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Southern. There are 92 research work units located at 67 sites throughout the United States, there are 80 Experimental Forests and Ranges that have been established progressively since 1908, many sites are more than 50 years old
United States Forest Service
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The Forest Products Laboratory, in Madison, Wisconsin.
United States Forest Service
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Logo of the U.S. Forest Service
United States Forest Service
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Map of the nine regions
United States Forest Service
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A horse patrol of the Law Enforcement & Investigations unit
64.
Arizona Trail
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The Arizona National Scenic Trail is a National Scenic Trail from Mexico to Utah that traverses the whole north–south length of the U. S. state of Arizona. The trail begins at the Coronado National Memorial near the US–Mexico border and moves north through parts of the Huachuca, Santa Rita, the trail then continues across the Coconino Plateau and in and out of the Grand Canyon. The Arizona Trail terminates near the Arizona-Utah border in the Kaibab Plateau region, the 800-mile long Arizona Trail was completed on December 16,2011. The trail is designed as a trail for hiking, equestrians, mountain biking. The idea for the trail was developed and promoted in 1985 by Dale Shewalter. The Arizona Trail was designated as a National Scenic Trail on March 30,2009 by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 and it forms part of the 6, 875-mile Great Western Loop. Arizona Trail. org Arizona State Parks, Arizona Trail fact sheet Trail Segments - HikeArizona. COM Trailheads Map - HikeArizona. COM Arizona Trail Forum Arizona Trail Backpacking Journals
Arizona Trail
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Kentucky Camp, along the Arizona Trail in the Santa Rita Mountains.
65.
Burro
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The donkey or ass is a domesticated member of the horse family, Equidae. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African wild ass, the donkey has been used as a working animal for at least 5000 years. There are more than 40 million donkeys in the world, mostly in underdeveloped countries, working donkeys are often associated with those living at or below subsistence levels. Small numbers of donkeys are kept for breeding or as pets in developed countries, a male donkey or ass is called a jack, a female a jenny or jennet, a young donkey is a foal. Jack donkeys are used to mate with female horses to produce mules. Asses were first domesticated around 3000 BC, probably in Egypt or Mesopotamia and they continue to fill important roles in many places today. While domesticated species are increasing in numbers, the African wild ass is an endangered species, as beasts of burden and companions, asses and donkeys have worked together with humans for millennia. Traditionally, the name for the donkey is Equus asinus asinus based on the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. This means that the scientific name for the donkey is Equus africanus asinus when it is considered a subspecies. At one time, the ass was the more common term for the donkey. The first recorded use of donkey was in either 1784 or 1785, while the word ass has cognates in most other Indo-European languages, donkey is an etymologically obscure word for which no credible cognate has been identified. From the 18th century, donkey gradually replaced ass, and jenny replaced she-ass, by the end of the 17th century, changes in pronunciation of both ass and arse had caused them to become homophones. Donkeys vary considerably in size, depending on breed and management, the height at the withers ranges from 7.3 to 15.3 hands, and the weight from 80 to 480 kg. Working donkeys in the poorest countries have an expectancy of 12 to 15 years, in more prosperous countries. Donkeys are adapted to desert lands. Unlike wild and feral horses, wild donkeys in dry areas are solitary, each adult donkey establishes a home range, breeding over a large area may be dominated by one jack. Donkeys have large ears, which may pick up more distant sounds, donkeys can defend themselves by biting, striking with the front hooves or kicking with the hind legs. A jenny is normally pregnant for about 12 months, though the period varies from 11 to 14 months
Burro
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A burro pulling a cart during the Carnival of Huejotzingo
Burro
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Wild burros
Burro
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A burro train bringing gold from the mines near Ouray, Colorado
Burro
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Equine science and management
66.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
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A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an EAN-13 bar code
67.
List of national parks of the United States
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The United States has 59 protected areas known as national parks that are operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. National parks must be established by an act of the United States Congress. The first national park, Yellowstone, was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, followed by Mackinac National Park in 1875, many current National Parks had been previously protected as National Monuments by the President under the Antiquities Act before being upgraded by Congress. Criteria for the selection of National Parks include natural beauty, unique features, unusual ecosystems. National Monuments, on the hand, are frequently chosen for their historical or archaeological significance. Fourteen national parks are designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites, while twenty one are designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, twenty-seven states have national parks, as do the territories of American Samoa and the United States Virgin Islands. California has the most, followed by Alaska, Utah, the largest national park is Wrangell–St. Elias in Alaska, at over 8 million acres, it is larger than each of the nine smallest states, the next three largest parks are also in Alaska. The smallest park is Hot Springs, Arkansas, at less than 6 thousand acres. The total area protected by national parks is approximately 52.2 million acres, for an average of 885 thousand acres but a median of only 236 thousand acres at Mount Rainier, the 30th largest park. The most-visited national park is Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee, with over 11.3 million visitors in 2016, followed by Arizonas Grand Canyon, in contrast, only 10,047 people visited the remote Gates of the Arctic in Alaska in the same year. A few former national parks are no longer designated as such, other units of the National Park Service are broadly referred to as national parks, they are listed here. S
List of national parks of the United States
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1938 poster for Yellowstone National Park
List of national parks of the United States
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Acadia
List of national parks of the United States
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American Samoa
List of national parks of the United States
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Arches
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Acadia National Park
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Acadia National Park is a national park located in the U. S. state of Maine. It reserves much of Mount Desert Island, and associated smaller islands, initially created as the Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916, the park was renamed Lafayette National Park in 1919, and was given its current name of Acadia in 1929. Over three million people visited the park in 2016, Acadia is the oldest designated national park area east of the Mississippi River. The area was inhabited by the Wabanaki people. While he was sailing down the coast of what is now Maine on 5 September 1604, the distance from this island to the mainland on the north is not a hundred paces. It is very high and cleft in places, giving it the appearance from the sea of seven or eight mountains one alongside the other, the tops of them are bare of trees, because there is nothing there but rocks. The woods consist only of pines, firs, and birches and he named it Mount Desert Island. Over four centuries later, the area remains essentially the same, the first French Missionary colony in America was established on Mount Desert Island in 1613. The colony was destroyed a short time later by a vessel from the Colony of Virginia as the first act of overt warfare in the long struggle leading to the French. The island was granted to Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac by Louis XIV of France in 1688, Massachusetts governor Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet assumed control of the island in 1760. In 1780 Massachusetts granted the eastern half of the island to Cadillacs granddaughter, Mme. de Gregoire, the first record of summer visitors vacationing on the island was in 1855, and steamboat service from Boston was inaugurated in 1868. The first land was donated by Mrs. Eliza Homans of Boston in 1908, the landscape architect Charles Eliot is credited with the idea for the park. Dorr, called the Father of Acadia National Park, along with Eliots father Charles W. Eliot and it first attained federal status when President Woodrow Wilson established it as Sieur de Monts National Monument on July 8,1916, administered by the National Park Service. On February 26,1919, it became a park, with the name Lafayette National Park in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette. Jordan Pond Road was started in 1922 and completed as a scenic highway in 1927. The parks name was changed to Acadia National Park on January 19,1929, Schoodic Peninsula was added to the park in 1929, and the Cadillac Mountain Summit Road, begun in 1925, was completed in 1931. From 1915 to 1933, the wealthy philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. financed, designed and he sponsored the landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, with the nearby family summer home Reef Point Estate, to design the planting plans for the subtle carriage roads at the park. The network encompassed over 50 miles of carriage trails,17 granite bridges
Acadia National Park
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Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park
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Aerial view, 3D computer-generated image
Acadia National Park
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Rockefeller's teeth (left)
Acadia National Park
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Frenchman Bay and the Porcupine Islands around the town of Bar Harbor, viewed from Cadillac Mountain
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Badlands National Park
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The park is managed by the National Park Service. Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4,1929, it was not established until January 25,1939 and it was redesignated a national park on November 10,1978. Under the Mission 66 plan, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center was constructed for the monument in 1957–58, the park also administers the nearby Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. Long before the Lakota were the little-studied paleo-Indians, followed by the Arikara people and their descendants live today in North Dakota as a part of the Three Affiliated Tribes. Archaeological records combined with oral traditions indicate that these people camped in secluded valleys where fresh water and game were available year round. Eroding out of the stream banks today are the rocks and charcoal of their campfires, as well as the arrowheads and tools used to butcher bison, rabbits. From the top of the Badlands Wall, they could scan the area for enemies, if hunting was good, they might hang on into winter, before retracing their way to their villages along the Missouri River. By one hundred and fifty years ago, the Great Sioux Nation consisting of seven including the Oglala Lakota, had displaced the other tribes from the northern prairie. The next great change came toward the end of the 19th century as homesteaders moved into South Dakota, the U. S. government stripped Native Americans of much of their territory and forced them to live on reservations. In the fall and early winter of 1890, thousands of Native American followers, including many Oglala Sioux and his vision called for the native people to dance the Ghost Dance and wear Ghost shirts, which would be impervious to bullets. Wovoka had predicted that the man would vanish and their hunting grounds would be restored. One of the last known Ghost Dances was conducted on Stronghold Table in the South Unit of Badlands National Park, as winter closed in, the ghost dancers returned to Pine Ridge Agency. The climax of the came in late December,1890. Headed south from the Cheyenne River, a band of Minneconjou Sioux crossed a pass in the Badlands Wall, pursued by units of the U. S. Army, they were seeking refuge in the Pine Ridge Reservation. The band, led by Chief Spotted Elk, was overtaken by the soldiers near Wounded Knee Creek in the Reservation. The troops attempted to disarm Big Foots band the next morning, before it was over, nearly three hundred Indians and thirty soldiers lay dead. Wounded Knee is not within the boundaries of Badlands National Park and it is located approximately 45 miles south of the park on Pine Ridge Reservation. The U. S. government and the Oglala Lakota Nation have agreed that this is a story to be told by the Oglala of Pine Ridge, the interpretation of the site and its tragic events are held as the primary responsibility of these survivors
Badlands National Park
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Badlands National Park
Badlands National Park
Badlands National Park
Badlands National Park
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Restoration of genera present in the formations, by Jay Matternes
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Big Bend National Park
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Big Bend National Park is a U. S. national park located in Southern Texas, bordering Mexico. It has national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topography and it contains more than 1,200 species of plants, more than 450 species of birds,56 species of reptiles, and 75 species of mammals. The national park covers 801,163 acres, a variety of Cretaceous and Cenozoic fossil organisms exist in abundance, and the park has artifacts estimated to be 9,000 years old. Historic buildings and landscapes offer graphic illustration of life along the border in the 19th century. For more than 1,000 miles, the Rio Grande/Río Bravo forms the boundary between Mexico and the United States, and Big Bend National Park administers approximately 118 miles along that boundary. The park was named after the area, which is bounded by a bend in the river. Because the Rio Grande serves as a boundary, the park faces unusual constraints while administering and enforcing park rules, regulations. In accordance with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the territory extends only to the center of the deepest river channel as the river flowed in 1848. The rest of the south of that channel, and the river. The park is bordered by the areas of Parque Nacional Cañon de Santa Elena. The park exhibits dramatic contrasts and its climate may be characterized as one of extremes, dry and hot late spring and summer days often exceed 100 °F in the lower elevations. Winters are normally mild but subfreezing temperatures occasionally occur and these variations contribute to an exceptional diversity in plant and animal habitats. Some species in the park, such as the Chisos oak, are nowhere else in the United States. The 118 mi of river that form the park boundary include the spectacular canyons of Santa Elena, Mariscal. The Rio Grande, which meanders through this portion of the Chihuahuan Desert, has cut deep canyons with nearly vertical walls through three uplifts made primarily of limestone. Throughout the open areas, the highly productive Rio Grande riparian zone includes numerous plant and animal species. The vegetative belt extends into the desert along creeks and arroyos, South of the border lie the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila and newly protected areas for flora and fauna, which are regions known as the Maderas del Carmen and the Cañón de Santa Elena. In addition, the association recognized the park as having the darkest measured skies in the lower 48 United States
Big Bend National Park
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The Rio Grande, separating Mexico and the United States, within the walls of Santa Elena Canyon.
Big Bend National Park
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Park ranger on a horseback patrol near Santa Elena Canyon
Big Bend National Park
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Big Bend from space, 2002
Big Bend National Park
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Aerial view, 3D computer generated image
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Biscayne National Park
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Biscayne National Park is a U. S. National Park located in southern Florida, south of Miami. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and its barrier reefs. Ninety-five percent of the park is water, and the shore of the bay is the location of a mangrove forest. The park covers 172,971 acres and includes Elliott Key, the islands farther north in the park are transitional islands of coral and sand. The offshore portion of the park includes the northernmost region of the Florida Reef, Biscayne National Park protects four distinct ecosystems, the shoreline mangrove swamp, the shallow waters of Biscayne Bay, the coral limestone keys and the offshore Florida Reef. The shoreline swamps of the mainland and island margins provide a nursery for larval and juvenile fish, molluscs, the bay waters harbor immature and adult fish, seagrass beds, sponges, soft corals, and manatees. The keys are covered with tropical vegetation including endangered cacti and palms, Offshore reefs and waters harbor more than 200 species of fish, pelagic birds, whales and hard corals. Sixteen endangered species including Schaus swallowtail butterflies, smalltooth sawfish, manatees, Biscayne also has a small population of threatened American crocodiles and a few American alligators. The people of the Glades culture inhabited the Biscayne Bay region as early as 10,000 years ago before rising sea levels filled the bay. The Tequesta people occupied the islands and shoreline from about 4,000 years before the present to the 16th century, Reefs claimed ships from Spanish times through the 20th century, with more than 40 documented wrecks within the parks boundaries. While the parks islands were farmed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, their rocky soil, in the early 20th century the islands became secluded destinations for wealthy Miamians who built getaway homes and social clubs. Honeywells guesthouse on Boca Chita Key was the areas most elaborate private retreat, following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Elliott Key was used as a training ground for infiltrators into Fidel Castros Cuba by the Central Intelligence Agency and by Cuban exile groups. Originally proposed for inclusion in Everglades National Park, Biscayne Bay was cut from the park to ensure Everglades establishment. Through the 1960s and 1970s, two fossil-fueled power plants and two power plants were built on the bay shores. A backlash against development led to the 1968 designation of Biscayne National Monument, the preserved area was expanded by its 1980 re-designation as Biscayne National Park. The park is used by boaters, and apart from the parks visitor center on the mainland, its land. Biscayne National Park comprises 172,971 acres in Miami-Dade County in southeast Florida, the parks eastern boundary is the ten-fathom line of water depth in the Atlantic Ocean on the Florida Reef. The parks western boundary is a fringe of property on the mainland, the only direct mainland access to the park is at the Convoy Point Visitor Center, adjacent to the park headquarters
Biscayne National Park
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Sunset at Biscayne National Park
Biscayne National Park
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Underwater view of a coral reef at Biscayne National Park
Biscayne National Park
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Piles of conch and whelk shells left behind by Native Americans
Biscayne National Park
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U.S. President Warren G. Harding and fishing party at the Cocolobo Cay Club
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Bryce Canyon National Park
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Bryce Canyon National Park /ˈbraɪs/ is a National Park located in southwestern Utah in the United States. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views for park visitors, Bryce sits at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park. The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet, the Bryce Canyon area was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and was named after Ebenezer Bryce, who homesteaded in the area in 1874. The area around Bryce Canyon became a National Monument in 1923 and was designated as a National Park in 1928, the park covers 35,835 acres and receives substantially fewer visitors than Zion National Park or Grand Canyon National Park, largely due to Bryces more remote location. In 2016, Bryce Canyon received 2,365,110 recreational visitors, Bryce Canyon National Park is located in southwestern Utah about 50 miles northeast of and 1,000 feet higher than Zion National Park. The weather in Bryce Canyon is therefore cooler, and the park receives more precipitation, yearly temperatures vary from an average minimum of 9 °F in January to an average maximum of 83 °F in July, but extreme temperatures can range from −30 to 97 °F. The record high temperature in the park was 98 °F on July 14,2002, the record low temperature was −28 °F on December 10,1972. The national park lies within the Colorado Plateau geographic province of North America, Park visitors arrive from the plateau part of the park and look over the plateaus edge toward a valley containing the fault and the Paria River just beyond it. The edge of the Kaiparowits Plateau bounds the opposite side of the valley, Bryce Canyon was not formed from erosion initiated from a central stream, meaning it technically is not a canyon. Instead headward erosion has excavated large amphitheater-shaped features in the Cenozoic-aged rocks of the Paunsaugunt Plateau and this erosion exposed delicate and colorful pinnacles called hoodoos that are up to 200 feet high. A series of amphitheaters extends more than 20 miles north-to-south within the park, the largest is Bryce Amphitheater, which is 12 miles long,3 miles wide and 800 feet deep. A nearby example of amphitheaters with hoodoos in the formation but at a higher elevation, is in Cedar Breaks National Monument. Rainbow Point, the highest part of the park at 9,105 feet, is at the end of the 18-mile scenic drive, from there, Aquarius Plateau, Bryce Amphitheater, the Henry Mountains, the Vermilion Cliffs and the White Cliffs can be seen. Yellow Creek, where it exits the park in the north-east section, is the lowest part of the park at 6,620 feet, little is known about early human habitation in the Bryce Canyon area. Archaeological surveys of Bryce Canyon National Park and the Paunsaugunt Plateau show that people have been in the area for at least 10,000 years, basketmaker Anasazi artifacts several thousand years old have been found south of the park. Other artifacts from the Pueblo-period Anasazi and the Fremont culture have also been found, the Paiute Indians moved into the surrounding valleys and plateaus in the area around the same time that the other cultures left. These Native Americans hunted and gathered for most of their food, the Paiute in the area developed a mythology surrounding the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon National Park
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Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
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Bryce Canyon Amphitheater from Sunrise Point
Bryce Canyon National Park
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Ebenezer Bryce and his family lived in Bryce Canyon, in this cabin, here photographed c. 1881.
Bryce Canyon National Park
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Bryce Canyon Lodge was built between 1924 and 1925 from local materials.
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is the cave, Carlsbad Cavern. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is open day of the year except Thanksgiving, Christmas. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center. The park entrance is located on US Highway 62/180, approximately 18 miles southwest of Carlsbad, Carlsbad Caverns National Park participates in the Junior Ranger Program. The park has two entries on the National Register of Historic Places, The Caverns Historic District and the Rattlesnake Springs Historic District, approximately two thirds of the park has been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no future changes will be made to the habitat. Carlsbad Cavern includes a cave chamber, a natural limestone chamber almost 4,000 feet long,625 feet wide. It is the fifth largest chamber in North America and the twenty-eighth largest in the world, an estimated 250 million years ago, the area surrounding Carlsbad Caverns National Park served as the coastline for an inland sea. Present in the sea was a plethora of marine life, whose remains formed a reef, unlike modern reef growths, the Permian reef contained bryozoans, sponges, and other microorganisms. After the Permian Period, most of the evaporated and the reef was buried by evaporites. Tectonic movement occurred during the late Cenozoic, uplifting the reef above ground, susceptible to erosion, water sculpted the Guadalupe Mountain region into its present-day state. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is situated in a bed of limestone above groundwater level, during cavern development, it was within the groundwater zone. Deep below the limestones are petroleum reserves, at a time near the end of the Cenozoic, hydrogen sulfide began to seep upwards from the petroleum into the groundwater. The combination of hydrogen sulfide and oxygen from the water formed sulfuric acid, the sulfuric acid then continued upward, aggressively dissolving the limestone deposits to form caverns. The presence of gypsum within the cave is a confirmation of the occurrence of this process, once the acidic groundwater drained from the caverns, speleothems began to be deposited within the cavern. Erosion above ground created the entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns within the last million years. Exposure to the surface has allowed for the influx of air into the cavern, growths from the roof downward formed through this process are known as stalactites. Additionally, water on the floor of the caverns can contain carbonic acid, growths from the floor upward through this process are known as stalagmites
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
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The forces of water decorated the cave in an almost endless array of spectacular limestone formations such as this column and array of stalactites
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
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Rock of Ages in the Big Room, photo by Ansel Adams, c. 1941
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
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On the tour route
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
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Outside the entrance to the caverns.
