Douglas RANGER DISTRICT www.skyislandaction.org 3-1 State of the Coronado Forest DRAFT 11.05.08 DRAFT 11.05.08 State of the Coronado Forest 3-2 www.skyislandaction.org CHAPTER 3 Dragoon Ecosystem Management Area The Dragoon Mountains are located at the heart of development. Crossing Highway 80, one passes the Coronado National Forest. The Forest through another narrow strip of private land and encompasses 52,411 acres of the mountains in an area enters the BLM-managed San Pedro Riparian some 15 miles long by 6 miles wide. The Dragoon National Conservation Area. On the west side of the Ecosystem Management Area (EMA) is the smallest San Pedro River, the valley (mostly under private and on the Forest making it sensitive to activities state land jurisdiction) slopes up to the Whetstone happening both on the Forest and in lands Mountains, another Ecosystem Management Area of surrounding the Forest. Elevations range from the Coronado National Forest. approximately 4,700 feet to 7,519 feet at the summit of Due to the pattern of ecological damage and Mount Glenn. (See Figure 3.1 for an overview map of unmanaged visitor use in the Dragoons, we propose the Dragoon Ecosystem Management Area.) the area be divided into multiple management units ( The Dragoons are approximately sixty miles 3.2) with a strong focus on changing management in southeast of Tucson and thirty-five miles northeast of the Dragoon Westside Management Area (DWMA). Sierra Vista. Land adjacent to the western boundary of In order to limit overall impacts on the Westside, a the Management Area is privately owned and remains visitor permit system with a cap on daily visitor relatively remote and sparsely roaded compared to the numbers is recommended. The permit system would eastern side. Until recently, there were only two houses only apply to the Westside Management Area, and along this edge, ranch headquarters for the Horse therefore would contribute to the goal of “multiple use Ranch in west Stronghold Canyon, and the Three management” by providing opportunities for uses and Sisters Ranch in Granite Springs Canyon. Lands along experiences that are being displaced elsewhere on the the western edge are now being developed for houses Coronado. The proposed DWMA is referred to and a resort. Two major residential developments are throughout the document due to the extensive in progress on 19,700 acres adjacent to the west side of management concerns and proposed actions affecting the Dragoons. the area. Moving west from the Dragoons along Slavin Natural History Gulch and Stronghold Canyon toward the San Pedro Geology of the Dragoon mountain range is River, one crosses a patchwork of state and private strikingly beautiful. Huge granite domes, deep land. These state lands are currently leased for grazing canyons, and layers of weathered cliffs and boulder to the owners of the intervening private land but in fields baffle the mind’s depth perception. Large, the future could be available for sale to the highest crystallized, granitic domes resulting from complex bidder, at which point they are opened to geologic activity — including 78 million-year-old “Stronghold Granite”1 — sit atop a layer of limestone www.skyislandaction.org 3-3 State of the Coronado Forest DRAFT 11.05.08 Figure 3.1 Overview of the Dragoon EMA DRAFT 11.05.08 State of the Coronado Forest 3-4 www.skyislandaction.org Figure 3.2 Dragoon EMA Proposed Management Districts www.skyislandaction.org 3-5 State of the Coronado Forest DRAFT 11.05.08 sea bottom. This limestone layer reaches the surface flanks of the Dragoons — until the 1890s.6 The extent south of Middlemarch Pass. When the porous layers and health of grasslands was drastically reduced from of limestone came into contact with the impermeable intensive livestock grazing of the late 1800s, the layers of granite, year-round springs and streams were drought of 1891-1893, and from subsequent produced. These springs feed several streams and overgrazing, fire suppression, and climate change.7 cienegas throughout the range. The hard rocks at the The amount of grassland encroached, and/or mountains’ core rise abruptly above the alluvial San completely displaced by shrubs appears to have made Pedro Valley, through which winds the renowned San its biggest increases between 1900 and 1935. The Pedro River. The bulk of the mountain range consists process of encroachment continues today, albeit at a of steep slopes and boulder fields. GIS slope analysis slower pace. The gently sloping grassland areas found shows only about 3,000 acres (one-tenth) of the range along the west flank of the Dragoons are among the to be less than 10% grade. Most of this flat land is in a best modern-day representatives of this habitat type in narrow band at the base of the western cliffs. Soils in all of Arizona and New Mexico. Nevertheless, shrubs the range are primarily decomposed granite; organic in these savannas are growing progressively denser