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Congaree National Park
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Congaree National Park preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States. Located in South Carolina, the 26, 276-acre national park received designation in 2003 as the culmination of a grassroots campaign that started in 1969. The lush trees growing in this floodplain forest are some of the tallest in the Eastern U. S. forming one of the highest temperate deciduous forest canopies remaining in the world, the Congaree River flows through the park. About 57 percent of the park is designated wilderness area, resource extraction on the Congaree River centered on cypress logging from 1898, when the Santee River Cypress Logging Company began to operate in the area of what is now the park. Owned by the Beidler family of Chicago, the company operated until 1914, in the 1950s Harry R. E. Hampton was a member of the Cedar Creek Hunt Club and co-editor of the The State. Hampton joined with Peter Manigault at the Charleston The Post and Courier to advocate preservation of the Congaree floodplain, Hampton formed the Beidler Forest Preservation Association in 1961. As a result of this advocacy a 1963 study by the National Park Service reported favorably on the establishment of a national monument, no progress was made in the 1960s. Renewed logging by the Beidlers in 1969 prompted the 1972 formation of the Congaree Swamp National Preserve Association, the CSNPA joined forces with the Sierra Club and other conservation organizations to promote federal legislation to preserve the tract. South Carolina Senators Strom Thurmond and Ernest F. Hollings introduced legislation in 1975 for the establishment of a national preserve, on October 18,1976 legislation was passed to create Congaree Swamp National Monument. An expansion plan was introduced by Hollings and Thurmond in 1988, over two-thirds of the national monument was designated a wilderness area on October 24,1988, and it became an Important Bird Area on July 26,2001. As of December 31,2011, approximately 26,021 acres of the park are in Federal ownership, the park preserves a significant part of the Middle Atlantic coastal forests ecoregion. Although it is referred to as a swamp, it is largely bottomland subject to periodic inundation by floodwaters. It has been designated an old growth forest, the park also has one of the largest concentrations of champion trees in the world, with the tallest known examples of 15 species. Large animals possibly seen in the park include bobcats, deer, feral pigs, feral dogs, coyotes, armadillos, turkeys, and otters. Its waters contain interesting creatures like amphibians, turtles, snakes, alligators, and many types of fish, including bowfin, alligator gar, primitive and backcountry camping are available. Some of the trails include the Bluff Trail, Weston Lake Loop Trail, Oakridge Trail, and King Snake Trail where hikers may spot deer, raccoon, opossum. The National Park Service rangers have current trail conditions which can be found in the Harry Hampton Visitor Center, along with hiking trails, the park also has a 20-mile marked canoe trail on Cedar Creek. Most visitors to the walk along the Boardwalk Loop, an elevated 2. 4-mile walkway through the swampy environment that protects delicate fungi
Congaree National Park
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Cedar Creek
Congaree National Park
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Kayakers paddle on Cedar Creek
Congaree National Park
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Old Growth Forest in the Congaree National Park, South Carolina
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Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
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Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is a U. S. National Park in Alaska. It is the northernmost national park in the U. S. the park consists primarily of portions of the Brooks Range of mountains. A large part of the park is protected in the Gates of the Arctic Wilderness which covers 7,167,192 acres, the wilderness area adjoins the Noatak Wilderness Area and together they form the largest contiguous wilderness in the United States. There are no roads in Gates of the Arctic National Park, in 2016, the park received just 10,047 visitors, while Grand Canyon National Park received nearly 6 million visitors in the same year. Camping is permitted throughout the park, but may be restricted by easements when crossing Native Corporation lands within the park, the park headquarters is in Fairbanks. Park Service operations in the park are managed from the Bettles Ranger Station, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve lies to the west of the Dalton Highway, centered on the Brooks Range and covering the north and south slopes of the mountains. The park includes the Endicott Mountains and part of the Schwatka Mountains, the majority of Gates of the Arctic is designated as national park, in which only subsistence hunting by local rural residents is permitted. Sport hunting is permitted in the national preserve. To hunt and trap in the preserve, a person must have all required licenses and permits, the eastern boundary of the park generally follows the Dalton Highway at a distance of a few miles, with the westernmost part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 10 miles farther east. Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge is near the parks southeast boundary, Noatak National Preserve adjoins the western boundary, and the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska adjoins the northwest corner of the park. Almost all of the park is designated as wilderness, with the exception of areas around Anaktuvuk Pass, a detached portion of the park surrounds the outlying Fortress Mountain and Castle Mountain to the north of the park. Ten small communities outside the boundaries are classified as resident zone communities. They are Alatna, Allakaket, Ambler, Anaktuvuk Pass, Bettles/Evansville, Hughes, Kobuk, Nuiqsut, Shungnak, there are no established roads, trails, visitor facilities, or campgrounds in the park. The Dalton Highway comes within five miles of the eastern boundary. About 259,000 acres of the park and preserve are owned by corporations or the State of Alaska. 7,263,000 acres are protected in the Gates of the Arctic Wilderness, the park contains mountains such as the Arrigetch Peaks and Mount Igikpak. It extends to the east as far as the Middle Fork of the Koyukuk River, which is paralleled by the Dalton Highway, the park straddles the continental divide, separating the drainages of the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. The northernmost section of the park includes portions of the Arctic foothills tundra
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
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Gates of the Arctic from the air
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
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Hikers in the Itkillik River drainage, a group of tilted sedimentary peaks in the central Brooks Range
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
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The Arrigetch Peaks
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
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Ancient seabed underlies much of Gates of the Arctic National Park. In some places throughout the park weathering has formed cliffs, fins, arches, and other formations.
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Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
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Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is in the Alaska panhandle west of Juneau. President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the area around Glacier Bay a national monument under the Antiquities Act on February 25,1925, in total the park and preserve cover 5,130 square miles. Most of Glacier Bay is designated wilderness area which covers 4,164 square miles, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve occupies the northernmost section of the southeastern Alaska coastline, between the Gulf of Alaska and Canada. The parks northwestern boundary, which also abuts Tongass National Forest, the preserve lands comprise a small area at Dry Bay — the majority of Glacier Bay lands are national park lands. The park boundary excludes Gustavus at the mouth of Glacier Bay, the lands adjoining the park to the north in Canada are included in Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park. No roads lead to the park and it is most easily reached by air travel, during some summers there are ferries to the small community of Gustavus or directly to the marina at Bartlett Cove. Despite the lack of roads, the received an average of about 470,000 recreational visitors annually from 2007 to 2016. Most of the visitors arrive via cruise ships, the number of ships that may arrive each day is limited by regulation. Trips generally take six days and pass through Kluane National Park and Reserve in the Yukon, Glacier Bay National Park preserves nearly 600,000 acres of federally protected marine ecosystems in Alaska against which other less-protected marine ecosystems can be compared. Within the park and preserve there are two Tlingit ancestral homelands that are of cultural and spiritual significance to living communities today, the Alsek River serves as a route of discovery and migration from the coastal mountain range in the park to the Pacific Ocean in the preserve. There are fifteen tidewater glaciers in the park, Glaciers descending from high snow-capped mountains into the bay create spectacular displays of ice and iceberg formation. In the last century the most dramatic was probably the Muir Glacier, the calving face was nearly 2 miles wide and about 265 feet high. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve includes nine tidewater glaciers, four of these glaciers actively calve icebergs into the bay. In the 1990s the Muir Glacier receded to the point that it was no longer a tidewater glacier, most visitors today travel to the Margerie and Lamplugh Glaciers. The advance and recession of the glaciers has been extensively documented since La Perouse visited the bay in 1786. In general the glaciers of the Fairweather Range are advancing and the Chilkat Range glaciers are receding, the region is being lifted by tectonic activity, with frequent earthquakes. Earthquake-induced landslides have been significant forces for change, inducing tsunamis that are believed to have reached 1,600 feet in height, regions of the park closest to the Gulf of Alaska have a relatively mild climate with significant rainfall and comparatively low snowfall. Lower Glacier Bay is a zone, and upper Glacier Bay is cold
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
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McBride Glacier, Glacier Bay
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
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Visualization of Glacier Bay, based on Landsat imagery and USGS elevation data
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Grand Canyon National Park
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Grand Canyon National Park is the United States 15th oldest national park. Named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, the park is located in northwestern Arizona, the parks central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. The park covers 1,217,262 acres of unincorporated area in Coconino, the park received nearly six million recreational visitors in 2016, which is the second highest count of all U. S. national parks after Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Grand Canyon was officially designated a park in 1919, though the landmark had been well known to Americans for over thirty years prior. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the site and said and it is beyond comparison—beyond description, absolutely unparalleled through-out the wide world. Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is, do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. But what you can do is to keep it for children, your childrens children. Despite Roosevelts enthusiasm and his strong interest in preserving land for public use, harrison unsuccessfully reintroduced his bill in 1883 and 1886, after his election to the presidency, he established the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve in 1893. Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon Game Preserve by proclamation on 28 November 1906, the National Park Service, established in 1916, assumed administration of the park. The creation of the park was a success of the conservation movement. Its national park status may have helped thwart proposals to dam the Colorado River within its boundaries, in 1975, the former Marble Canyon National Monument, which followed the Colorado River northeast from the Grand Canyon to Lees Ferry, was made part of Grand Canyon National Park. In 1979, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site, in 2010, Grand Canyon National Park was honored with its own coin under the America the Beautiful Quarters program. The Grand Canyon, including its system of tributary canyons, is valued for its combination of size, depth. The canyon itself was created by the incision of the Colorado River and its tributaries after the Colorado Plateau was uplifted, the primary public areas of the park are the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon itself. The rest of the park is rugged and remote, although many places are accessible by pack trail. Only the Navajo Bridge near Page connects the rims by road in Arizona, otherwise, the two rims of the Canyon are connected via the Mike OCallaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge and the Hoover Dam. The park headquarters are at Grand Canyon Village, not far from the entrance to the park. Park accommodations are operated by Xanterra Parks and Resorts, the North Rim is a smaller, more remote area with less tourist activity
Grand Canyon National Park
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View of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon National Park
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Grand Canyon South Rim photographed from Powell Point
Grand Canyon National Park
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Grand Canyon Visitor Center at South Rim
Grand Canyon National Park
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Shuttle Bus for Kaibab Rim Route near Grand Canyon Visitor Center.
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Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
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Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park located in the San Luis Valley, in the easternmost parts of Alamosa County and Saguache County, Colorado, United States. Originally created as Great Sand Dunes National Monument on March 17,1932, Great Sand Dunes National Park, the park includes 44,246 acres, and the preserve protects an additional 41,686 acres. Researchers say that the dunes started forming less than 440,000 years ago, the dunes were formed from sand and soil deposits of the Rio Grande and its tributaries, flowing through the San Luis Valley. Over the ages, glaciers feeding the river and the vast lake that existed upon the valley melted, westerly winds picked up sand particles from the lake and river flood plain. As the wind lost power before crossing the Sangre de Cristo Range and this process continues, and the dunes are slowly growing. The wind changes the shape of the dunes daily, there are several streams flowing on the perimeter of the dunes. The streams erode the edge of the field, and sand is carried downstream. The water disappears into the ground, depositing sand on the surface, winds pick up the deposits of sand, and blow them up onto the dune field once again. Digging a couple inches into the even at their peaks reveals wet sand. Part of the motivation of turning the Monument into a National Park was the protection of the water. It is very easy to experience the dune-building process and this is a very windy region, as hikers on the Sand Dunes will attest, as on many days they will be pelted by sand and even small rocks when hiking on the dunes. The wind carries sand and rocks from many miles away, while the dunes dont change location or size that often, there are still parabolic dunes that start in the sand sheet, the outer area around the dunes, and migrate towards the main dune field. Sometimes they join the main field, and sometimes they will get covered with grass and vegetation. The dunes are relatively stable, however, their morphology changes slightly with the seasons, the direction of the wind greatly affects the dune type. The winds normally go from southwest to northeast, however, during the summer months. This wind regime is part of the reason why the dunes are so tall, the dunes contain areas of black sand which are deposits of magnetite, a crystalline black oxide of iron. The Great Sand Dunes sit on an area of High Desert land in the San Luis Valley. The summer temperatures of this area are not typical of high desert lands although temperatures above 95 °F are not uncommon in July
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
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Great Sand Dunes and Mount Herard
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
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Satellite image of the dunes
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
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Aerial View of the Great Sand Dunes from the southwest, looking across the Sangre de Cristo Range. Winter 2015, a dry year.
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
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The intermittent Medano Creek
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Katmai National Park and Preserve
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Katmai National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park and Preserve in southern Alaska, notable for the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and for its Alaskan brown bears. The park and preserve covers 4,093,077 acres, most of this is a designated wilderness area in the national park where all hunting is banned, including over 3,922,000 acres of land. The park is named after Mount Katmai, its centerpiece stratovolcano, the park is located on the Alaska Peninsula, across from Kodiak Island, with headquarters in nearby King Salmon, about 290 miles southwest of Anchorage. The park includes as many as 18 individual volcanoes, seven of which have been active since 1900, following its designation, the monument was left undeveloped and largely unvisited until the 1950s. After a series of expansions, the present national park. Katmai occupies the Pacific Ocean side of the Alaska Peninsula, opposite Kodiak Island on the Shelikof Strait, the closest significant town to the park is King Salmon, where the parks headquarters is located, about 5 miles down the Naknek River from the park entrance. The Alaska Peninsula Highway connects Naknek Lake near the entrance to King Salmon, the road is not connected to the Alaska road system. Access to the interior is by boat on Naknek Lake. Another road runs from Brooks Camp to Three Forks, which overlooks the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, the 497-mile long coastline is deeply indented, running from the entrance to the Cook Inlet at Kamishak Bay south to Cape Kubugakli. The mountains run from southwest to northeast, about 15 miles inland, the park includes McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and Refuge on Kamishak Bay. The Alagnak River, designated a wild river, originates within the preserve at Kukaklek Lake, the Naknek River, which empties into Bristol Bay, originates within the park. The park adjoins Becharof National Wildlife Refuge to the south, of the park and preserves acres,3,922,529 acres are in the national park where all sport and subsistence hunting is prohibited. 418,548 acres are preserve lands, where sport and subsistence hunting are permitted. The most commonly hunted species in the preserve include grizzly bear, the granite Aleutian Range batholith has intruded through these rocks. The majority of the mountains in the park are of volcanic origin. The park has been altered by glaciation, both in the high lands where the mountains have been sculpted by glaciers, and in the lowlands where lakes have been excavated. Outwash plains and terminal moraines are also featured in the park, soil types vary from rock or volcanic ash of vary depth to deep, wet soils overlain with peat Although permafrost exists at higher elevations, it is not present in the lowlands. Two physiographic provinces cover the park, the Aleutian Range province is composed of the Shelikof Strait coastline, about 10 miles deep along the coast, the Aleutian Mountain zone, and the lake, or Hudsonian zone
Katmai National Park and Preserve
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The summit crater lake of Mount Katmai
Katmai National Park and Preserve
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Pyroclastic flow deposits in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes
Katmai National Park and Preserve
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Novarupta lava dome
Katmai National Park and Preserve
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Satellite image of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and surrounding area
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Kings Canyon National Park
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Kings Canyon National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno, California. The park was established in 1940 and covers 461,901 acres and it incorporated General Grant National Park, established in 1890 to protect the General Grant Grove of giant sequoias. The park is north of and contiguous with Sequoia National Park and they were designated the UNESCO Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976. Humans have inhabited the area for thousands of years, the first Native Americans in the area were Paiute peoples, who moved into the region from their ancestral home east of Mono Lake. The Paiute Nation people used deer and other animals for food. They created trade routes that extended down the slope of the Sierra into the Owens Valley. Kings Canyon had been known to white settlers since the mid-19th century, then United States Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes fought to create the Kings Canyon National Park. He hired Ansel Adams to photograph and document this among other parks, the bill combined the General Grant Grove with the backcountry beyond Zumwalt Meadow. Kings Canyons future was in doubt for nearly fifty years, some wanted to build a dam at the western end of the valley, while others wanted to preserve it as a park. The debate was settled in 1965, when the valley, along with Tehipite Valley, was added to the park, Kings Canyon National Park consists of two sections. The parks Giant Sequoia forests are part of 202,430 acres of old-growth forests shared by Sequoia and this section of the park is mostly mixed conifer forest, and is readily accessible via paved highways. Both the South and Middle Forks of the Kings Rivers have extensive glacial canyons, one portion of the South Fork canyon, known as the Kings Canyon, gives the entire park its name. Kings Canyon, with a depth of 8,200 feet, is one of the deepest canyons in the United States. The canyon was carved by glaciers out of granite, the Kings Canyon, and its developed area, Cedar Grove, is the only portion of the main part of the park that is accessible by motor vehicle. Both the Kings Canyon and its Middle Fork twin, Tehipite Valley, are deeply incised, U-shaped glacial gorges with relatively flat floors and towering granite cliffs thousands of feet high. In addition, the canyon has several systems, one of which is Boyden Cave. To the east of the canyons are the peaks of the Sierra Crest, which attain an elevation of 14,248 feet NAVD88 at the summit of North Palisade. This is classic high Sierra country, barren ridges and glacially scoured lake-filled basins
Kings Canyon National Park
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Kings Canyon National Park
Kings Canyon National Park
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General Grant tree, located in the General Grant Grove of giant sequoias in Kings Canyon National Park
Kings Canyon National Park
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Kearsarge Pinnacles, photo by Ansel Adams
Kings Canyon National Park
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Dusy Basin in Kings Canyon
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Kobuk Valley National Park
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Kobuk Valley National Park is in northwestern Alaska 25 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It was designated a United States National Park in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and it is noted for the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes and caribou migration routes. Park visitors can bring their own gear and go camping, hiking, backpacking, boating. There are no designated trails or roads in the park, which at 1,795,280 acres, is approximately the size of the state of Delaware, the park is entirely above the Arctic Circle. No roads lead to the park, people typically get there by chartered air taxi from Nome, Bettles, or Kotzebue. Flights are available year-round, but heavily weather dependent, the park is one of the least visited in the National Park System. The park is the center of a vast ecosystem between Selawik National Wildlife Refuge and the Noatak National Preserve and it is over 75 miles by river to the Chukchi Sea. The Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve lie 32 miles to the east, the park includes about 81,000 acres of lands owned by native corporations and the State of Alaska. The park consists of the broad valley of the Kobuk River which runs along the southern edge of the western Brooks Range. The boundary of the runs along the height-of-land of the Baird Mountains in the north. The middle two-thirds of the Kobuk River, from just above Kiana to just below Ambler, is included in the park, as are several of its tributaries such as the Salmon River. The valley floor is covered by glacial drift. Much of the portion of the park, south of the Kobuk River, is managed as the Kobuk Valley Wilderness of 174,545 acres. The Selawik Wilderness lies to the south, in the adjoining Selawik National Wildlife Refuge, three sets of sand dune fields are located on the south side of the Kobuk River. The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, Little Kobuk Sand Dunes and the Hunt River Dunes are remnants of dunefields that covered as many as 200,000 acres immediately after the retreat of Pleistocene glaciation. A combination of deposits from the glaciers and strong winds created the field. In present times the active dune fields cover about 20,500 acres, the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes comprise the largest active Arctic dune field in North America. NASA has funded their study as an analog for Martian polar dunes, the parks headquarters are at the Northwest Arctic Heritage Center in Kotzebue, about 100 miles west of the park on the Bering Sea coast
Kobuk Valley National Park
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Meanders in the Kobuk River from the air
Kobuk Valley National Park
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Kobuk Sand Dunes
Kobuk Valley National Park
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The Great Kobuk Sand dunes located in the Kobuk Valley National Park in northwestern arctic Alaska.
Kobuk Valley National Park
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Agie River in Kobuk Valley National Park
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Lake Clark National Park and Preserve
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Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park in Port Alsworth, Alaska. It was first proclaimed a monument in 1978, then established as a national park. The park includes many streams and lakes vital to the Bristol Bay salmon fishery, a wide variety of recreational activities may be pursued in the park and preserve year-round. Redoubt is active, erupting in 1989 and 2009, the wide variety of ecosystems in the park mean that virtually all major Alaskan animals, terrestrial and marine, may be seen in and around the park. Salmon, particularity sockeye salmon, play a role in the ecosystem. The Kvichak River is the worlds most productive watershed for sockeye salmon, no roads lead to the park and it can only be reached by boat or small aircraft, typically floatplanes. The major settled area in the park and preserve is Port Alsworth on Lake Clark, five other settlements are within the park, populated mainly by Denaina natives. Lake Clark was proclaimed a National Monument by President Jimmy Carter using the Antiquities Act on December 1,1978, Lake Clarks status was changed to National Park and Preserve in 1980 by Congress, and about two-thirds was designated wilderness. While both sport and subsistence hunting are permitted in the preserve lands, only subsistence hunting by local residents is permitted within the national park. Lake Clark National Park and Preserve covers 4,030,015 acres at the base of the Alaska Peninsula in southcentral Alaska, of the total area, about 2,637,000 acres lie in the park and 1,400,000 acres in the preserve. Lake Clark is the largest lake in the park, on the southwest corner of the park, the national preserve lands adjoin park lands on the west, offering both subsistence and sport hunting, in contrast to parklands, where only subsistence hunting by local residents is allowed. The extreme southwest section of the preserve includes Alaskan Native corporation lands, most of the park section is designated as wilderness. The eastern part of the park near the Cook Inlet includes two volcanoes, Mount Redoubt and Mount Iliamna. A third, Mount Spurr, is just outside the park to the east, the chief river in the park is the Kvichak River. Another large river, the Tlikakita, runs across the park from its source at Summit Lake to Lake Clark, emerging from the lake, the park is not accessible by roads. Access is solely by air taxi or by boat along the Cook Inlet coast, since much of the movement in the area is by air, the mountains present a significant barrier to air traffic. Lake Clark Pass, at 1,050 feet provides a way through the mountains by air at low elevation, the main inhabited place in the park is Port Alsworth on Lake Clark, with a Park Service visitor center and a number of privately operated lodges. Air taxis make regular trips between Port Alsworth and outside communities, other private lodges are scattered around the park
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve
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Lake Clark and the Chigmit Mountains
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve
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Redoubt volcano in eruption
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve
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Iliamna volcano
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve
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Sockeye salmon in the Kijik River
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Mammoth Cave National Park
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Mammoth Cave National Park is a U. S. national park in central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. Since the 1972 unification of Mammoth Cave with the system under Flint Ridge to the north. The park was established as a park on July 1,1941. It became a World Heritage Site on October 27,1981, the parks 52,830 acres are located primarily in Edmonson County, Kentucky, with small areas extending eastward into Hart County and Barren County. It is centered on the Green River, with a tributary, with 405 miles of surveyed passageways Mammoth Cave is by far the worlds longest known cave system, being over twice as long as the second-longest cave system, Mexicos Sac Actun underwater cave. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of sandstone and it is known to include more than 390 miles of passageway, new discoveries and connections add several miles to this figure each year. Mammoth Cave National Park was established to preserve the cave system, the epikarstic zone concentrates local flows of runoff into high-elevation springs which emerge at the edges of ridges. It is in underlying massive limestone layers that the human-explorable caves of the region have naturally developed. The limestone layers of the column beneath the Big Clifty, in increasing order of depth below the ridgetops, are the Girkin Formation. Genevieve Limestone, and the St. Louis Limestone, for example, the large Main Cave passage seen on the Historic Tour is located at the bottom of the Girkin and the top of the Ste. Each of the layers of limestone is divided further into named geological units and subunits. One area of research involves correlating the stratigraphy with the cave survey produced by explorers. This makes it possible to produce approximate three-dimensional maps of the contours of the layer boundaries without the necessity for test wells. The upper sandstone caprock is relatively hard for water to penetrate, however, the sandstone caprock layer has been dissolved and eroded at many locations within the park, such as the Frozen Niagara room. At one valley bottom in the region of the park. Known as Cedar Sink, the features a small river entering one side. Mammoth Cave is home to the endangered Kentucky cave shrimp, a sightless albino shrimp, the National Park Service offers several cave tours to visitors. Some notable features of the cave, such as Grand Avenue, Frozen Niagara, two tours, lit only by visitor-carried paraffin lamps, are popular alternatives to the electric-lit routes
Mammoth Cave National Park
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The Rotunda Room at Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave National Park
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The Bottomless Pit in Mammoth Cave, woodcut, 1887 (Nuno Carvalho de Sousa Collection, Lisbon)
Mammoth Cave National Park
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A ranger-guided tour of the cave
Mammoth Cave National Park
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Map of Mammoth Cave from 1897, penned by R. E: Call
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Mount Rainier National Park
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Mount Rainier National Park is a United States National Park located in southeast Pierce County and northeast Lewis County in Washington state. It was established on March 2,1899 as the national park in the United States. The park encompasses 236,381 acres including all of Mount Rainier, the mountain rises abruptly from the surrounding land with elevations in the park ranging from 1,600 feet to over 14,000 feet. The highest point in the Cascade Range, around it are valleys, waterfalls, subalpine meadows, old-growth forest, the volcano is often shrouded in clouds that dump enormous amounts of rain and snow on the peak every year. Mount Rainier is circled by the Wonderland Trail and is covered by several glaciers, Carbon Glacier is the largest glacier by volume in the contiguous United States, while Emmons Glacier is the largest glacier by area. Mount Rainier is a peak for mountaineering with some 10,000 attempts per year with approximately 50% making it to the summit. The park contains outstanding subalpine meadows and 91,000 acres of old growth forests and it is abutted by the Tatoosh Wilderness. As an Historic Landmark district, the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On January 1,2012 Park Ranger Margaret Anderson was shot dead while stopping a vehicle, the suspected assailant Benjamin Colton Barnes fled and hid in the park, prompting the authorities to close the park and launch a manhunt. Barnes body was found the following day, the earliest evidence of human activity in the area which is now Mount Rainier National Park, a projectile point dated to circa 4, 000-5,800 BP found along Bench Lake Trail. A more substantial archeological find was a shelter near Fryingpan Creek. Hunting artifacts were found in the shelter, the shelter would not have been used all year round. Cultural affinities suggest the site was used by Columbia Plateau Tribes from 1000 to 300 BP, in 1963 the National Park Service contracted the Washington State University to study Native American use of the Mount Rainier area. Richard D. Daugherty lead a study of the area. Allan H. Smith interviewed elderly Native Americans and studied ethnographic literature and he found no evidence of permanent habitation in the park area. The park was used for hunting and gathering and for occasional spirit quests, Smith also came to tentative conclusions that the park was divided among five tribes along watershed boundaries, the Nisqually, Puyallup, Muckleshoot, Yakama, and Taidnapam. Subsequent studies cast doubt on Smiths theory that the tribes had agreed upon boundaries before they entered into treaties with the United States in 1854-55. On March 2,1899, President William McKinley signed a bill passed by Congress authorizing the creation of Mount Rainier National Park and it was the first national park created from a national forest
Mount Rainier National Park
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Mount Rainier from above Myrtle Falls
Mount Rainier National Park
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Mt. Rainier National Park view.
Mount Rainier National Park
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Ohanapecosh Park is one of many named subalpine areas that may be reached via the Wonderland Trail.
Mount Rainier National Park
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At the summit of Mount Rainier, 1888. Left to right: D.W. Bass, P. B. Van Trump, John Muir, N.O. Booth, Edward Sturgis Ingraham. Photograph by Arthur Churchill Warner
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North Cascades National Park
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North Cascades National Park is a U. S. National Park located in the state of Washington. The park is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Service Complex, several national wilderness areas and British Columbia parkland adjoin the National Park. The park features rugged mountain peaks and protects portions of the North Cascades range, at that time, Native American ancestors of Skagit tribes slowly advanced from Puget Sound into the interior mountainous region as the glacial ice retreated. Hozomeen chert, a type of rock well-suited to the fabrication of implements, was mined from near Hozomeen Mountain, just east of the park border, for the last 8,400 years. The micro blades are part of an assemblage that includes five distinct cultural periods. The archeological excavation at Cascade Pass is one of the 260 prehistoric sites that have identified in the park. When white explorers first entered the area in the late 18th century, the Skagits lived in settlements, culling their needs from the waterways and traveling by way of canoe. Skagits formed a confederation of tribes that united if threatened by outside tribes such as the Haidas. They erected large houses or lodges that might house multiple families, each with their own partitioned area, the Skagits erected totem poles and participated in potlatch ceremonies, similar to the Haidas, but with less complexity and extravagance. By 1910, only about 56 Skagits remained in the region, inland and residing to the north and east of the Skagits, the Nlakapamux, Chelan, Okanogan and Wenatchi tribes lived partly or year-round in the eastern sections of the North Cascades. The Skagits and Thompsons often had disputes, and raided each others camps in search of slaves or to exact retributions, one Wenatchi lodge was described by Thompson as being 240 ft long. Inland tribes were likely to travel on foot or horseback than by canoe since the inland regions were less densely forested. Inland tribes also had less bountiful fisheries and greater weather extremes due to being away from the moderating influence of the Pacific Ocean. Additionally, inland tribes rarely erected totem poles or participated in potlatch ceremonies, the earliest white explorer to enter the North Cascades was most likely a Scotsman named Alexander Ross in 1811, who was in the employ of the Pacific Fur Company, an American-owned company. Fort Okanogon was later owned by the North West Company and then the Hudsons Bay Company, much of the trade in furs was conducted between Native American and a few white trappers at trading posts staffed by representatives of the fur trading company. In one season alone, Ross traded for 1500 beaver pelts, Ross was accompanied by three Indians, one of which was a guide, who led the party to a high pass in the North Cascades. Ross and the guide may have travelled as far west as the Skagit River, aside from isolated trappers, the North Cascades saw no explorations until the 1850s. In 1853, U. S. Army Captain George B, during the late 1850s, members of the U. S. North West Boundary Commission explored the boundary region, attempting to identify which mountains, rivers and lakes belonged to which country
North Cascades National Park
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View from Sahale Arm
North Cascades National Park
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Microflakes excavated from Cascades Pass; the two on the right were crafted from quartz.
North Cascades National Park
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Nlaka'pamux in 1914
North Cascades National Park
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Mount Triumph
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Pinnacles National Park
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Pinnacles is managed by the National Park Service and the majority of the park is protected as wilderness. The national park is divided by the formations into East and West Divisions, connected by foot trails. The east side has shade and water, the west has high walls, the rock formations provide for spectacular pinnacles that attract rock climbers. The park features unusual talus caves that house at least thirteen species of bat, Pinnacles is most often visited in spring or fall because of the intense heat during the summer months. Park lands are prime habitat for prairie falcons, and are a site for California condors that have been hatched in captivity. Pinnacles National Monument was established in 1908 by U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt, Pinnacles National Park was created from the former Pinnacles National Monument by legislation passed by Congress in late 2012 and signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 10,2013. Native Americans in the Pinnacles region comprised the Chalon and Mutsun groups of the Ohlone people and these native people declined with the arrival of the Spanish in the 18th century, who brought novel diseases and changes to the natives way of life. The last Chalon had died or departed from the area by 1810, from 1810 to 1865, when the first Anglo-American settlers arrived, the Pinnacles region was a wilderness without human use or habitation. The establishment of a Spanish mission at Soledad hastened the areas native depopulation through disease, archaeological surveys have found thirteen sites inhabited by Native Americans, twelve of which post-date the establishment of the missions. One site is believed to be about 2000 years old, by the 1880s the Pinnacles, then known as the Palisades, were visited by picnickers from the surrounding communities who would explore the caves and camp. The first account of the Pinnacles region appeared in print in 1881, between 1889 and 1891, newspaper articles shifted from describing excursions to the Palisades to calling them the Pinnacles. Interest in the rose to the point that the Hollister Free Lance sent a reporter to the Pinnacles. Investors came from San Francisco to consider placing a hotel there. In 1894 a post office was established in Bear Valley, since there was at least one other Bear Valley in California, the post office was named Cook after Mrs. Hains maiden name. In 1924 the post office was renamed Pinnacles, Schuyler Hain was a homesteader who arrived in the Pinnacles area in 1891 from Michigan, following his parents and eight siblings to Bear Valley. White, was a student at Stanford University, and White brought one of his professors to see the Pinnacles in 1893, dr. Gilbert was impressed by the scenery, and his comments inspired Hain to publicize the region. Hain led tours to Bear Valley and through the caves, advocating the preservation of the Pinnacles, Hains efforts resulted in a 1904 visit by Stanford president David Starr Jordan, who contacted Fresno Congressman James C. Jordan and Needham in turn influenced Gifford Pinchot to advocate the establishment of the Pinnacles Forest Reserve to President Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt proclaimed the establishment on July 8,1906
Pinnacles National Park
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Pinnacles National Park
Pinnacles National Park
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The Bear Gulch Reservoir at Pinnacles
Pinnacles National Park
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A view from the High Peaks Trail
Pinnacles National Park
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Entrance to Balconies Cave at Pinnacles National Park
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Redwood National and State Parks
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The Redwood National and State Parks are old-growth temperate rainforests located in the United States, along the coast of northern California. Comprising Redwood National Park and Californias Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks, the combined RNSP contain 139,000 acres. Located entirely within Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, the four parks, together, protect 45% of all remaining coast redwood old-growth forests and these trees are the tallest and one of the most massive tree species on Earth. In addition to the forests, the parks preserve other indigenous flora, fauna, grassland prairie, cultural resources, portions of rivers and other streams. In 1850, old-growth redwood forest covered more than 2,000,000 acres of the California coast, the northern portion of that area, originally inhabited by Native Americans, attracted many lumbermen and others turned gold miners when a minor gold rush brought them to the region. Failing in efforts to strike it rich in gold, these men turned toward harvesting the giant trees for booming development in San Francisco, after many decades of unrestricted clear-cut logging, serious efforts toward conservation began. Redwood National Park was created in 1968, by which time nearly 90% of the redwood trees had been logged. The ecosystem of the RNSP preserves a number of threatened species such as the tidewater goby, Chinook salmon, northern spotted owl. Modern day native groups such as the Yurok, Tolowa, Karok, Chilula, and Wiyot all have ties to the region. Archaeological study shows they arrived in the area as far back as 3,000 years ago, an 1852 census determined that the Yurok were the most numerous, with 55 villages and an estimated population of 2,500. They used the abundant redwood, which with its grain was easily split into planks, as a building material for boats, houses. For buildings, the planks would be erected side by side in a trench, with the upper portions bound with leather strapping. Redwood boards were used to form a sloping roof. Previous to Jedediah Smith in 1828, no other explorer of European descent is known to have investigated the inland region away from the immediate coast. The discovery of gold along the Trinity River in 1850 led to a secondary rush in California. This brought miners into the area and many stayed on at the coast after failing to strike it rich and this quickly led to conflicts wherein native peoples were placed under great strain, if not forcibly removed or massacred. By 1895, only one third of the Yurok in one group of villages remained, by 1919, the miners logged redwoods for building, when this minor gold rush ended, some of them turned again to logging, cutting down the giant redwood trees. Representative John E. Raker, of California, became the first politician to introduce legislation for the creation of a national park
Redwood National and State Parks
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Fog in the forest
Redwood National and State Parks
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Reconstruction of a Yurok Native American plankhouse constructed of redwood boards
Redwood National and State Parks
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The coast redwood is the tallest tree species on Earth.
Redwood National and State Parks
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Sequoia sempervirens
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Shenandoah National Park
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Shenandoah National Park /ˈʃɛnənˌdoʊə/ is a national park which encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the U. S. state of Virginia. The park is long and narrow, with the broad Shenandoah River and Valley on the west side, the highest peak is Hawksbill Mountain at 4,051 feet. The park encompasses parts of eight counties, on the west side of Skyline Drive they are, from northeast to southwest, Warren, Page, Rockingham, and Augusta counties. On the east side of Skyline Drive they are Rappahannock, Madison, Greene, the park stretches for 105 miles along Skyline Drive from near the town of Front Royal in the northeast to near the city of Waynesboro in the southwest. The park headquarters are located in Luray, Shenandoah National Park lies along the Blue Ridge Mountains in north-central Virginia. These mountains form a distinct highland rising to elevations above 4,000 feet, local topographic relief between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley exceeds 3,000 feet at some locations. The crest of the range divides the Shenandoah River drainage basin, part of the Potomac River drainage, on the west side, from the James and Rappahannock River drainage basins on the east side. Some of the rocks exposed in the date to over one billion years in age. Bedrock in the park includes Grenville-age granitic basement rocks and a sequence of metamorphosed Neoproterozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Swift Run. Columns of Catoctin Formation metamorphosed basalt can be seen at Compton Peak, clastic rocks of the Chilhowee Group are of early Cambrian age. Quaternary surficial deposits are common and cover much of the bedrock throughout the park, the park is located along the western part of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium, a regional-scale Paleozoic structure at the eastern margin of the Appalachian fold and thrust belt. Rocks within the park were folded, faulted, distorted, the rugged topography of Blue Ridge Mountains is a result of differential erosion during the Cenozoic, although some post-Paleozoic tectonic activity occurred in the region. Shenandoah was authorized in 1926 and fully established on December 26,1935, prior to being a park, much of the area was farmland and there are still remnants of old farms in several places. The Commonwealth of Virginia slowly acquired the land through eminent domain, in the creation of the park, a number of families and entire communities had to vacate portions of the Blue Ridge Mountains. At least 500 homes in eight Virginia counties were affected, most of the families came from Madison County, Page County, and Rappahannock County. Nearly 90% of the inhabitants worked the land for a living, although a terrible drought in 1930 affected many nearby apple orchards, some people vehemently opposed leaving. Eventually, a compromise was reached, some families were allowed to stay after their properties were acquired and they lived in the park until they died. The last one was Annie Lee Bradley Shenk, she died in 1979 at age 92, according to the Virginia Historical Society, 85-year-old Hezekiah Lam explained, I aint so crazy about leavin these hills but I never believed in bein agin the Government
Shenandoah National Park
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Satellite view of the heart of Shenandoah National Park at the height of the fall “leaf-peeping” season.
Shenandoah National Park
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Skyline Drive
Shenandoah National Park
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A view from Skyline Drive
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Voyageurs National Park
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Voyageurs National Park is a United States National Park in northern Minnesota near the town of International Falls established in 1975. The parks name commemorates the voyageurs, French-Canadian fur traders who were the first European settlers to travel through the area. The park is notable for its water resources and is popular with canoeists, kayakers, other boaters. The Kabetogama Peninsula, which lies entirely within the park and makes up most of its area, is accessible only by boat. To the east of the National Park lies the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The park has boat ramps and visitor centers on its periphery, though the main body of the park is only accessible by boat or, in the winter, by snowmobile, ski. In 2016, the park hosted 241,912 visitors, Voyageurs National Park is located on the Canadian Shield, with the rocks averaging between 1 and 3 billion years old. Formed during the ages of the earth formation, the rocks of the park were compressed. Then molten flows of lava intruded through the layers creating a mosaic of various gneiss, over time, additional layers of sedimentary rocks developed on top, to be stripped away by the continental glaciers of the Wisconsin Glacial epoch and earlier. The largest city near Voyageurs National Park is International Falls, Minnesota, unlike many other national parks, where the main access to the park is by motor vehicle, bicycle or foot, the primary access to Voyageurs is via water. Many visitors travel by canoe and kayak, while others rent houseboats or take a tour boat. S. Lake Namakan and Sand Point Lake are accessible only by boat except in the winter, the southern boundary of the park is the northern shore of Crane Lake. The park has many lakes, especially on the Kabetogama peninsula. Most popular of these are on the Locator Lakes trail, in all the park has more than 344 square miles of water. Campsites are maintained by the National Park Service and are only by water. The 175 sites are classified as tent, houseboat, or day-use sites, tenters may not camp in houseboat sites or day-use sites. Maps showing the location of sites are available at the visitor centers. Permits are required for overnight stays, permits can be obtained at any park visitor center or boat ramp
Voyageurs National Park
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Early autumn in Voyageurs National Park
Voyageurs National Park
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Ash River Visitor Center, aka Meadwood Lodge
Voyageurs National Park
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Kabetogama Visitor Center
Voyageurs National Park
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Rainy Lake Visitor Center
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Zion National Park
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Zion National Park is located in the Southwestern United States, near Springdale, Utah. The lowest elevation is 3,666 ft at Coalpits Wash, located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the parks unique geography and variety of life zones allow for unusual plant and animal diversity. Numerous plant species as well as 289 species of birds,75 mammals, and 32 reptiles inhabit the parks four life zones, desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest. Zion National Park includes mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons, human habitation of the area started about 8,000 years ago with small family groups of Native Americans, the semi-nomadic Basketmaker Anasazi stem from one of these groups. In turn, the Virgin Anasazi culture developed as the Basketmakers settled in permanent communities, a different group, the Parowan Fremont, lived in the area as well. Both groups moved away by 1300 and were replaced by the Parrusits, Mormons came into the area in 1858 and settled there in the early 1860s. In 1909 the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, named the area a National Monument to protect the canyon, under the name of Mukuntuweap National Monument. In 1918, however, the director of the newly created National Park Service changed the parks name to Zion. According to historian Hal Rothman, The name change played to a prevalent bias of the time, many believed that Spanish and Indian names would deter visitors who, if they could not pronounce the name of a place, might not bother to visit it. The new name, Zion, had greater appeal to an ethnocentric audience, the United States Congress established the monument as a National Park on November 19,1919. The Kolob section was proclaimed a separate Zion National Monument in 1937, the geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area includes nine formations that together represent 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation. At various periods in that warm, shallow seas, streams, ponds and lakes, vast deserts. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet starting 13 million years ago, the park is located in southwestern Utah in Washington, Iron and Kane counties. Geomorphically, it is located on the Markagunt and Kolob plateaus, the northern part of the park is known as the Kolob Canyons section and is accessible from Interstate 15, exit 40. The 8, 726-foot summit of Horse Ranch Mountain is the highest point in the park, streams in the area take rectangular paths because they follow jointing planes in the rocks. The stream gradient of the Virgin River, whose North Fork flows through Zion Canyon in the park, the road into Zion Canyon is 6 miles long, ending at the Temple of Sinawava. At the Temple the canyon narrows and a foot-trail continues to the mouth of the Zion Narrows, the Zion Canyon road is served by a free shuttle bus from early April to late October and by private vehicles the other months of the year. Other roads in Zion are open to private vehicles year-round, the east side of the park is served by Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, which passes through the Zion–Mount Carmel Tunnel and ends at Mount Carmel
Zion National Park
Zion National Park
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Zion Canyon as seen from the top of Angels Landing at sunset
Zion National Park
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Zion Canyon near the park entrance
Zion National Park
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"Temples and Towers of the Virgin"
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List of U.S. National Parks by elevation
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This is a list of United States National Parks by elevation. Most of Americas national parks are located in mountainous areas, even among those located close to the ocean, not all are flat. Those few that are low-lying preserve important natural habitats that could never exist at high altitude, several national parks protect deep canyons with great vertical relief. There are also three national parks whose primary features are caves, the depths of which are still being explored, criteria, Points on this list are the highest and lowest points within each national park and its associated national preserve, if it has one. It does not include adjacent or associated national recreation areas, parkways, memorials, or forests, footnotes are given to mention other notable high or low points, when appropriate. Additional National parks, 45—American Samoa, Lata Mountain is the highest point of American Samoa, highest Point in the park is Bourdeaux Mountain 1,277 feet. Outside of the park, the highest peak is Crown Mountain at 1,555 feet The AT thru the Smokeys - The Appalachian Trail crosses through Great Smokey Mountains and it reaches its highest point at Clingmans Dome. Skyline Drive map and profile - Skyline Drive runs the length of Shenandoah, PCT Elevation Profiles - The Pacific Crest Trail goes through seven national parks. List of U. S. states by elevation National Park Service Peakbagger www. climb. mountains. com These two external lists may not necessarily agree 100% with Wikipedias list, but serve as useful comparisons. The primary difference is that these lists do not include associated national preserves, postholer Maps, contains clear, zoomable topographic maps of the entire USA
List of U.S. National Parks by elevation
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Death Valley National Park, notorious for its below sea level desert, also has soaring mountains, including Telescope Peak, its highest.