layers easily eroded, leaving them thin and in some (compare the photos in Figures 3.3), and the lower areas, and concentrated in rich swales and pockets bajada slopes are now heavily dominated by mesquites elsewhere. and creosote bush. Vegetation climbs from desertscrub and semidesert The diverse Sky Island vegetation communities of grassland into encinal savanna and mixed pine-oak the Dragoons are home to fifteen species of woodland.2 Slavin Gulch and Stronghold Canyon threatened, endangered, and officially “special contain examples of the region’s distinctive Arizona concern” animals and plants. These include animals cypress riparian forests. These are among the best such as the Peregrine falcon, Chiricahua leopard frog, remaining stands of this tree and its floral and faunal and various endemic cacti. Jaguars have reportedly associates in the nation. In past eras, mighty forests of been seen in the Dragoon Mountains as recently as Arizona cypress were widely distributed throughout 1986 (specimen reportedly chased from Dragoons and the region.3 These trees are now globally-rare, killed in Dos Cabezas). One ocelot was trapped on the restricted to relict patches in wet, shady canyons. In west side of the range in 1927.8 contrast encinal savanna and woodland, are Human Prehistory and History widespread at middle elevations in the Sky Island The first solid archeological evidence of human region. In the Dragoons these woodlands form an habitation in this area shows Clovis hunters spearing important foundation for species diversity. The mammoths in the San Pedro Valley — and doubtless granite sand limestone soils in the range also the Dragoons foothills — by 9,000 years B.C.9 Next contribute to biological diversity. In the Mule came the long occupancy of the Cochise Culture of Mountains, floral surveys found that granite slopes hunter-gatherers, eventual introduction of (like those of the northern Dragoons) had particularly domesticated crop plants, and development of more strong Madrean affinities, while limestone slopes (like densely settled networks of farming peoples. In these those of the southern Dragoons) tended to have a later times, the Dragoon Mountains sat near the higher percentage of plant species with Chihuahuan confluence of ranges for the Mogollon, Salado, and affinities.4 Hohokam peoples that populated the region, possibly The Dragoons contain some of the most intact, as early as 200 A.D. and lasting in some form through species-rich grasslands on the Coronado National the arrival of the Apache.10 Forest. Grasslands and grass-dominated woodlands History of extant cultures in the Dragoon (“savannas”) once clothed some 45% of the Sky Island Mountains dates back at least to the 1500s when region, but loss of topsoil, desertification, and shrub Europeans first made contact with the Apache in this encroachment have relegated classical open grassland region.11 Boundaries of the Sky Island region coincide and savanna to ever smaller and more isolated almost perfectly with the known range of the patches.5 These grasslands were once so productive Chiricahua Apaches, with Chokonen (or Chiricahua), that harvesting wild hay was a major industry Bedonkohe, Chihenne, and Nedhni bands occupying throughout the — including the eastern and western various subdivisions of the region.12 The Chokonen DRAFT 11.05.08 State of the Coronado Forest 3-6 www.skyislandaction.org Figure 3.3 Views of Dragoons West Slope,1883 and 2002. www.skyislandaction.org 3-7 State of the Coronado Forest DRAFT 11.05.08 range in particular was centered in the Dragoon, Cochise was the chief of the Chokonen band of Chiricahua, Dos Cabezas, and Peloncillo Mountains Chiricahua Apaches. After decades of skirmishes with on both sides of the present U.S.-Mexico border.13 The Mexican soldiers and settlers, 1858 marked Cochise’s compressed latitudinal and elevational gradients that first (peaceable) interactions with newly arriving white characterize the Sky Island region and the area’s high settlers and their military protectors. The peace ended productivity provided year-round hunting and in 1861, when soldiers captured and executed several gathering opportunities, which enabled Chiricahua of Cochise’s relatives. This set off eleven years of Apaches to remain the only entirely non-agricultural mutual violence between Anglos and Cochise’s culture in the American Southwest during this era. Apaches.17 During this time, Cochise and other Written history of the area began with Coronado’s Chokonen Apaches split time between the Dragoon, 1540 journey from Mexico City to the Zuni area of Chiricahua, and Peloncillo Mountains, as well as New Mexico. One proposed route has this epic various sites south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and journey passing up the San Pedro River and along the kept this area relatively free of settlers. west side of the Dragoons. Coronado was followed by In 1872 Brigadier General O.