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National Historical Park
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A National Historic Site is a protected area of national historic significance in the United States. An NHS usually contains a historical feature directly associated with its subject. As of 2015, there are 50 NHPs and 90 NHSs, most NHPs and NHSs are managed by the National Park Service. Some federally designated sites are owned by local authorities or privately owned, one property, Grey Towers National Historic Site, is managed by the U. S. Forest Service. As of October 15,1966, all areas, including NHPs and NHSs. There are also about 80,000 NRHP sites, the majority of which are neither owned nor managed by the NPS. Of these, about 2,500 have been designated at the highest status as National Historic Landmark sites, National Historic Sites are generally federally owned and administered properties, though some remain under private or local government ownership. There are currently 90 NHSs, of which 78 are official NPS units,11 are NPS affiliated areas, one is managed by the US Forest Service, and one by the Bureau of Land Management. Derived from the Historic Sites Act of 1935, a number of NHSs were established by United States Secretaries of the Interior, in 1937, the first NHS was created in Salem, Massachusetts in order to preserve and interpret the maritime history of New England and the United States. There is one International Historic Site in the US park system, the title, given to the site of the first permanent French settlement in America, recognizes the influence that has had on both Canada and the United States. The NPS does not distinguish among these designations in terms of their preservation or management policies, in the United States, sites are historic, while parks are historical. The NPS explains that a site can be intrinsically historic, while a park is a legal invention. As such, a park is not itself historic, but can be called historical when it contains historic resources and it is the resources which are historic, not the park. Klondike Gold Rush International Historical Park was formally established in 1998 by the United States and Canada, the park comprises Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Washington and Alaska, and Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site in British Columbia. It was this trail which so many prospectors took in hopes of making their fortunes in the Klondike River district of Yukon, list of World Heritage Sites in the Americas Designation of National Park System Units
National Historical Park
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Sagamore Hill NHS, Theodore Roosevelt's home
National Historical Park
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Customs House at the Salem Maritime NHS in Salem, Massachusetts, the country's first NHS.
National Historical Park
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San Antonio Missions NHP, Mission Concepción
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Fort Bowie National Historic Site
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Fort Bowie was a 19th-century outpost of the United States Army located in southeastern Arizona near the present day town of Willcox, Arizona. The remaining buildings and site are now protected as Fort Bowie National Historic Site, Fort Bowie was established by the California Volunteers in 1862 after a series of engagements between the California Column and the Chiricahua Apaches. The most violent of which was the Battle of Apache Pass in July 1862, the fort was named in honor of Colonel George Washington Bowie commander of the 5th Regiment California Volunteer Infantry who first established the fort. The first Fort Bowie resembled a temporary camp rather than a permanent army post, in 1868, a second, more substantial Fort Bowie was built which included adobe barracks, houses, corrals, a trading post, and a hospital. The second Fort Bowie was built on a plateau about 500 yards to the east of the first site, the fort was abandoned in 1894. Two engagements between the United States Army and the Chiricahua led to the construction of Fort Bowie in 1862, the first engagement, known as the Bascom Affair, took place in January 1861 when a band of Apaches raided the ranch of John Ward. Ward mistakenly believed that Cochise and the Chiricahua Apaches were responsible for the raid, the next month, the army responded to Wards request by sending Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom and fifty-four men to Apache Pass to confront Cochise. Bascom managed to capture Cochise and threatened to hold him hostage until Wards property was returned, sporadic fighting between Cochises warriors and Army troops would continue for years to come. The second major engagement was the Battle of Apache Pass, fought from July 15 to July 16,1862. A Union regiment under Brigadier General James Henry Carleton was ambushed by a band of Apaches while en route from California to New Mexico where they were to confront Confederate troops. This battle led to the establishment of Fort Bowie in order to protect Apache Pass. Construction on the first Fort Bowie began in 1862 but this resembled a temporary camp rather than a permanent military fort, in 1868, a second, more substantial Fort Bowie was built on a plateau about 500 yards to the east. The fort was abandoned in 1894, major Theodore H. Coult July 27,1862 - September 1862 Captain Hugh L. Hinds September 1862 - May,1863 Company G, 5th California Infantry. July 27,1862 - January 1863 Company E, 5th California Infantry, January 1863 - May,1863 Company K, 5th California Infantry. March,1866 - April,1866 The Fort Bowie and Apache Pass site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960, the remains of Fort Bowie are carefully preserved, as are the adobe walls of various post buildings and the ruins of a Butterfield Stage Station. Access to the ruins of Fort Bowie and the center is via a 1. 5-mile foot trail which begins at a parking area along Apache Pass Road. This trail to the old fort passes other historic sites such as Apache Spring, Siphon Canyon, in 1958 a Western entitled Fort Bowie was made, starring Ben Johnson. The film charted one of the disputes between the US Cavalry based at the fort and the Apaches, mcChristian, Fort Bowie, Arizona, Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858-1894, University of Oklahoma Press,2006
Fort Bowie National Historic Site
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Fort Bowie in 1893.
Fort Bowie National Historic Site
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Apache prisoners at Fort Bowie, 1884
Fort Bowie National Historic Site
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Fort Bowie, circa 1880.
Fort Bowie National Historic Site
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Present day ruins of Fort Bowie.
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Coronado National Memorial
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The Coronado National Memorial commemorates the first organized expedition into the Southwest by conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. The memorial is located in a setting on the international border on the southeast flank of the Huachuca Mountains south of Sierra Vista. The memorial confirms the ties that bind the United States and Mexico, stress the history and problems of the two countries and would encourage cooperation for the advancement of their common interests. Thus the site was first designated Coronado International Memorial on August 18,1941, the arrangement might have been similar to the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park between the United States and Canada. However, despite interest by the government of Mexico, the Mexican memorial was never created, the memorial was established by Harry S. Truman on November 5 of that year. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, washington, U. S. Department of the Interior. Official NPS website, Coronado National Memorial American Southwest, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
Coronado National Memorial
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Visitors at Coronado National Memorial
Coronado National Memorial
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Reenactment of Coronado 's entrada, 1540
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U.S. National Monument
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Historically, some national monuments were managed by the War Department. National monuments can be so designated through the power of the Antiquities Act of 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt used the act to declare Devils Tower in Wyoming as the first national monument. The Antiquities Act of 1906 resulted from concerns about protecting mostly prehistoric Native American ruins, the Act authorized permits for legitimate archaeological investigations and penalties for taking or destroying antiquities without permission. Among the next three monuments he proclaimed in 1906 was Petrified Forest in Arizona, another natural feature, in 1908, Roosevelt used the act to proclaim more than 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon as a national monument. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Katmai National Monument in Alaska, Katmai was later enlarged to nearly 2,800,000 acres by subsequent Antiquities Act proclamations and for many years was the largest national park system unit. Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, and Katmai were among the national monuments later converted to national parks by Congress. Substantial opposition did not materialize until 1943, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Jackson Hole National Monument in Wyoming. He did this to accept a donation of lands acquired by John D. Rockefeller, roosevelts proclamation unleashed a storm of criticism about use of the Antiquities Act to circumvent Congress. A bill abolishing Jackson Hole National Monument passed Congress but was vetoed by Roosevelt, the proclamation authority was not used again anywhere until 1996, when President Bill Clinton proclaimed the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. This action was unpopular in Utah, and bills were introduced to further restrict the presidents authority. To date, none of them have been enacted, presidents have used the Antiquities Acts proclamation authority not only to create new national monuments but to enlarge existing ones. For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt significantly enlarged Dinosaur National Monument in 1938, lyndon B. Johnson added Ellis Island to Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and Jimmy Carter made major additions to Glacier Bay and Katmai National Monuments in 1978. Marine National Monument List of U. S. National Forests List of areas in the National Park System of the United States List of U. S
U.S. National Monument
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Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming
U.S. National Monument
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Navajo National Monument, Arizona
U.S. National Monument
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Statue of Liberty National Monument, New Jersey & New York
U.S. National Monument
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Fort Matanzas National Monument, Florida
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Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
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Casa Grande is Italian and Spanish for big house, these names refer to the largest structure on the site, which is what remains of a four story structure that may have been abandoned by 1450. The structure is made of caliche, and has managed to survive the weather conditions for about seven centuries. The large house consists of rooms surrounding an inner structure. The outer rooms are all three high, while the inner structure is four stories high. The structures were constructed using traditional adobe processes, the wet adobe is thicker at the base and adds significant strength. Horizontal cracks can be noticed and this defines the breaks between courses on the outer walls. The process consisted of using damp adobe to form the walls and then waiting for it to dry, Casa Grande contained a ball court much like that found at Pueblo Grande de Nevada. Father Eusebio Kino was the first European to view the Hohokam complex in November 1694, graffiti from 19th-century passers-by is scratched into its walls, though this is now illegal. Casa Grande now has a modern roof covering built in 1932. In 1891, the monument underwent repairs supervised by Cosmos Mindeleff of the Bureau of American Ethnology, proclaimed Casa Grande Reservation by an order of President Benjamin Harrison on June 22,1892, Casa Grande Ruins became the first prehistoric and cultural reserve in the US. It was then re-designated a national monument by President Woodrow Wilson on August 3,1918, as with all historical areas administered by the National Park Service, Casa Grande was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15,1966. Between 1937 and 1940 the Civilian Conservation Corps built several buildings to serve as housing. The adobe buildings, constructed using traditional methods, continue in use today and are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, because of careful conservation, the physical appearance of Casa Grande Ruins has hardly changed since the 1940s. In 1932, a ramada was built to shelter the ruins from weathering by Boston architect Frederick Law Olmsted, in the early 21st century, a pair of Great horned owls took up residence in the rafters of the Olmsted shelter. The current protective structure covering the Great House replaced a similar structure built to protect it in 1932. Due to the nature of the Great House, visitors to the site are not permitted inside. Observation is permitted outside the only for visitors to protect its integrity. Hohokam Pima National Monument Mesa Grande Oasisamerica cultures Pueblo Grande Ruin and Irrigation Sites Noble, archived from the original on 2011-06-29
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
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Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
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Montezuma Castle National Monument
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Montezuma Castle National Monument protects a set of well-preserved Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings near the town of Camp Verde, Arizona, United States. The main structure comprises five stories and twenty rooms, and was built over the course of three centuries, neither part of the monuments name is correct. Several Hopi clans and Yavapai communities trace their ancestries to early immigrants from the Montezuma Castle/Beaver Creek area, clan members periodically return to these ancestral homes for religious ceremonies. Montezuma Castle is situated about 90 feet up a limestone cliff, facing the adjacent Beaver Creek. It is one of the cliff dwellings in North America. The precariousness of the location and its immense scale - almost 4,000 square feet of floor space across five stories - suggest that the Sinagua were daring builders. Access into the structure was most likely permitted by a series of portable ladders, which made it difficult for enemy tribes to penetrate the natural defense of the vertical barrier. Perhaps the main reason the Sinagua chose to build the Castle so far above the ground, during the summer monsoon season, the creek frequently breached its banks, inundating the floodplain with water. The Sinagua recognized the importance of these floods to their agriculture and their solution was to build a permanent structure in the high recess afforded by the limestone cliff. The ceilings of the rooms also incorporated sectioned timbers as a kind of roof thatching, obtained primarily from the Arizona sycamore, the area was briefly abandoned due to the eruption of Sunset Crater Volcano, about 60 miles to the north, in the mid-11th century. During the interim, the Sinagua lived in the surrounding highlands, construction of the Castle itself is thought to have begun around this time, though the building efforts probably occurred gradually, level-by-level, over many generations. The regions population peaked around 1300 AD, with the Castle housing between 30 and 50 people in at least 20 separate rooms. A neighboring segment of the cliff wall suggests the existence of an even larger dwelling around the same time. The discovery of Castle A in 1933 revealed many Sinagua artifacts, the latest estimated date of occupation for any Sinagua site comes from Montezuma Castle, around 1425 AD. After this date, like other cultural groups in the southwestern United States. The reasons for abandonment of sites are unclear, but drought, resource depletion. Due to heavy looting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, very few original artifacts survive from Montezuma Castle, the monument itself encloses 860 acres near the geographic center of Arizona and the intersection of the Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range physiographic provinces. The dwellings and the area were declared a U. S. National Monument on December 8,1906 as a result of the American Antiquities Act
Montezuma Castle National Monument
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Montezuma Castle National Monument
Montezuma Castle National Monument
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A close-up view of the Castle
Montezuma Castle National Monument
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Montezuma Castle sits on the cliff face like an aerie.
Montezuma Castle National Monument
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Navajo National Monument
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The monument is high on the Shonto plateau, overlooking the Tsegi Canyon system, west of Kayenta, Arizona. It features a center with a museum, two short self-guided mesa top trails, two small campgrounds, and a picnic area. Rangers guide visitors on tours of the Keet Seel and Betatakin cliff dwellings. The Inscription House site, further west, is closed to public access. The Sandal Trail is an accessible self-guided walk that provides views of the spectacular canyonlands, interpretive signs provide information on local flora and other topics. The 1-mile round-trip trail ends at an overlook of the Betatakin ruins across the 560-foot-deep Betatakin Canyon, the National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15,1966. Keet Seel or Kiet Siel, which stands for house in Navajo, is a well preserved cliff dwelling of the ancient Anasazi people located in a branch of the Tsegi Canyon in the Kayenta region. The site was first occupied at around 1250, during a time in which a number of people were believed to be aggregating in sites such as this in this part of the American Southwest. There was a boom at Keet Seel between 1272 and 1275, with construction then slowly tapering off and halting completely at 1286. Once construction halted in 1286, there was no evidence of structures being built until its subsequent abandonment some 20 years later and it is believed that, at its peak, up to 150 people inhabited this site at one time. Due to the dry climate and natural overhanging cliff, the conditions at Keet Seel were quite optimal for excellent preservation of the sites dwellings. Keet Seel is considered by many experts to be one of the best preserved larger ruins in the American Southwest. Betatakin means House Built on a Ledge in Navajo, in Hopi, the name of the place is Talastima, or Place of the Corn Tassel. Betatakin is smaller than nearby Keet Seel, with about 120 rooms at the time of abandonment, however, like Keet Seel, Betatakin was constructed of sandstone, mud mortar, and wood. Today only about 80 rooms remain, due to rock falls inside the alcove, Betatakin only has one kiva, whereas Kiet Siel has several. During its two-decade heyday Dean estimated a population of about 125 people. The site of Keet Seel was discovered in 1895 by the Wetherill Brothers, richard Wetherill is credited for selecting the term Anasazi, which refers to the ancient people that inhabited this region and means Enemy Ancestors in Navajo. It was not until 1909, after Navajo National Monument was created, the Wetherill Brothers made a living from giving guided tours of sites in and around the Tsegi Canyon and Utah
Navajo National Monument
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Keet Seel cliff dwellings
Navajo National Monument
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Betatakin ruins in Betatakin Canyon.
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Sunset Crater
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Sunset Crater is a cinder cone located north of Flagstaff in U. S. State of Arizona. The crater is within the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Sunset Crater is the youngest in a string of volcanoes that is related to the nearby San Francisco Peaks. The date of the eruptions that formed the 340-meter-high cone was initially derived from tree-ring dates, however, more recent geologic and archaeological evidence places the eruption around A. D.1085. The largest vent of the eruption, Sunset Crater itself, was the source of the Bonito and Kana-a lava flows that extended about 2.5 kilometers NW and 9.6 kilometers NE, respectively. Additional vents along a 10-kilometer-long fissure extending SE produced small spatter ramparts, the Sunset Crater eruption produced a blanket of ash and lapilli covering an area of more than 2,100 square kilometers and forced the temporary abandonment of settlements of the local Sinagua people. The volcano has partially revegetated, with pines and wildflowers, the crater is the namesake for the Sunset Crater Beardtongue. Since the last eruption of the volcano is a recent occurrence, damage from hikers forced the National Park Service to close a trail leading to the crater, but a short trail at the base remains. The hiking trail below the summit skirts the substantial Bonito Lava Flow and this hardened lava is black and appears fresh as it has devastated the forest in its path. The lava flow created a ice cave or tube that is now closed to the public after a partial collapse. On June 5,2015, a website with satellite images reported steam rising from the crater, the cause of the steam was later determined to be a forest fire, and geologists stated that the volcano was extinct. The monument is managed by the National Park Service in close conjunction with nearby Wupatki National Monument, public outcry over this plan led in part to the proclamation of Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument by President Herbert Hoover in 1930. A one-mile, self-guided loop trail is located at the base of Sunset Crater, a trail providing access to the summit and crater was closed in 1973 because of excessive erosion caused by hikers. A visitor center is located near the entrance,15 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona. In James Rollins seventh Sigma Force novel The Devil Colony, Painter Crowe takes a contingent to explore Sunset Crater, during the course of their preparations and explorations, the group discusses the history of the people and geology at the two sites. Official National Park Service Sunset Crater National Monument website Geology of Sunset Crater - USGS
Sunset Crater
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Sunset Crater from the Cinder Hills
Sunset Crater
100.
Tonto National Monument
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Tonto National Monument is a National Monument in the Superstition Mountains, in Gila County of central Arizona. The area lies on the edge of the Sonoran Desert ecoregion. The Salt River runs through this area, providing a rare, well-preserved cliff dwellings were occupied by the Salado culture during the 13th, 14th, and early 15th centuries. The people farmed in the Salt River Valley, and supplemented their diet by hunting and gathering native plants, the Salado were fine craftspeople, producing some of the most flamboyant polychrome pottery and intricately woven textiles to be found in the Southwest. Some of the artifacts excavated nearby are on display in the visitor center museum, the Tonto National Monument Archeological District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15,1966. Tonto National Monument, Lower Ruin and Tonto National Monument, Upper Ruin are archeological sites that were NRHP-listed in 1989, the National Monument is surrounded by the Tonto National Forest, which includes low plains, desert scrubland, and alpine pine forests. The Upper Sonoran ecosystem is known for its characteristic saguaro cacti and it also serves as a home for native animals such as whitetail and mule deer, mountain lion, bobcat, three rattlesnake species and many more. The area around Tonto National Monument also includes several designated National Wilderness Areas, including Four Peaks, Superstition, and Salome Wilderness Areas
Tonto National Monument
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Lower Cliff Dwelling
Tonto National Monument
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Salado Polychrome pottery from Tonto National Monument
Tonto National Monument
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Landsat 7 image of Tonto National Monument (right center), and the surrounding area
Tonto National Monument
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Tonto National Monument, AZ, Room detail
101.
Bureau of Land Management
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President Harry S. Truman created the BLM in 1946 by combining two existing agencies, the General Land Office and the Grazing Service. Most BLM public lands are located in these 12 western states, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The mission of the BLM is to sustain the health, diversity, originally BLM holdings were described as land nobody wanted because homesteaders had passed them by. All the same, ranchers hold nearly 18,000 permits, the agency manages 221 wilderness areas,23 national monuments and some 636 other protected areas as part of the National Landscape Conservation System totaling about 30 million acres. There are more than 63,000 oil and gas wells on BLM public lands, total energy leases generated approximately $5.4 billion in 2013, an amount divided among the Treasury, the states, and Native American groups. The BLMs roots go back to the Land Ordinance of 1785 and these laws provided for the survey and settlement of the lands that the original 13 colonies ceded to the federal government after the American Revolution. As additional lands were acquired by the United States from Spain, France and other countries, the United States Congress directed that they be explored, surveyed, during the Revolutionary War, military bounty land was promised to soldiers who fought for the colonies. After the war, the Treaty of Paris of 1783, signed by the United States, England, France, in the 1780s, other states relinquished their own claims to land in modern-day Ohio. By this time, the United States needed revenue to function, Land was sold so that the government would have money to survive. In order to sell the land, surveys needed to be conducted, the Land Ordinance of 1785 instructed a geographer to oversee this work as undertaken by a group of surveyors. The first years of surveying were completed by trial and error, once the territory of Ohio had been surveyed, in 1812, Congress established the General Land Office as part of the Department of the Treasury to oversee the disposition of these federal lands. By the early 1800s, promised bounty land claims were finally fulfilled, over the years, other bounty land and homestead laws were enacted to dispose of federal land. Several different types of patents existed and these include cash entry, credit, homestead, Indian, military warrants, mineral certificates, private land claims, railroads, state selections, swamps, town sites, and town lots. A system of land offices spread throughout the territories, patenting land that was surveyed via the corresponding Office of the Surveyor General of a particular territory. This pattern gradually spread across the entire United States, the laws that spurred this system with the exception of the General Mining Law of 1872 and the Desert Land Act of 1877 have since been repealed or superseded. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 allowed leasing, exploration, and production of selected commodities, such as coal, oil, gas, the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 established the United States Grazing Service to manage the public rangelands by establishment of advisory boards that set grazing fees. The Oregon and California Revested Lands Sustained Yield Management Act of 1937, commonly referred as the O&C Act, in 1946, the Grazing Service was merged with the General Land Office to form the Bureau of Land Management within the Department of the Interior. It took several years for new agency to integrate and reorganize
Bureau of Land Management
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Horses crossing a plain near the Simpson Park Wilderness Study Area in central Nevada, managed by the Battle Mountain BLM Field Office
Bureau of Land Management
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Flag of the Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Land Management
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Snow-covered cliffs of Snake River Canyon, Idaho, managed by the Boise District of the BLM
Bureau of Land Management
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Calm Before the Storm: Fatigued BLM Firefighters taking a break after a fire in Oregon in 2008
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Agua Fria National Monument
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Agua Fria National Monument is in the U. S. state of Arizona, approximately 40 miles north of downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Created by Presidential proclamation on January 11,2000, the 72, 344-acre monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, an agency within the U. S. Department of the Interior. The Bureau of Land Management already managed the lands, however, under monument status the level of protection and preservation of resources within the new monument have been enhanced, the monument is a unit of the BLMs National Landscape Conservation System. Over 450 distinct Native American structures have been recorded in the monument, the enhanced protection status also provides greater habitat protection for the numerous plant and animal communities. The petroglyphs depict animals, geometric figures and abstract symbols and are found by the thousands, numerous ruins of agricultural terraces and irrigation devices indicate that farming was widespread during this period. Other historical entities that are found include 19th century mining features, more than 140 bird species have been recorded at the monument. Notable species of reptiles and amphibians, including the Leopard frog, the Garter snake, mammals such as the Pronghorn, Mule deer, White-tail deer and Javelina are relatively common. The elk, black bears and Mountain lions are found in the monument. Agua Fria National Monument travel guide from Wikivoyage BLM. gov, official Agua Fria National Monument website
Agua Fria National Monument
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Agua Fria National Monument
Agua Fria National Monument
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Ruins of a village built by Hohokam Puebloans about 1000 years ago on top of Indian Mesa. This is part of the wall of the fort that surrounded the village. The holes in the wall are viewing holes so the defenders can view the only path to the top. There are several branches of an " Ocotillo " shrub in the foreground.
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Las Cienegas National Conservation Area
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The Las Cienegas National Conservation Area is a National Conservation Area of Arizona, located in the transitional zone between the Sonoran Desert and the Chihuahuan Desert. The region’s rolling grasslands, oak-studded hills that connect several sky island mountain ranges, ciénega Creek, with its perennial flow and lush riparian corridor, forms the lifeblood of the NCA and supports a diverse plant and animal community. The BLM has formed a partnership with the nonprofit Empire Ranch Foundation, Empire Ranch Media related to Las Cienegas National Conservation Area at Wikimedia Commons Las Cienegas National Conservation Area - official site
Las Cienegas National Conservation Area
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Cienega Creek
Las Cienegas National Conservation Area
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Cottonwood trees along Cienega Creek.
Las Cienegas National Conservation Area
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An old shack along Cienega Creek.
Las Cienegas National Conservation Area
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Bracket fungus in the NCA.
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Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
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The Glen Canyon NRA was established in 1972 to provide for public use and enjoyment and to preserve the areas scientific, historic, and scenic features. The stated purpose of Glen Canyon NRA is for recreation as well as preservation, as such, the area has been developed for access to Lake Powell via 5 marinas,4 camping grounds, two small airports, and houseboat rental concessions. The southwestern end of Glen Canyon NRA in Arizona can be accessed via U. S. Route 89, State Route 95 and State Route 276 lead to the northeastern end of the recreation area in Utah. The current Lake Powell lies above Glen Canyon, which was flooded by the Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1966. Lake Powell has nearly 2,000 miles of fish-holding shoreline and provides opportunity to fish for bass, smallmouth bass. Lake Powell National Golf Course Championship is an 18-hole course sitting on a mesa overlooking the Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell. Several local marinas provide houseboats, powerboats, jet skis, kayaks, fishing gear, the Geology of the area is dominated by the Glen Canyon Group, consisting of the Navajo Sandstone, Kayenta Formation, and Wingate Sandstone. The entire stratigraphic section included rocks dating from the Cretaceous to Pennsylvanian, with over one million visitors per year, it is inevitable that some will deface the rock faces of the canyon. The Glen Canyon NRA has implemented a program wherein volunteers sign up for a five-day houseboat trip to remove graffiti from the canyon walls
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
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Rainbow Bridge National Monument
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
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Houseboat and powerboat in Knowles Canyon on Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
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Lake Mead National Recreation Area
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Lake Mead National Recreation Area is a U. S. National Recreation Area located in southeastern Nevada and northwestern Arizona. Formation of Lake Mead began in 1935, less than a year before Hoover Dam was completed, the area surrounding Lake Mead was established as the Boulder Dam Recreation Area in 1936. In 1964, the area was expanded to include Lake Mohave and its surrounding area, Lake Mead NRA features water recreation, including boating, swimming, and fishing, on both lakes as well as the stretches of river between the lakes. It also features hiking trails and views of the desert landscape. Three of the four desert ecosystems found in the United States — the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin Desert, tours of Hoover Dam – administered by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation – are also a major attraction within the recreation area. About 200,000 acres of the area are managed separately under the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument. Water covers about 186,000 acres of the recreation area, there are currently nine officially designated wilderness areas under the National Wilderness Preservation System lying within Lake Mead National Recreation Area. All are in the Nevada portion
Lake Mead National Recreation Area
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Lake Mead from the Hoover Dam
Lake Mead National Recreation Area
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Rock formations near Echo Bay
Lake Mead National Recreation Area
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Satellite image of Lake Mead
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National Trails System
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The 1968 Act also created two national scenic trails, the Appalachian and the Pacific Crest, and requested that an additional fourteen trail routes be studied for possible inclusion. In 1978, as a result of the study of trails that were most significant for their associations, a fourth category of trail was added. Since 1968, over forty trail routes have been studied for inclusion in the system, of these studied trails, twenty-one have been established as part of the system. These National Trails are more than just for hiking, many are open for horseback riding. As Congressionally established long-distance trails, each one is administered by an agency, either the Bureau of Land Management, United States Forest Service. Two of the trails are administered by the BLM and the NPS. Occasionally, these agencies acquire lands to protect key sites, resources, National Recreation Trails and connecting-and-side trails do not require Congressional action, but are recognized by actions of the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture. All of the National Trails are supported by private organizations that work with the various federal agencies under the Partnership for the National Trails System. The Act is codified as 16 U. S. C, however, it has been amended numerous times since its passage, most recently on October 18,2004. National Scenic Trails are established to access to spectacular natural beauty. The National Scenic Trail system provides access to the crest of the Appalachian Mountains in the east, on the Appalachian Trail, there are eleven trails designated in the United States. National Historic Trails are designated to protect the remains of significant overland or water routes to reflect the history of the nation and they also commemorate the forced displacement and hardships of the Native Americans, on the Trail of Tears. Most of them are scenic routes instead of non-motorized trails, the act also established a category of trails known as connecting and side trails. Timms Hill Trail Anvik Connector The first National Geologic Trail was established by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Timeline of environmental events National Park Service U. S
National Trails System
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Signs used along the historic and scenic trails to mark the modern roads and significant points.
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Old Spanish National Historic Trail
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The Old Spanish Trail is an historical trade route that connected the northern New Mexico settlements of Santa Fe, New Mexico with those of Los Angeles, California and southern California. Approximately 700 mi long, the trail ran through areas of mountains, arid deserts. It is considered one of the most arduous of all trade routes established in the United States. Explored, in part, by Spanish explorers as early as the late 16th century, the name of the trail comes from the publication of John C. Frémont’s Report of his 1844 journey for the U. S. Topographical Corps, guided by Kit Carson, from California to New Mexico. The name acknowledges the fact that parts of the trail had been known to the Spanish since the 16th century, frémonts report named a trail that had already been in use for about 15 years. The trail is important to New Mexico history because it established an arduous, the trail is a combination of known trails that were established by Spanish explorers, trappers, and traders with the Ute and other Indian tribes. The eastern parts of what called the Old Spanish Trail, including southwest Colorado. The same trail was used by the first Americans to reach California by land, the Mojave desert section of the Mohave Trail is now a jeep trail called the Mojave Road. Upon the return of Antonio Armijo, the governor of New Mexico immediately announced the success to his superiors in Mexico City, as a reward, the governor officially named Armijo Commander for the Discovery of the Route to California. Armijos route was documented by him in a report to the governor, after this date, the route began to be used by traders for usually a single annual round trip. Word spread about the successful trade expedition and some commerce began between Santa Fe and Los Angeles. This route ran northwest to the Colorado and Green Rivers, then crossed over to the Sevier River and it then passed southward to the Santa Clara River, linking up with Armijos route to California. California had many horses and mules, many growing wild, with no local market, usually two blankets were traded for one horse, more blankets were usually required for a mule. California had almost no wool processing industry and few weavers, so woven products were a welcome commodity, the trading party usually left New Mexico in early November to take advantage of winter rains to cross the deserts on the trail and would arrive in California in early February. The return party would usually leave California for New Mexico in early April to get over the trail before the water dried up. The return party often included several hundred to a few horses and mules. Low-scale emigration from New Mexico to California used parts of the trail in the late 1830s when the trade began to die
Old Spanish National Historic Trail
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Virgin River drainage basin
Old Spanish National Historic Trail
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Old Spanish Trail
108.
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
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Both forests are managed as one unit by USDA Forest Service from the forests Supervisors Office in Springerville, Arizona. Apache-Sitgreaves has over 400 species of wildlife, with its high elevation and cool summer breezes it is a popular weekend destination from the hot desert for Phoenix, Arizona residents. The Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest borders the western and northern borders of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation and it is located in parts of Greenlee, Apache, Navajo, and Coconino counties in eastern and east-central Arizona, and Catron County in western New Mexico. It has an area of 818,651 acres. The more southeasterly and much larger Apache National Forest portion lies adjacent to the east side of the Fort Apache and it lies on both sides of the border with New Mexico, in Greenlee, Catron, and Apache counties. It has an area of 1,813,601 acres. Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests has 8 notable cold water lakes and boasts numerous lakes and reservoirs and over 680 miles of rivers, the headwaters for the Black, Little Colorado and San Francisco rivers are in the White Mountains. There are four areas within Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. All lie within the former Apache National Forest section, three have been officially designated by Congress as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Bear Wallow Wilderness Escudilla Wilderness Mount Baldy Wilderness The fourth, the Blue Range Primitive Area, was designated as a Primitive Area by the Secretary of Agriculture in 1933, the area has been managed under the highest level of forest service protection to maintain its wilderness qualities. It was recommended that this area be included in the Blue Range Wilderness in 1971, Arizona portal New Mexico portal List of U. S. National Forests Official Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest website
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
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Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
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Apache National Forest
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
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Greer, Arizona Ranger Station, 1924
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Coconino National Forest
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The Coconino National Forest is a 1. 856-million acre United States National Forest located in northern Arizona in the vicinity of Flagstaff. Today, the Coconino National Forest contains diverse landscapes, including deserts, ponderosa pine forests, flatlands, mesas, alpine tundra, the forest contains all or parts of ten designated wilderness areas, including the Kachina Peaks Wilderness, which includes the summit of the San Francisco Peaks. There are local district offices in Flagstaff, Happy Jack. Coconino is the word the Hopi use for Havasupai and Yavapai Indians, the Coconino National Forest was so named because it is located in the central portion of Coconino County. The elevation in the forest ranges from 2,600 feet in the part of the forest near the Verde River to 12,633 feet at the summit of Humphreys Peak. Much of the forest is a high plateau that is located in the midst of the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in North America. The southern border of this plateau is the Mogollon Rim, a nearly 400 mile long escarpment running across central Arizona that also marks the boundary of the Colorado Plateau. The Coconino National Forest is divided into three districts that each possess their own distinct geography and environments, the northernmost district, known as the Flagstaff District, is home to the San Francisco Peaks, an ancient group of volcanic summits. The highest peak, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet, the second, third, and fourth highest peaks in Arizona are found nearby. The San Francisco Peaks are the dominant structure of the San Francisco Volcanic Field, the forest borders another National Monument, Wupatki National Monument on its northeast corner. Located in the portion of the Flagstaff District is Mormon Lake. Several other natural lakes, including Ashurst Lake and Marshall Lake, dot the top of Anderson Mesa, Anderson Mesa is best known for the branch of Lowell Observatory located along the edge of the mesa. At the base of the southwest side of Anderson Mesa are two narrow, manmade reservoirs constructed in the early 1900s, Upper Lake Mary and Lower Lake Mary. Upper Lake Mary contains water year round in all but the very driest years while Lower Lake Mary, located just to the northwest of Upper Lake Mary, usually resembles a wet meadow rather than a lake. The Red Rock district, centered on the town of Sedona, encompasses many of the red rock buttes and mesas. Just north of Sedona is Oak Creek Canyon, one of the many large canyons located along the Mogollon Rim. Oak Creek Canyon is also a popular leaf peeping area in the fall as it is one of the few areas in the forest where deciduous trees are the dominant vegetation type and this region is also home to Sycamore Canyon, the second largest canyon in Arizona. Elevations in this part of the forest are substantially lower than the rest of the forest resulting in higher temperatures year round, the Third district is the Mogollon Rim District, located along the Mogollon Rim south of the Mormon Lake District and east of the Red Rock District
Coconino National Forest
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San Francisco Peaks, winter
Coconino National Forest
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Inner Basin of San Francisco Peaks in the summer. Agassiz Peak at center, and Fremont Peak at left.
Coconino National Forest
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Cathedral Rock at Red Rock Crossing
Coconino National Forest
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Wet Beaver Creek in Coconino National Forest
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V-Bar-V Heritage Site
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The V-Bar-V Heritage Site is the largest known petroglyph site in the Verde Valley of central Arizona, and one of the best-preserved. The rock art site consists of 1,032 petroglyphs in 13 panels, acquired by the Coconino National Forest in 1994, the site is protected and kept open to the public by the US Forest Service. Volunteers from the Verde Valley Archaeological Society and the Friends of the Forest provide interpretive tours, a visitor center, restroom and bookstore, operated by the Forest Service and the Arizona Natural History Association, is located on site. The fenced petroglyph site is an easy walk from the parking lot. For most of the year, there is a resident on-site custodian, the petroglyphs were created by Southern Sinagua residents between about 1150 and 1400 AD. The site was known to early American settlers, and became part of the historic V-Bar-V ranch around 1907, the ranch headquarters were nearby, and the ranchers protected the site from vandalism. Some historic ranch buildings remain near the Visitor Center, the US Forest Service acquired the site in 1994. Rock art is one type of data that can be used to identify prehistoric cultures. The Beaver Creek Rock Art Style has been identified and formally described through studies of art sites in the Beaver Creek area. The Beaver Creek Style, found throughout the half of the Verde Valley, is diagnostic of the Southern Sinagua culture between A. D.1150 and 1400. About 20% of the petroglyphs are zoomorphs, including snakes, turtles, coyotes, deer, the next most common types are anthropomorphs and geometric figures, such as spirals and grids. The documentation of the V-Bar-V Heritage Site has provided important information for defining the characteristics of the Beaver Creek Style, V-Bar-V is unusual in that all of the petroglyphs are of this one style, and almost all are well-spaced, without overlap or newer designs drawn over older. Wet Beaver Wilderness, one-half mile east, V-Bar-V Heritage Site at Coconino National Forest. This official site provides hours of operation, fees, contact phone numbers and this article incorporates public domain text from the USDA-FS Government website. Friends of the Forest photo gallery Another nice V-bar-V photo gallery
V-Bar-V Heritage Site
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The main panel at the V-Bar-V Heritage Site.
V-Bar-V Heritage Site
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A closer view. The holes are cupules, which served some unknown ritual purpose.
V-Bar-V Heritage Site
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Another view, taken in 2002
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Kaibab National Forest
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At 1.6 million acres the Kaibab National Forest borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, in north-central Arizona. It is divided into three sections, the North Kaibab Ranger District and the South Kaibab and are managed by the United States Forest Service. The South Kaibab is further divided into two districts, the Tusayan Ranger District, and the Williams Ranger District, the Grand Canyon is a natural boundary between the North Kaibab and the South Kaibab. The South Kaibab covers 1,422 square miles and the North Kaibab stretches over 1,010 square miles, elevations vary on the forest from 5,500 feet in the southwest corner to 10,418 feet at the summit of Kendrick Peak on the Williams Ranger District. The forest as a whole is headquartered in Williams, the Kaibab Plateau is an island surrounded by lower elevations. The North Kaibab Ranger District was part of the lands withdrawn from the domain in 1893. President Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon Game Preserve in 1906, the game preserve which includes 612,736 acres of the Kaibab National Forest, is set a side for the protection of game animals and birds, and is to be recognized as a breeding place therefore. In 1908, the Forest Reserve north of the Grand Canyon, in 1919, the Grand Canyon National Park was created from the forest service lands surrounding the Grand Canyon. In 1934, the Tusayan National Forest south of the Grand Canyon was consolidated into the Kaibab National Forest, up until 1972 the North Kaibab consisted of two ranger districts, Big Springs and Jacob Lake. The headquarters of each were somewhat remote, particularly the Big Springs district, the two were combined and the forest area north of the canyon became the North Kaibab Ranger District and the district ranger station moved to Fredonia. The headquarters for the Kaibab National Forest is in Williams, Arizona, the higher altitude is reflected in Bright Angels cooler temperatures and increased precipitation versus Jacob Lake. The North Kaibab is unusual for either a Csb or Dsb climate, featuring lower precipitation in summer, with July. This is followed by a drier period during the autumn months. Summers in this area feature warm days and cool nights, winters are chilly, especially at night, and snowy. Jacob Lake averages 105 inches of snow per annum, and Bright Angel Ranger Station 135 inches, the South Kaibab includes the Tusayan Ranger District and the Williams Ranger District. Vegetation in the forest varies by elevation and exposure, principal tree species are ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, aspen, blue spruce, oak, pinyon pine, and juniper. Among other things, they enhance the beauty of the landscape, hold soil in place, as elevation decreases, trees give way to bitterbrush, Gambel oak, sagebrush, and cliffrose. Within the forest, there are irregular areas entirely free of tree growth, commonly seen large wild animals include white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, pronghorn, turkey and coyote
Kaibab National Forest
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Spring runoff at Sycamore Falls, head of Sycamore Canyon
Kaibab National Forest
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Panorama of Scholz Lake in the Williams Ranger District
Kaibab National Forest
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Aspen trees in fall colors, North Kaibab Ranger District
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Tonto National Forest
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The Tonto National Forest, encompassing 2,873,200 acres, is the largest of the six national forests in Arizona and is the fifth largest national forest in the United States. The Tonto National Forest has diverse scenery, with elevations ranging from 1,400 feet in the Sonoran Desert to 7,400 feet in the pine forests of the Mogollon Rim. The Tonto National Forest is also the most visited urban forest in the United States, the boundaries of the Tonto National Forest are the Phoenix metropolitan area to the south, the Mogollon Rim to the north and the San Carlos and Fort Apache Indian Reservation to the east. The Tonto is managed by the USDA Forest Service and its headquarters are in Phoenix, there are local ranger district offices in Globe, Mesa, Payson, Roosevelt, Scottsdale, and Young. Tonto National Forest began charging fees in 1996 for daily. The Tonto Upgrade must be used in addition to an Interagency Pass for use of the recreation sites, Tonto Passes are available through online vendors at the Tonto National Forest recreation passes and permits web page. Daily and Half Price Daily Tonto Passes are now available for online, immediate printing at home. Passes are also available through local merchants. The Tonto Forest Reserve was established on October 3,1905 by the General Land Office, in 1906 the forest reserves were transferred to the U. S. Forest Service, and on March 4,1907 Tonto became a National Forest. On January 13,1908 the Pinal Mountains National Forest was added along with other lands, on July 1,1908 part of Black Mesa National Forest and other lands were added, and on July 1,1953 part of Crook National Forest was added
Tonto National Forest
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Tonto National Forest
Tonto National Forest
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A pool of water, a remnant of the last rains, in a dry wash in Tonto National Forest
Tonto National Forest
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Unofficial trail sign in Pine Canyon
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National Wildlife Refuge
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National Wildlife Refuge System is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of lands and waters set aside to conserve Americas fish, wildlife. National Wildlife Refuges manage a range of habitat types, including wetlands, prairies, coastal and marine areas. Among these hundreds of national refuges are home to some 700 species of birds,220 species of mammals,250 reptile and amphibian species and more than 1000 species of fish. Endangered species are a priority of National Wildlife Refuges in that nearly 60 refuges have been established with the purpose of conserving 280 threatened or endangered species. National Wildlife Refuges are also places where visitors can participate in a variety of outdoor recreational activities. The National Wildlife Refuge System welcomes nearly 50 million visitors each year, hunters visit more than 350 hunting programs on refuges and on about 36,000 Waterfowl Production Areas. Opportunities for fresh or saltwater fishing are available at more than 340 refuges, there is at least one wildlife refuge in each of the fifty states. The agency has created Comprehensive Conservation Plans for each refuge, developed through consultation with private and these began a review process by stakeholders beginning in 2013. The CCCPs must be consistent with the Fish and Wildlife Service goals for conservation, the CCPs outline conservation goals for each refuge for fifteen years into the future, with the intent that they will be revised every fifteen years thereafter. Additionally, NEPA requires FWS planners and refuge staff to engage the public in planning process to assist them with identifying the most appropriate alternative. Completed CCPs are available to the public and can be found on the FWS website, equally important is an intimate understanding of the social and economic drivers that impact and are impacted by management decisions and can facilitate or impede implementation success. Consideration of these contributes to the success of the Service’s mission to protect wildlife. The Refuge System works collaboratively internally and externally to leverage resources, according to the Services 2013 Banking on Nature Report, visitors to refuges positively impact the local economies. Prevention and control of fires is also a very active part of refuge management. Completion of controlled burns to reduce fuel loading, and participation in the wildland fire suppression efforts, are vital for management of refuge lands. A considerable infrastructure of physical structures is also essential to management of refuge lands. As of September 30,2015 there were 13,030 roads, bridges and trails,5,284 buildings,8,007 water management structures, the overall facility infrastructure is valued at nearly $30 billion
National Wildlife Refuge
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Pelican Island in Florida was the nation's first wildlife refuge, created in 1903
National Wildlife Refuge
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Official logo
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Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge
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Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is located in southwestern Arizona in the United States, along 56 miles of the Mexico–United States border. Today, it is home to more than 275 different species of animals, CPNWR is the third largest national wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states. Its total area is 860,010 acres, which is greater than that of the state of Rhode Island, the refuge is administered from a small headquarters building, located in Ajo. Spanish for dark head, the name comes from the Cabeza Prieta Mountains in the refuges northwest part. 803,418 acres — amounting to 93% of the area of CPNWR — was preserved in 1990 as the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness. Author Edward Abbey, a frequent visitor, described the refuge as the best desert wilderness left in the United States, there are only three public-use roads in the refuge, El Camino Del Diablo, Christmas Pass Road and Charlie Bell Road. All of these are unpaved, and they are very difficult to travel because of deep mud and sand, sharp rocks, vegetation. Four-wheel drive vehicles are required on El Camino Del Diablo and Christmas Pass Road, Charlie Bell Road can be traversed in a 2-wheel drive vehicle, provided the vehicle has a high clearance. There are no facilities on the refuge, including gasoline, sanitation or potable water, visitors are advised to carry two spare tires and other spare mechanical parts in case of a breakdown. The purpose of this closure is to disturbance to herds containing fawns. CPNWR is located within the Yuma Desert, a section of the Sonoran Desert. Despite the harshness of the environment, the refuge is home to more than 275 different species of animals. Many species of birds are permanent residents of CPNWR, while others migrate through during the spring. Most of the fauna are xerocoles, and they tend to be nocturnal or crepuscular, most active at dawn. Some of the commonly encountered at CPNWR include, In 1936. The Scouts first became interested in the sheep through the efforts of Major Frederick Russell Burnham, Burnham observed that fewer than 150 of these sheep still lived in the Arizona mountains. He called George F. Miller, then scout executive of the boy scout council headquartered in Phoenix, several other prominent Arizonans joined the movement and a Save the Bighorns poster contest was started in schools throughout the state. The contest-winning bighorn emblem was made up into neckerchief slides for the 10,000 Boy Scouts, the National Wildlife Federation, the Izaak Walton League, and the National Audubon Society also joined the effort
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge
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El Camino Del Diablo at the eastern entrance to CPNWR, 2014
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge
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Papago Well, located on El Camino Del Diablo in CPNWR
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge
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Desert bighorn ram at CPNWR
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge
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Tule Well on El Camino Del Diablo in 1938
115.
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
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The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is located in Arizona in the southwestern United States, northeast of Yuma and southeast of Quartzsite. The refuge, established in 1939 to protect desert bighorn sheep, broad, gently sloping foothills as well as the sharp, needlepoint peaks of the Kofa Mountains are found in the rugged refuge. The small, widely scattered waterholes attract a number of water birds for a desert area. A wide variety of plant life is found throughout the refuge. The name Kofa comes from an area gold mine, the King of Arizona mine. In 1936, the Arizona Boy Scouts mounted a campaign to save the bighorn sheep. He called George F. Miller, then scout executive of the Boy Scout council headquartered in Phoenix, several other prominent Arizonans joined the movement and a save the bighorns poster contest was started in schools throughout the state. Burnham provided prizes and appeared in store windows from one end of Arizona to the other, the contest-winning bighorn emblem was made into neckerchief slides for the 10,000 Boy Scouts, and talks and dramatizations were given at school assemblies and on radio. The National Wildlife Federation, the Izaak Walton League, and the Audubon Society joined the effort, on April 2,1939, Kofa National Wildlife Refuge was officially opened, Burnham gave the dedication speech. The desert bighorn sheep is now the mascot for the Arizona Boy Scouts. The Kofa Game Range, as it was called, was administered jointly by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. On February 5,1975, Kofa was transferred exclusively to the Bureau of Land Management, but in 1976 complete authority was returned to the Department of Fish and Wildlife Services and the Kofa Game Range was renamed the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. The population of bighorn sheep was recently estimated to be 428. They live mainly in the two ranges that dominate the refuge landscape — the Kofa Mountains and Castle Dome Mountains of northern Yuma County and these mountains are not especially high, but they are extremely rugged and rise sharply from the surrounding desert plains, providing excellent bighorn sheep habitat. In recent years, this herd has provided animals for transplanting throughout Arizona, other notable wildlife species found in the area include the badger, desert tortoise and kit fox. Bird species that occur at Kofa include the dove, American kestrel, northern flicker, Says phoebe, cactus wren, phainopepla. In recent years, the cougar has established a presence in the park. The Kofa Mountain barberry, Berberis harrisoniana, a plant endemic to southwestern Arizona
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
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Bighorn sheep in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
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Berberis harrisoniana
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
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Prickly pear blossoms
116.
National Wilderness Preservation System
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The National Wilderness Preservation System of the United States protects federally managed wilderness areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. Activity on formally designated wilderness areas is coordinated by the National Wilderness Preservation System. Wilderness areas are managed by four federal land management agencies, the National Park Service, the U. S. Forest Service, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. As of 2015, there are 765 designated wilderness areas, totaling 109,129,657 acres, during the 1950s and 1960s, as the American transportation system was on the rise, concern for clean air and water quality began to grow. A conservation movement began to place with the intent of establishing designated wilderness areas. Howard Zahniser created the first draft of the Wilderness Act in 1956 and it took nine years and 65 rewrites before the Wilderness Act was finally passed in 1964. The Wilderness Act of 1964, which established the NWPS, was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3,1964, the first national forest wilderness areas were established by the Wilderness Act itself. The Great Swamp in New Jersey became the first National Wildlife Refuge with formally designated wilderness in 1968, Wilderness areas in national parks followed, beginning with the designation of wilderness in part of Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho in 1970. A smaller spike in 1984 came with the passage of many bills establishing national forest wilderness areas identified by the Forest Services Roadless Area Review and Evaluation process. Over 200 wilderness areas have been created within Bureau of Land Management administered lands since then, as of August 2008, a total of 704 separate wilderness areas, encompassing 107,514,938 acres, had become part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. With the passage of the Omnibus Public Lands Act in March 2009, as of September 2015, the system includes 765 wilderness areas totaling 109,129,657 acres. On federal lands in the United States, Congress may designate an area as wilderness under the provisions of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Congress then reviews these cases on a state by state basis and determines which areas, there have been multiple occasions in which congress designated more federal land than had been recommended by the nominating agency. The Wilderness Act provides criteria for lands being considered for wilderness designation, Wilderness areas are subject to specific management restrictions, human activities are limited to non-motorized recreation, scientific research, and other non-invasive activities. During these activities, patrons are asked to abide by the Leave No Trace policy and this policy sets guidelines for using the wilderness responsibly, and leaving the area as it was before usage. When closely observed, the Leave No Trace ethos ensures that wilderness areas remain untainted by human interaction, Wilderness areas fall into IUCN protected area management category Ia or Ib. Wilderness areas are parts of parks, wildlife refuges, national forests. Initially, the NWPS included 34 areas protecting 9.1 million acres in the national forests, today, there are 762 wilderness areas in the NWPS, preserving 108,916,684 acres
National Wilderness Preservation System
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The Wilderness Act protects exceptional undisturbed natural areas and scenery, such as in the Ansel Adams Wilderness
National Wilderness Preservation System
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Acres of Wilderness Added By Year
National Wilderness Preservation System
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Recently designated High Schells Wilderness, Nevada
National Wilderness Preservation System
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Wilderness Boundary Marker in Idaho
117.
Verde River
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The Verde River is a major tributary of the Salt River in the U. S. state of Arizona. It is about 170 miles long and carries a mean flow of 602 cubic feet per second at its mouth and it is one of the largest perennial streams in Arizona. The river begins below the dam at Sullivan Lake, fed by Big Chino Wash, the cities of Camp Verde, Clarkdale and Cottonwood are the main population centers along the river. The Verde River and the Salt River meet near Fountain Hills, the Salt River flows into the Gila River west of Phoenix. In 1984, the United States Congress designated 40.5 miles of the Verde River as Wild and Scenic through the National Wild, the Scenic portion begins at Beasley Flats and extends downstream about 19 miles to the northern boundary of the Mazatzal Wilderness. The Wild portion extends from there to the mouth of Red Creek, in 1986, a 6-mile stretch of the river was identified by the state of Arizona as a critical natural resource. This reach of the Verde River and its riparian zone. The park, called the Verde River Greenway State Natural Area, dead Horse Ranch State Park, near Cottonwood, is adjacent to the Greenway. Plants found in riparian zones along the river include Arizona alder, sycamore, and walnut trees, a variety of willows, reeds, cattails, box elder, and saltcedar, among others. Aquatic vertebrates along the Verde River include North American beaver, belted kingfishers, great blue herons, otters, Chiricahua leopard frogs, Sonoran mud turtles, and others. Among the 27 species of fish found in the river are carp, flathead catfish, roundtail chub, Gila chub, bass, desert sucker, mosquitofish, red shiner, and Sonora sucker. Beaver were trapped with considerable success on the Verde River by fur trappers led by Ewing Young, edgar Alexander Mearns wrote in his 1907 naturalist survey Mammals of the Mexican Boundary of the United States that beaver were present on nearly all streams of the Colorado Basin. Re-introductions of beaver in recent times have transformed even small desert streams into robust riparian habitat, increasing species abundance, floating the Verde River in rafts and kayaks is a popular pastime as it runs through scenic valleys and the Mazatzal Wilderness. The facilities described below are maintained by the Tonto National Forest authority, kayak rentals, shuttles, boating gear and services are available in Clarkdale, Cottonwood and Camp Verde. Several commercial outfitters offer guided trips on the Verde River, the Verde River above Camp Verde has about 70 miles of fishable waters at an average elevation of 3,800 feet above sea level. The nearest town with fuel, restaurants, lodging, groceries, Fish species frequenting this stretch of the river include largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, sunfish, channel catfish, flathead catfish, yellow perch, chub, carp, and, in winter, rainbow trout. Crayfish and bullfrogs are also found, from Camp Verde to Horseshoe Lake, about 60 miles of fishable waters are at an average elevation of 2,800 feet. The nearest town with fuel and other supplies and amenities is Camp Verde, species along this stretch include largemouth and smallmouth bass, sunfish, channel and flathead catfish, carp, crayfish, and bullfrogs
Verde River
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Near Clarkdale along Sycamore Canyon Road
118.
Government of Arizona
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The government of Arizona is the governmental structure of the state of Arizona as established by the Arizona Constitution. The executive is composed of the Governor, several statewide elected officials. The Arizona Legislature consists of the House of Representatives and Senate, the judiciary is composed of the Arizona Supreme Court and lower courts. There is also local government, consisting of counties, municipalities, the statewide elected officers are, All elected officials hold a term of four years, and are limited to two consecutive terms. The line of succession also includes the general, state treasurer. Elections for statewide officers occur during even numbered, none presidential, years, each of the thirty legislative districts has one senator and two representatives. Legislators are elected for terms and are limited to four consecutive terms in a chamber. Each Legislature covers a two-year period, the first session following the general election is known as the first regular session, and the session convening in the second year is known as the second regular session. Each regular session begins on the second Monday in January and adjourns sine die no later than Saturday of the week in which the 100th day from the beginning of the session falls. The President of the Senate and Speaker of the House, by rule, thereafter, the session can only be extended by a majority vote of members present of each house. The Arizona Supreme Court is the highest court in Arizona, the court currently consists of one chief justice, a vice chief justice, and three associate justices. Justices are appointed by the governor from a list recommended by a bipartisan commission, subsequent re-elections occur every six years. The supreme court has jurisdiction in death penalty cases. The court has jurisdiction in a few other circumstances, as outlined in the state constitution. The court may declare laws unconstitutional, but only while seated en banc. The court meets in the Arizona Supreme Court Building at the capitol complex, the Arizona Court of Appeals, further divided into two divisions, is the intermediate court in the state. It hears and decides cases in three judge panels, division One is based in Phoenix, consists of sixteen judges, and has jurisdiction in the Western and Northern regions of the state, along with the greater Phoenix area. Division Two is based in Tucson, consists of six judges, judges are selected in a method similar to the one used for state supreme court justices
Government of Arizona
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Doug Ducey (R) Governor
Government of Arizona
Government of Arizona
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Michele Reagan (R) Secretary of State
Government of Arizona
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Mark Brnovich (R) Attorney General
119.
Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park
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Boyce Thompson Arboretum is the largest and oldest botanical garden in the state of Arizona. It is one of the oldest botanical institutions west of the Mississippi, Boyce Thompson Arboretum is on U. S. Highway 60, an hours drive east from Phoenix and 3 miles west of Superior, Arizona. The exhibits include a garden, palm and eucalyptus groves, an Australian exhibit, South American exhibit, aloe garden. There are also side trails such as the Chihuahuan Trail, Curandero Trail, over 2600 species of arid land plants from around the world grow at the Arboretum. Agaves, aloes, boojum trees, cork oaks, jujube trees, legume trees, cacti and succulents grow extensively throughout the Arboretum. Because the BTA is a zone, the park attracts Sonoran Desert wildlife. Visitors have seen bobcats, javelinas, coatimundis, rattlesnakes, gila monsters, hawks, hummingbirds,270 bird species have been spotted in the park and the Audubon Society has designated the Arboretum as an Important Bird Area. Currently the Arboretum has 5,000 members and attracts over 75,000 people annually, the arboretum was founded by William Boyce Thompson, a mine engineer who created his fortune in the mining industry. He was the founder and first president of Inspiration Consolidated Copper Company at Globe-Miami, Arizona and Magma Copper Company in Superior, in the early 1920s, Thompson, enamored with the landscape around Superior, built a winter home overlooking Queen Creek. Boyce Thompson wrote, “I have in mind far more than mere botanical propagation, I hope to benefit the State and the Southwest by the addition of new products. We will bring together and study the plants of the countries, find out their uses. It is a big job, but we will build here the most beautiful and their first project was the construction of two homes that still exist on site, the Crider House and the Gibson House. Propagation buildings were put up in 1925 and by 1926, the Smith Building, Ayer Lake was created the same year to help irrigate the lower portion of the park. In 1927, the Boyce Thompson Southwest Arboretum was incorporated, becoming the first non-profit research organization in Arizona, the Arboretum opened to the public on April 6,1929. Arboretum Administration – Board of Directors In 1927, the Board of Directors consisted of Colonel Thompson, Charles F. Ayer and Edward Rice, in 1929, the Directors of Boyce Thompson Institute and the Arboretum were added. Since that time, the Colonel’s family has served continuously on the Board and is represented by his great-great grandson Dr. Paul Hohenlohe. His business associates have been represented by the son of another associate, William T. Smith, his son, Richard A. Smith, between the three of them, they held Chairmanship of the Board from 1963 to 2000 and 2010 to present. The President of the Boyce Thompson Institute has remained on the Board as well and is represented by Dr. David Stern
Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park
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Spring wildflowers at Boyce Thompson Arboretum
Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park
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A walking trail winds through groves of trees at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum.
Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park
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William Boyce Thompson, circa 1928.
Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park
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The Smith Building with greenhouses, circa 1926.
120.
Catalina State Park
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Catalina State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, that is adjacent to Coronado National Forest on the western slopes of the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. Catalina State Park has an elevation of 3,000 feet but varies dramatically with high ridges. The park includes 5,493 acres and is administered by Arizona State Parks in conjunction with the U. S. Forest Service, Catalina State Park is accessed from the town of Oro Valley on Arizona State Route 77,9 miles north of Tucson. There is evidence that the park and surrounding area have been occupied since about 5000 BCE by the Hohokam people. The Romero Ruin still contains pueblos built of rock and adobe, the earliest date the pueblo would have been lived in is between 550–600 CE. The site was used for nearly 400 years, 1000–1450 CE. Specific trails are open to equestrians. Certain trails also connect with trails in Coronado National Forest, continuing to Mount Lemmon. The park also features several campgrounds and an equestrian center
Catalina State Park
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Catalina State Park in Oro Valley, Arizona
121.
Dead Horse Ranch State Park
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Dead Horse Ranch State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, on the Verde River in an area known as the Verde River Greenway. It also offers access to the Dead Horse Trail System. The ranch was named by the Ireys family, who sold the land to the state of Arizona to become a state park. The annual Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival, the Birdy Verde, in 2010, about 70 field trips were offered for the four-day event, many led by nationally recognized experts. Headquarters for the festival is at Dead Horse Ranch, but events are held throughout the Verde Valley, another popular yearly event at Dead Horse Ranch State Park is Verde River Day, which is held annually in September to celebrate the protection of the rivers riparian habitat
Dead Horse Ranch State Park
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Dead Horse Ranch State Park
122.
Homolovi State Park
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Homolovi State Park is a state park of Arizona, USA, preserving over 300 Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites. Homolovi or Homolovi is a Hopi word meaning place of the little hills, the park is located just over a mile north of Winslow, Arizona, and features historical exhibits, interpretive programs, birdwatching, and hiking. There is a campground, restrooms with showers and an RV dump station. The park was closed to visitors from February 22,2010 to March 18,2011 due to budget cuts. From 1986 to its 2011 reopening, the name of the park was Homolovi Ruins State Park, the Hopi tribe lobbied the Arizona parks board to remove Ruins from the name, as the Hopi tribe considers them spiritually alive. During a meeting in Winslow on March 17,2011, the board voted to change the name. The Homolovi cluster of archaeological sites includes seven separate pueblo ruins built by prehistoric people, including ancestors of the Hopi people. This fertile area is on a floodplain of the Little Colorado River, and the inhabitants grew cotton, corn, beans, the people of this period are called Hisatsinom, which is the Hopi word for long-ago people. They are often referred to as Anasazi, as the Navajo guides who helped nineteenth-century anthropologists and archaeologists called them, however, the word Anasazi is Navajo for enemies of our ancestors, and the present-day Hopi population prefer to refer to them as the Hisatsinom. Four of the sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the visitor center displayed pottery sherds, baskets, and other artifacts, as well as offering an introduction to the human history of the park area. Information could also be found about the flora and fauna of the park, out of the seven Homolovi ruins, two were open to visitors. Homolovi II, the largest and most thoroughly excavated site, has a sidewalk and it was occupied between 1330 and 1400 AD, and has about 1200 rooms. Archaeologists believe that the inhabitants were trading cotton for pottery with the inhabitants of the Hopi Mesas and this ruin also features three large rectangular plazas and about forty kivas. There are also clusters of pit-houses, occupied before 1260 AD. Petroglyphs may be seen along sections of a nearby trail. Sunset, Arizona—one of a series of farming communities along the Little Colorado River in the late 1870s—was established by Lot Smith, frequent floods forced the settlers to abandon Sunset in the early 1880s, and the community was eventually washed away. The cemetery, located on a hill overlooking the river, survived. Three of Lot Smiths children are among the cemetery population, hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders could use the 6 miles of unshaded dirt roads in the park along with the trails leading to archaeological sites
Homolovi State Park
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Visitor Center
123.
Jerome State Historic Park
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A museum is located in the old Douglas Mansion. Jerome State Historic Park reopened on October 14,2010, after being closed since February 27,2009, because of budget cuts, renovation and stabilization were funded by a state heritage grant and donations from the Douglas family. The park is open on a seven-day schedule thanks to funding raised by Yavapai County, the city of Jerome. The Douglas Mansion has been a landmark in Jerome since 1916, Douglas designed the house as a hotel for mining officials and investors as well as for his own family. It featured a wine cellar, billiard room, marble shower, steam heat, and, much ahead of its time, Douglas was most proud of the fact that the house was constructed of adobe bricks that were made on the site. The house is the largest adobe structure in Arizona and he also built the Little Daisy Hotel near the mine as a dormitory for the miners. It was recently remodeled into a private residence, the old mansion is now a museum devoted to history of the Jerome area and the Douglas family. The museum features exhibits of photographs, mining artifacts, and minerals in addition to a video presentation, one room, the Douglas library, is restored as a period room. There are more mining artifacts outside along with an area offering a panoramic view of the Verde Valley & River. In 1962 the sons of Jimmy Douglas donated the Douglas Mansion to the State of Arizona, the Jerome State Historic Park opened in 1965. It has continued to develop its exhibits and expand its collection of historic artifacts, the parks mission is to interpret the history of the Douglas family and the history of Jerome in the mining era
Jerome State Historic Park
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The Douglas Mansion
Jerome State Historic Park
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Little Daisy Hotel
124.
Kartchner Caverns State Park
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Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles of passages. The park is located 9 miles south of the town of Benson, long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by a state biologist who helped in its preservation. The park encompasses most of a block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains. The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, in 1985, The Nature Conservancy acquired an option to purchase the land. The discovery of the cave was made public in 1988 when the landowners sold the area to the state for development as a park. Prior to its opening in 1999, the state spent $28 million on a high-tech system of air-lock doors, misting machines. The two major features of the currently available to the public are the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room contains one of the worlds longest soda straw stalactites, the Big Room contains the worlds most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk, it is closed during the summer for several months each year because it is a nursery roost for cave bats. Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, approximately 60% of the cave system is not regularly explored. The park also includes hiking trails above the caverns for public use, the longest trail, the Guindani Trail, is 4.2 miles, while the shorter trail, the Foothills Loop Trail, measures 2.5 miles. Although the cave is largely uninhabited, as many as 2000 Myotis velifer bats nest in the cave during late spring, many different cave formations can be found within the caves and the surrounding park. These include cave bacon, helictites, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites, cave formations like the stalactites and stalagmites grow approximately a 16th of an inch every 100 years. Kartchner Caverns, How Two Cavers Discovered and Saved One of the Wonders of the Natural World,2008, University of Arizona Press
Kartchner Caverns State Park
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The Big Room of Kartchner Caverns
Kartchner Caverns State Park
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Walking trailes on the Whetstone Mountains above Kartchner Caverns State Park
Kartchner Caverns State Park
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A view from the walking trails above Kartchner Caverns State Park
Kartchner Caverns State Park
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Fossil crinoid casts at Kartchner Caverns State Park
125.
Lake Havasu
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Lake Havasu is a large reservoir behind Parker Dam on the Colorado River, on the border between California and Arizona. Lake Havasu City sits on the eastern shore. The reservoir has a capacity of 619,400 acre feet. The concrete arch dam was built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation between 1934 and 1938, the lakes primary purpose is to store water for pumping into two aqueducts. Prior to the dam construction, the area was home to the Mohave Indians, the lake was named after the Mojave word for blue. In the early 19th century, it was frequented by beaver trappers, spaniards also began to mine the areas along the river. Mark Wilmer Pumping Plant pumps water into the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct, whitsett Pumping Plant is located on the lake, and lifts the water 291 feet for the Colorado River Aqueduct. Gene Pumping Plant is just south of Parker Dam, and gives the water an additional boost of 303 feet, the Colorado River Aqueduct has three more pumping plants, Iron Mountain, Eagle Mountain, and Julian Hinds. The total lift is 1,617 feet, the shorelines are in the ecotone of the higher Mojave Desert to the lower Sonoran Desert and its Californian Colorado Desert ecoregions. The Havasu National Wildlife Refuge is located at the upper end, Lake Havasu State Park is along the eastern shore in Arizona. The Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge extends southeastward up the zone of the Bill Williams River canyon from the southeastern end of the reservoir. Lake Havasu is well known for its fishing and boating. Fishing tournaments are held on the lake, where bass are the main catch. Fish list, Largemouth bass, Smallmouth bass, Striped bass, Carp, Catfish, Catfish, Crappie, Razorback sucker, white sturgeon were stocked in Lake Havasu in 1967 and 1968 from stock obtained from San Pablo Bay, California. While some dead sturgeon were found downstream from Havasu, living fish have not been recorded, but may still exist along the southern end of Lake Havasu near Parker Dam. Sturgeon have been known to grow upwards of 20 feet and can live in excess of 100 years and many in, robert Paxton McCulloch was an American entrepreneur most notable for purchasing the old London Bridge and moving it to one of the cities he founded in Arizona. Lake Havasu sparked the imagination of McCulloch, who purchased 3,500 acres of property along Pittsburgh Point
Lake Havasu
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Lake from Parker Dam
Lake Havasu
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Lake Havasu with Lake Havasu City, Arizona on the east shore (right) and Havasu Lake, California on the western shore (left).
Lake Havasu
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Early-morning fishing on Lake Havasu
Lake Havasu
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London Bridge at Lake Havasu.
126.
Lyman Lake State Park
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The Lyman Reservoir is the largest lake in the region. Lyman Lake State Park, is located in and administered by the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, attracts anglers, as well as campers, Lyman Reservoir is located 17 miles north of Springerville. An irrigation impoundment on the Little Colorado River, Lyman Reservoir consists of 1,400 acres situated at 5,980 feet, the lake lies entirely within Lyman Lake State Park. Water levels fluctuate, but when full, the depth is 22 feet. Lyman Reservoir is a water reservoir containing largemouth bass, channel catfish, green sunfish, carp. The State Parks and Recreation Department maintains year-round visitor amenities, in the summer, there are interpretive tours of nearby petroglyphs. Arizona Boating Locations Facilities Map Arizona Fishing Locations Map Arizona Fishin Holes, Phoenix, AZ, Arizona Game and Fish Department,2007
Lyman Lake State Park
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Lyman Reservoir
Lyman Lake State Park
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The floating dock
127.
McFarland State Historic Park
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McFarland State Historic Park is a small historic park located in downtown Florence, Arizona on the corner of Main and Ruggles Streets. The park consists of a courthouse and other buildings dating to the Arizona Territory period. The original structure was built in 1878 with the addition of a jail in 1882, the courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. McFarland Park reopened February 2011 after repairs and renovations and it had been closed because of Arizona State Parks budget cuts. McFarland Park commemorates Ernest McFarland, who was successively a US Senator, Governor of Arizona, McFarland bought the old courthouse building in 1974, donated it to the state, and paid for its renovation. McFarland State Historic Park was opened and dedicated October 10,1979, McFarland State Historic Park 2011 reopening photo gallery
McFarland State Historic Park
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Restored courtroom in the old courthouse
McFarland State Historic Park
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First Florence Courthouse
128.
Patagonia Lake State Park
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Patagonia Lake State Park is a state park of Arizona, USA, containing Patagonia Lake. The 2. 5-mile-long, 250-acre lake located near Patagonia, Arizona, is a popular southern Arizona site for fishing, camping, boat rental, picnicking, hiking, located inside the park is the recently established Sonoita Creek State Natural Area, Arizonas first major state natural area. Created by the damming of Sonoita Creek, the lake is habitat for bass, crappie, bluegill, and catfish, special events include an annual mariachi festival in March and bird tours and interpretive programs on request. Patagonia Lake State Park is located on State Route 82,7 miles south of Patagonia, Patagonia Lake State Park Aviatlas, Birding at Patagonia Lake
Patagonia Lake State Park
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Boating at Patagonia Lake State Park
129.
Riordan Mansion State Historic Park
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Riordan Mansion State Historic Park is a historic site in the Kinlichi Knoll neighborhood of Flagstaff, Arizona, bordering Northern Arizona University. This park features the home of Timothy and Michael Riordan, lumber baron brothers who married sisters, Caroline. Cooperatively the Riordan brothers built their thirteen thousand square foot mansion in 1904 while Arizona was still a territory, the home consisted of two similar six thousand square foot wings for each family, connected by a large common room. Charles Whittlesey was the architect for the Riordan homes and he also was the architect for the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon. The public opening of the Park was held on August 4,1983 and this was the results of cooperative efforts of the family owner, Robert Chambers, who had died in 1980, and the Arizona State Park board members and personnel. On April 27,2002 the Michael J. Riordan side was opened for self-guided tours, the Riordan Action Network Group, a team of local volunteers fund-raises to keep the park open and pay the staff salaries. The park now maintains very few staff and relies on volunteers to maintain the mansion and provide educational tours
Riordan Mansion State Historic Park
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Riordan Mansion State Historic Park
130.
River Island State Park
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Buckskin Mountain State Park is a state park located near Parker, Arizona, USA. A second developed area of the park is known as the River Island Unit or River Island State Park, both park areas have shoreline on the Colorado River and views of the Buckskin Mountains. The park provides camping and water recreation opportunities, both parks have been maintained with the assistance of members from the National Service Program, AmeriCorps NCCC. The team & park rangers also began a project for the dog run that was scheduled to be finished in 2015. Buckskin State Park & River Island State are primarily operated by volunteers with only a few park rangers split between the two parks. Both sites are home to different kinds of birds, insects, fish & plant life
River Island State Park
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Location of Buckskin Mountain State Park in Arizona
131.
Tonto Natural Bridge State Park
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Tonto Natural Bridge is a natural arch in Arizona, USA, that is believed to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world. The area surrounding the bridge has made into a state park called Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. Tonto Natural Bridge stands over a 400-foot-long tunnel that measures 150 feet at its widest point and this natural bridge was first documented by David Gowan, a Scotsman, in 1877 while hiding from hostile Apache tribe members. Gowan was impressed by the location and persuaded his family to emigrate, Gowan also tried to claim the land for himself under squatters rights. Gowan family members lived near the bridge until 1948 and their lodge building survives to this day and is included in the National Register of Historic Places. Walking trails Pine Creek Trail - approximately 0. 5-mile long Waterfall Trail - approximately 600-foot round trip to waterfall cave, Gowan Trail - approximately 0. 5-mile long, ending at an observation deck in the creek bottom. Since that time, three groups have donated funds to allow the park to open until the end of September 2011
Tonto Natural Bridge State Park
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Tonto Natural Bridge
132.
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park
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The park contains a museum, a number of historic sites, an underground archeology exhibit displaying the excavated foundations of the Tubac Presidio, and a picnic area. Various cultural events are held throughout the year, including Anza Days, Los Tubaqueños living history presentations, archeological tours. Until recently, the park was administered by Arizona State Parks and was the first park in the Arizona state park system. As a result of cutbacks, the Tubac Presidio was scheduled to be closed in 2010, but was rescued by local residents. It is now operated by The Friends of the Presidio and staffed with dedicated volunteers, as the Spanish Empire attempted to expand into the frontiers of New Spain, Catholic missions were established throughout modern-day Mexico and the southwestern United States. Of these many churches, one was established at nearby Tumacácori in 1691 and Tubac, then a small Pima Indian village, was set up as a mission farm and ranch. Spanish colonists started to colonize the area in the 1730s, twenty years later the Pimas, led by Luis of Saric, led an uprising against the Spanish in 1751 and the settlement at Tubac was destroyed. A year later, the Pimas surrendered and the Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac was established to protect the town, Tubac became the first European settlement in what today is the state of Arizona. The expedition passed through Tubac in early 1774, several years later, the Tubac garrison was moved north to Tucson, leaving Tubac undefended against Apache raids. As a result, the presidio was reactivated in 1787, Tubac became part of an independent Mexico in 1821 and then part of the United States in 1853 as a result of the Gadsden Purchase. With the arrival of the Americans came Charles D. Poston, Poston performed marriages, granted divorces, officiated baptisms, printed his own money to pay his employees, and even established Arizonas first newspaper in 1859. The following year, Tubac became the largest town in the state, the prosperity was not to last, however, as the areas soldiers were called away to fight in the American Civil War. The town was again unprotected from the Apaches, the routing of the railroad through Tucson to the north and the discovery of silver around Tombstone to the east meant that Tubac would never regain its importance. The centerpiece of the exhibits at Tubac Presidio State Historic Park is the display of the presidios foundations. Excavated in 1974 by archeologists from the University of Arizona, portions of the presidios foundation, visitors may also enter the furnished 1885 schoolhouse, complete with desks, chalkboards, and a potbelly stove. Every October, the park hosts Anza Days to commemorate the arrival of Juan Bautista de Anza at the Tubac Presidio, costumed actors on horseback arrive from nearby Tumacácori and discuss de Anzas trip to San Francisco. Other presentations at the event include actor portrayals of the time periods during which Tubac has been active as well as mariachi music. Arizonastateparks, official Tubac Presidio State Historic Park website Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park
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Entrance to Tubac Presidio State Historic Park
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park
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Reenactment of the arrival of de Anza at Tubac, Arizona during Anza Days at Tubac Presidio State Historic Park.
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park
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Exterior of the Old Tubac Schoolhouse
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park
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Interior of the Old Tubac Schoolhouse
133.
Verde River Greenway State Natural Area
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The Verde River is a major tributary of the Salt River in the U. S. state of Arizona. It is about 170 miles long and carries a mean flow of 602 cubic feet per second at its mouth and it is one of the largest perennial streams in Arizona. The river begins below the dam at Sullivan Lake, fed by Big Chino Wash, the cities of Camp Verde, Clarkdale and Cottonwood are the main population centers along the river. The Verde River and the Salt River meet near Fountain Hills, the Salt River flows into the Gila River west of Phoenix. In 1984, the United States Congress designated 40.5 miles of the Verde River as Wild and Scenic through the National Wild, the Scenic portion begins at Beasley Flats and extends downstream about 19 miles to the northern boundary of the Mazatzal Wilderness. The Wild portion extends from there to the mouth of Red Creek, in 1986, a 6-mile stretch of the river was identified by the state of Arizona as a critical natural resource. This reach of the Verde River and its riparian zone. The park, called the Verde River Greenway State Natural Area, dead Horse Ranch State Park, near Cottonwood, is adjacent to the Greenway. Plants found in riparian zones along the river include Arizona alder, sycamore, and walnut trees, a variety of willows, reeds, cattails, box elder, and saltcedar, among others. Aquatic vertebrates along the Verde River include North American beaver, belted kingfishers, great blue herons, otters, Chiricahua leopard frogs, Sonoran mud turtles, and others. Among the 27 species of fish found in the river are carp, flathead catfish, roundtail chub, Gila chub, bass, desert sucker, mosquitofish, red shiner, and Sonora sucker. Beaver were trapped with considerable success on the Verde River by fur trappers led by Ewing Young, edgar Alexander Mearns wrote in his 1907 naturalist survey Mammals of the Mexican Boundary of the United States that beaver were present on nearly all streams of the Colorado Basin. Re-introductions of beaver in recent times have transformed even small desert streams into robust riparian habitat, increasing species abundance, floating the Verde River in rafts and kayaks is a popular pastime as it runs through scenic valleys and the Mazatzal Wilderness. The facilities described below are maintained by the Tonto National Forest authority, kayak rentals, shuttles, boating gear and services are available in Clarkdale, Cottonwood and Camp Verde. Several commercial outfitters offer guided trips on the Verde River, the Verde River above Camp Verde has about 70 miles of fishable waters at an average elevation of 3,800 feet above sea level. The nearest town with fuel, restaurants, lodging, groceries, Fish species frequenting this stretch of the river include largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, sunfish, channel catfish, flathead catfish, yellow perch, chub, carp, and, in winter, rainbow trout. Crayfish and bullfrogs are also found, from Camp Verde to Horseshoe Lake, about 60 miles of fishable waters are at an average elevation of 2,800 feet. The nearest town with fuel and other supplies and amenities is Camp Verde, species along this stretch include largemouth and smallmouth bass, sunfish, channel and flathead catfish, carp, crayfish, and bullfrogs
Verde River Greenway State Natural Area
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Near Clarkdale along Sycamore Canyon Road
134.
Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park
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It is an Arizona state park in the city of Yuma, Arizona, USA. The Yuma Quartermaster Depot was an important quartermaster depot during the 1870s, goods were shipped up the Colorado River from the Gulf of California and stored at Yuma for distribution to the desert frontier forts in the Southwestern United States territories. Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park is on the grounds of the former Yuma Quartermaster Depot. The depot was established by the U. S. Army in 1864 to store and distribute supplies to army posts in what is now Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada. One purpose of the depot was to ensure that a supply of much needed goods such as ammunition, food. Supplies were shipped up the Colorado on river boats to Yuma, the supplies gathered at the quartermaster depot were shipped throughout the southwest via river boats and overland on mule team freight wagons. Up to 900 mules were kept in stables at Yuma Quartermaster Depot, the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in Yuma in 1877 signaled the end of the depot. When the railroad reached Tucson in 1880, the depot was closed. The quartermasters moved to Fort Lowell in Tucson, the Signal Corps, having arrived at Fort Yuma and the quartermaster depot in 1875, remained there until 1891. Following the departure of the Signal Corps, the property was transferred to the control of the U. S. Weather Service which worked out of the site until 1949. The Yuma Quartermaster Depot fell into a state of disrepair in the years following 1949, some of the facilities were used by the U. S. Customs and Border Protection and other governmental agencies. Five buildings left over from the quartermaster depot days remain at the park, the site was identified as a possible historic park in the early 1960s. The office of the quartermaster was acquired by the state in 1969. More property was added to what would become the park in 1980, the park land was purchased from United States Department of the Interior by the city of Yuma and donated to the state park system in 1986. Groundbreaking for the park was held in 1986, the park opened in 1990 as a unit of Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park and was established as a state historic park in 1997, under the control of the non-profit Yuma Crossing Foundation. The Yuma Crossing Foundation established an agreement with the parks board to manage, develop. After seven years of construction and rebuilding the park was opened to the public in 1997 as Yuma Crossing State Historic Park, the park is part of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. The name of the park was changed in 2007 to reflect the use of the area
Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park
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The warehouse at Yuma Quartermasters Depot State Historic Park
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Yuma Territorial Prison
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The Yuma Territorial Prison is a former prison located in Yuma, Arizona, United States. Opened in 1875, it is one of the Yuma Crossing, the site is now operated as a historical museum by Arizona State Parks as Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park. Prison Opened while Arizona was still a U. S. territory, for the next 33 years 3,069 prisoners, including 20 women, served sentences there for crimes ranging from murder to polygamy. The prison was under construction with labor provided by the prisoners. In 1909, the last prisoner left the Territorial Prison for the newly constructed Arizona State Prison Complex located in Florence and it was also the 3rd historic park in Arizona. High School Yuma Union High School occupied the buildings from 1910 to 1914, when the schools football team played against Phoenix and unexpectedly won, the Phoenix team called the Yuma team criminals. Yuma High adopted the nickname with pride, sometimes shortened to the Crims, the schools symbol is the face of a hardened criminal, and the student merchandise shop is called the Cell Block. In the 1959 western, Rawhide, starring Clint Eastwood, in the episode Incident at Alabaster Plain Rowdy Yates tells how he and a fellow Confederate Corporal escaped the Yuma Territorial Prison during the Civil War. The Main Gate of Yuma Prison is shown at the beginning of the Wanted, Dead or Alive episode, in the 1961 western, The Comancheros, starring John Wayne, Yuma is also referenced. For a Few Extra Dollars is a 1966 Italian spaghetti western war film, the first scene of the Louis LAmour book Kid Rodelo takes place in Yuma Prison In Once Upon a Time in the West, the bandit Cheyenne is put on a train to Yuma. Yuma prison is referenced frequently in western radio and television such as Gunsmoke, The Rifleman and Bonanza. The 1968 Italian made film Long Ride From Hell is a tale of revenge that chronicles the saga of a rancher who along with his brother is sent to Yuma prison. In The Wild Bunch, Pat Harrigan threatens Deke Thornton, Youve got thirty days to get Pike, in They Call Me Trinity, Bambino tells Trinity that he escaped from Yuma Prison. The novel Forty Lashes Less One by Elmore Leonard takes place almost entirely inside Yuma Prison in 1909, in 2016 it was featured in Season 12 of Ghost Adventures where the crew recorded some of its best kinetic energy evidence to date
Yuma Territorial Prison
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Main Gate to the Yuma Territorial Prison.
Yuma Territorial Prison
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The main guard tower.
Yuma Territorial Prison
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A mugshot of Pete Spence at the Yuma Territorial Prison in 1883.
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Wildlife area
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Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the laws of each country or the regulations of the international organisations involved. There are over 161,000 protected areas in the world with more added daily, by contrast, only 1. 17% of the worlds oceans is included in the worlds ~6,800 Marine Protected Areas. Protected areas are essential for biodiversity conservation, often providing habitat, Protection helps maintain ecological processes that cannot survive in most intensely managed landscapes and seascapes. Generally, protected areas are understood to be those in human occupation or at least the exploitation of resources is limited. As a result, Protected Areas can encompass a range of governance types. Indeed, governance of protected areas has emerged a critical factor in their success, subsequently, the range of natural resources that any one protected area may guard is vast. Of all global terrestrial carbon stock,15. 2% is contained within protected areas, Protected areas in South America hold 27% of the worlds carbon stock, which is the highest percentage of any country in both absolute terms and as a proportion of the total stock. Rainforests,18. 8% of the worlds forest is covered by protected areas, of the 670 ecoregions with forest cover, 54% have 10% or more of their forest cover protected under IUCN Categories I – VI. Mountain protected area coverage has increased globally by 21% since 1990, the categories provide international standards for defining protected areas and encourage conservation planning according to their management aims. Protecting places and resources is by no means a modern concept, over 2000 years ago, royal decrees in India protected certain areas. In Europe, rich and powerful people protected hunting grounds for a thousand years, moreover, the idea of protection of special places is universal, for example, it occurs among the communities in the Pacific and in parts of Africa. However, the protected areas movement doesnt begin until late nineteenth-century in North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. While the idea of protected areas spread around the world in the twentieth century, thus, in North America, protected areas were about safeguarding dramatic and sublime scenery, in Africa, the concern was with game parks, in Europe, landscape protection was more common. The spectrum of benefits and values of protected areas is recognised not only ecologically, international programmes for the protection of representative ecosystems remain relatively progressive, with less advances in marine and freshwater biomes. There is increasing pressure to take account of human needs when setting up protected areas. Such negotiations are never easy but usually stronger and longer-lasting results for both conservation and people. In some countries, protected areas can be assigned without the infrastructure and networking needed to substitute consumable resources, one of the main concerns regarding protected areas on land and sea is their effectiveness at preventing the ongoing loss of biodiversity
Wildlife area
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A poster of Yellowstone from 1938.
Wildlife area
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World map with total percentage of each country under protection.
Wildlife area
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Strict Nature reserve Belianske Tatras in Slovakia.
Wildlife area
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Black Opal Spring in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Yellowstone, the world's second official protected area (after Mongolia's Bogd Khan Mountain), was declared a protected area in 1872, and it encompasses areas which are classified as both a National Park (Category II) and a Habitat Management Area (Category IV).
137.
Becker Lake
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Becker Lake is a reservoir managed as a trophy trout lake. Located near Springerville, Arizona, Becker Lake is part of the 622-acre Becker Lake Wildlife Area, built around the year 1880, it is one of the oldest reservoirs in the White Mountains. The Arizona Game and Fish Department acquired the lake and property around it in 1973, the lake is located at 6,910 feet. The lake was impounded by Gustav and Julius Becker. Becker Lake has 107 acres with a depth of 21 feet. It is located on a diversion of the Little Colorado River, the Department owns water rights in the lake, so water levels can be maintained. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout twice a year and many of these fish survive the winter. The lake also contains native Little Colorado suckers and illegally introduced green sunfish, the lake has a boat ramp, dirt parking and barrier-free restroom. The Department has developed two hiking trails through the Wildlife Area, rainbow trout Brown trout Arizona Boating Locations Facilities Map Arizona Fishing Locations Map
Becker Lake
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Becker Lake
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Luna Lake (Arizona)
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Luna Lake is a natural body of water that covers approximately 75 acres of land. It is located three miles southeast of Alpine, Arizona, at the elevation of 7,890 ft. Luna Lake has the distinction of being part of the San Francisco River, flowing easterly into New Mexico, then south, the headwaters are north of the other main mountain tributary to the Gila, the Blue River of Arizona. Luna Lake lies at 7,890 feet on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests and it is located about 3 miles east of Alpine. It’s accessible year-round, but ices over in winter months, Luna Lake is a 75-acre impoundment of the upper San Francisco River. It has a depth of 21 feet and an average depth of 8 feet. It is stocked annually with fingerling and subcatchable rainbow and cutthroat trout, because it is a shallow, nutrient-rich lake, it is subject to water quality problems and excessive weed growth. The Arizona Game and Fish Department annually harvests weeds to help some of the water quality problems. The following species are noted at Luna Lake
Luna Lake (Arizona)
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Luna Lake
139.
Mittry Lake
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Mittry Lake is located in the Mittry Lake Wildlife Area, just north of Yuma, Arizona, on the Lower Colorado River. It is located in between the upstream Imperial Dam and the downstream Laguna Dam, Mittry Lake comprises about 750 acres, with much of the shoreline covered with cattails and bullrush. The lake has undergone rehabilitation work including marsh dredging, revegetation and fish habitat improvement, making it a location for small game hunting. It is public land managed by both the Arizona Game and Fish Department and Bureau of Land Management, and available to the public for recreational purposes, La Laguna was a mining town that was in existence for a short time from 1860 to 1862. The town had a few merchants and a ferry across the Colorado River that served placer miners in the vicinity, when the La Paz gold rush began, La Laguna was abandoned. Its former site now lies beneath Mittry Lake
Mittry Lake
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Mittry Lake
140.
Municipal
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It is to be distinguished from the county, which may encompass rural territory and/or numerous small communities such as towns, villages and hamlets. The term municipality may also mean the governing or ruling body of a given municipality, a municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district. The term is derived from French municipalité and Latin municipalis, a municipality can be any political jurisdiction from a sovereign state, such as the Principality of Monaco, or a small village, such as West Hampton Dunes, New York. The power of municipalities range from virtual autonomy to complete subordination to the state, municipalities may have the right to tax individuals and corporations with income tax, property tax, and corporate income tax, but may also receive substantial funding from the state. Similar terms include Spanish ayuntamiento, also called municipalidad, Polish gmina, Dutch/Flemish Gemeente, in Australia, the term local government area is used in place of the generic municipality. Here, the LGA Structure covers only incorporated areas of Australia, incorporated areas are legally designated parts of states and territories over which incorporated local governing bodies have responsibility. In Canada, municipalities are local governments established through provincial and territorial legislation, the Province of Ontario has different tiers of municipalities, including lower, upper, and single tiers. Types of upper tier municipalities in Ontario include counties and regional municipalities, nova Scotia also has regional municipalities, which include cities, counties, districts, or towns as municipal units. In India, a Nagar Palika or Municipality is a local body that administers a city of population 100,000 or more. Under the Panchayati Raj system, it directly with the state government. Generally, smaller cities and bigger towns have a Nagar Palika. Nagar Palikas are also a form of local self-government entrusted with duties and responsibilities. Such a corporation in Great Britain consists of a head as a mayor or provost, since local government reorganisation, the unit in England, Northern Ireland and Wales is known as a district, and in Scotland as a council area. A district may be awarded borough or city status, or can retain its district title, in Jersey, a municipality refers to the honorary officials elected to run each of the 12 parishes into which it is subdivided. This is the highest level of government in this jurisdiction. In the United States, municipality is usually understood as a city, town, village, or other local government unit, in the Peoples Republic of China, a direct-controlled municipality is a city with equal status to a province, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing. In Taiwan, a municipality is a city with equal status to a province, Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei. In Portuguese language usage, there are two words to distinguish the territory and the administrative organ, when referring to the territory, the word concelho is used, when referring to the organ of State, the word município is used
Municipal
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The Ponce City Hall, in the city of Ponce, is the seat of the government for both the city and the surrounding barrios making up the municipality.
141.
Nature park
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A nature park or natural park is a landscape protected by means of long-term planning, use and agriculture. These valuable landscapes are preserved in their present state and promoted for tourism purposes, in most countries nature parks are subject to legally regulated protection, which is part of their conservation laws. Nor is it the same as a reserve which may fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of legal protection afforded. However some nature parks have later turned into national parks. The first international nature park in Europe, the present-day Pieniny National Park was founded jointly by Poland, european Nature Parks, Cross-border plans and projects are carried out under the Europarc umbrella. They are host to nearly 20 million visitors annually, the designation of nature park is awarded by the respective state governments. To achieve this award, the 4 pillars of a nature park have to be met, conservation, recreation, education, in 1995 all the Austrian nature parks agreed to be represented by the Association of Austrian Nature Parks or VNÖ. Currently there are parks in the following states, In Belgium. In Flanders, their name is Regionale Landschappen and in Wallonia, there are 17 Regionale Landschappen in Flanders and 9 Natural Parks in Wallonia. Fédération des Parcs naturels de Wallonie Regionale Landschappen In Croatia there is a total of eight national parks and they can be established by any State Environment Protection body. The Nature park is one of the options for area-based nature conservation provided for under the Federal Nature Conservation Act, on 6 June 1956 in the former capital city of Bonn at the annual meeting of the Nature Reserve Association. Five percent of the area of the old Federal Republic of Germany was to be spared from major damage as a result. The definition of the category of park is laid down in federal law. Details, especially regard to the identification, investigation or recognition as a nature park vary in each state depending on the provisions of local conservation law. The underlying idea is a protection through usage, so the acceptance and participation of the population in the protection of the cultural landscape and nature is very important. In doing so the conservation and the needs of recreation users should be linked so that both sides benefit, sustainable tourism with respect for the value of nature and landscape is paramount. Basically all actions, interventions and projects that would be contrary to the purpose of conservation are prohibited, Nature parks are to be considered in zoning and must be represented and considered in local development plans. This is called an acquisition memorandum and they are binding and cannot be waived because of a higher common good
Nature park
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The South Mountain Reservation in the New York Metropolitan Area
Nature park
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Overview map of Austria's nature parks
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South Mountain Park
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South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona, is the largest municipal park in the United States, one of the largest urban parks in North America and in the world. It has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride, South Mountain Park preserves in a natural state a mountainous area of 16,283 acres or approximately 25.5 sq mi of native desert vegetation. Originally called Phoenix Mountain Park, it was formed in 1924 when President Calvin Coolidge sold its initial 13,000 acres to the city of Phoenix for $17,000 and it has since been expanded through bond programs during the 1970s into the early 1980s. It is located south of central Phoenix, hence the name, since the naming, suburban growth has nearly surrounded the park. Ahwatukee now borders to the south and Laveen to the west, South Mountain was originally known as the Salt River Mountains. The original mountain park committee consisted of J. C. Dobbins, chairman of the Phoenix city planning commission, Mrs. John Hampton, Dobbins Road, named after J. C. Dobbins, runs east and west just north of the park. The parks lookout point rises over 1000 feet above the desert floor, beyond the roads leading to ramadas and the summit, the park features 58 miles of trails for cycling, hiking and horseback riding. Much of the park infrastructure was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930s. The landmark Mystery Castle is located within its foothills, there is a variety of flora and fauna within South Mountain Park. One of the most notable flora is the Elephant tree, which exhibits multiple contorted trunk architecture, South Mountain Park is also notable for its chuckwalla population. With an average of 65 chuckwallas per hectare, South Mountain has the highest density of chuckwallas that has ever been reported, further, male chuckwallas at South Mountain exhibit a “carrot tail” phenotype, which is unique to this population
South Mountain Park
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Monument at the entrance of the South Mountain Park
South Mountain Park
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Winter on South Mountain
South Mountain Park
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Twilight over Phoenix from South Mountain Park
South Mountain Park
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A "carrot tailed" Chuckwalla at South Mountain Park.
143.
Papago Park
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Papago Park /ˈpæpəɡoʊ/ is a municipal park of the cities of Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona, USA. It has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride and it includes Hunts Tomb, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Papago Park is a hilly desert park covering 1200 acres in its Phoenix extent and 296 acres in its Tempe extent, Tempe refers to its section of the park specifically as Tempe Papago Park. Papago Park is notable for its many distinctive geological formations and its variety of typical desert plants. Tempe Papago Park includes baseball and softball fields, picnic ramadas, a small lake, rolling Hills Golf Course is within the park between its Phoenix and Tempe extremities. The distinctive red sandstone formations of Papago Park were formed some 6-15 million years ago. One such formation, Hole-in-the-Rock, is a landmark, thanks to the openings eroded in the formation over time. There is some evidence that the Hohokam—a now-extinct aboriginal tribe that lived in the Phoenix area—used the openings. There are also signs of Precambrian granite in the park. The bedrock is concealed by only a layer of topsoil. Papago Park was designated a reservation for the local Maricopa and Pima tribes of aboriginal Americans in 1879. It became the Papago-Saguaro National Monument in 1914, but this status was recalled by Congress, April 7,1930 and it was divided amongst the state of Arizona, the city of Tempe and the Water Users Association, later known as the Salt River Project. The Federal government reserved all oil, coal or other mineral rights, following the Great Depression, Governor Hunt commissioned a bass fish hatchery to be established in Papago Park during 1932. The hatchery was built as a Works Progress Administration project, and became successful, stocking largemouth bass, during World War II, Papago Park housed a POW camp and contained as many as 3,100 prisoners from 1942 to 1944. It was also the site of the largest mass escape from any United States prison camp in World War II, many prisoners quickly realized that they knew nothing about the landscape or climate and turned themselves back in. Wattenberg was the last to be captured, on January 28,1945, after the war the POW camp site served as a VA hospital from 1947 to 1951, then an Army Reserve facility. The state-owned portion of Papago Park was sold to the city of Phoenix on February 25,1959, the fish hatchery was also shut down in 1959, as it was considered obsolete by that time. The City of Phoenix leased the grounds, including its man-made lakes
Papago Park
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Papago Park
Papago Park
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Hole in the Rock
Papago Park
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Inside Hole in the Rock
Papago Park
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Sandra Day O'Connor's House. O'Connor's house was moved from the town of Paradise Valley, Ariz., to Papago Park.
144.
National Historic Landmark
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A National Historic Landmark is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Of over 85,000 places listed on the countrys National Register of Historic Places, a National Historic Landmark District may include contributing properties that are buildings, structures, sites or objects, and it may include non-contributing properties. Contributing properties may or may not also be separately listed, prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of the United States Congress. The first National Historic Site designation was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17,1938. In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the data gathered under this legislation. Because listings often triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the procedures to require owner agreement to the designations. On October 9,1960,92 properties were announced as designated NHLs by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, more than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States, there are NHLs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Three states account for nearly 25 percent of the nations NHLs, three cities within these states all separately have more NHLs than 40 of the 50 states. In fact, New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states, Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, there are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia. Some NHLs are in U. S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, and foreign states. There are 15 in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U. S. commonwealths and territories,5 in U. S. -associated states such as Micronesia, over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs. About half of the National Historic Landmarks are privately owned, the National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which also assists in maintaining the landmarks. A friends group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve, protect, if not already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs, american Water Landmark List of U. S
National Historic Landmark
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USS Constitution
National Historic Landmark
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Frank Lloyd Wright 's Taliesin is a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
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The American Legation in Tangiers, Morocco, was the first National Historic Landmark on foreign soil.
National Historic Landmark
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Navajo Nation Council Chamber, the seat of government for the Navajo Nation, Window Rock, Arizona.
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List of National Historic Landmarks in Arizona
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This is a List of National Historic Landmarks in Arizona. The first designated was San Xavier del Bac Mission, in October,1960, the most recently designated was the Painted Desert Community Complex Historic District in December 2016. National Historic Landmarks Program, at National Park Service
List of National Historic Landmarks in Arizona
List of National Historic Landmarks in Arizona
List of National Historic Landmarks in Arizona
List of National Historic Landmarks in Arizona
146.
Saguaro National Park
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Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona is part of the National Park System in the United States. The park preserves the desert landscape, fauna, and flora in two districts, one east and the other west of Tucson. The park was established to protect its namesake—the giant saguaro cactus —which at this latitude is near the limit of its natural range within the Sonoran Desert. The park consists of two separate parcels—the Tucson Mountain District and the Rincon Mountain District —that lie about 20 miles east and 15 miles west of the center of the city of Tucson, Arizona. Their total combined area in 2016 was 91,716 acres of which 70,905 acres was designated wilderness, each district has a visitor center within easy reach by car from Tucson. Both districts conserve tracts of the Sonoran Desert, including ranges of significant hills, the Tucson Mountains in the west, the park gets its name from the saguaro, a large cactus that is native to the Sonoran Desert and does not grow naturally elsewhere. Saguaros grow at a slow rate. The first arm of a saguaro typically starts growing sometime between 50 and 70 years of age though it may be closer to 100 years in locations where precipitation is very low. A mature saguaro may grow up to 60 feet tall and weigh up to 4,800 pounds when fully hydrated, the total number of saguaros in the park is estimated at 1.8 million. Many other kinds of cactus, including barrel, cholla, facilities in the park include more than 165 miles of hiking trails. The National Park Service publishes safety guidelines for these hikes, including advice about how to avoid heat, dehydration, flash floods, cactus spines, snakes, cougars. According to the NPS, many prefer to visit the park between October and April, when daytime temperatures may reach 70 to 80 °F and nighttime temperatures may drop below freezing. During the hottest season, May through September, daily high temperatures average more than 100 °F, the earliest known residents of the land in and around what later became Saguaro National Park were the Hohokam, who lived there in villages between 200 and 1450 A. D. Hunting and gathering wild foods, they grew corn, beans. Petroglyphs and bits of pottery are among Hohokam artifacts found in the park. Subsequent indigenous cultures, the Sobaipuri of the Tucson Basin and the Tohono O’odham to the west may be descendants of the Hohokam. They hunted deer and other animals and gathered buds, prickly pears, palo verde pods, saguaro fruit. Spanish explorers first entered Arizona in 1539–40, non-native settlement of the region near the park did not occur until 1692 with the founding of San Xavier Mission along the Santa Cruz River, which flowed through Tucson
Saguaro National Park
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Entrance of Saguaro National Park, Rincon District
Saguaro National Park
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Panorama, Saguaro National Park
Saguaro National Park
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Saguaro National Park West. Tucson, AZ Hohokam Petroglyphs
Saguaro National Park
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Saguaro National Monument in 1935.
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