Abstracts for 2020 Symposium Sessions A Collaborative Approach to Recover the Endangered Arizona Eryngo Presentation Abstract Arizona eryngo (Eryngium sparganophyllum, Apiaceae) is a rare species inhabiting marginal ciénegas in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. Only four populations are left in United States and Mexico. Despite its narrow niche and endangered status, this species has the strength of occupying ciénegas of conditions often hostile to other wetland plants. It reproduces both sexually and asexually, is easy to propagate in nursery environment, and survives well after careful transplanting. I will provide the newest finding of its population size in U.S., its recruitment condition, and its interaction with other plant species. I will then highlight the collaboration between Pima County, Desert Botanic Garden, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, University of Sonora, and many other private and public entities in an effort to protect the current populations of Arizona eryngo and extend its population to other ciénegas through a propagation program. Presenter: Yue "Max" Li Brief Bio Conservation Research Scientist, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and UA School of Natural Resources and the Environment Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UA. Research focus on conservation of biodiversity A Deeper Map: preview a public art project about prehistoric irrigation and agriculture along the lower Salt River Presentation Abstract Our project is called A Deeper Map. The culmination of 25 years of effort, A Deeper Map will take the form of a map-based mobile app showing current residents of the Phoenix metro area where ancient canal paths and irrigated fields once existed where they now live work or go to school. We have worked closely with both the archaeological and Tribal communities to bring this project to fruition. Presesnter: Richard Laugharn Brief Bio Richard Laugharn is a Phoenix based artist with an interest in the natural and cultural histories of the arid southwest. He holds an MFA from Arizona State University, and his work is held in several museum collections. He contributed a chapter to Among Unknown Tribes: Rediscovering the Photographs of Explorer Carl Lumholtz. In addition to his ongoing project on desert plants, he is currently developing a public art project that will take the form of a map-based mobile app on the subject of ancient irrigation in along the lower Salt River. A Fantastic Journey to the Pinacates in 1928 by a Sonoita Schoolteacher and his Pals Presentation Abstract This talk describes the highlights of a fantastic journey to the heart of the Pinacate lava region that was recounted by Gumersindo Esquer in a 1928 publication entitled "Campos de Fuego." Who knew about lava tubes that are miles long, the skeletal remains of an early Spanish nun, and even a buried Spanish mission? Esquer himself was a fascinating renaissance man of the Sonoran frontier. This talk will also trace the saga of the publication, from 1928 to its new re-release in 2018. Presenter: Gayle Harrison Hartmann Brief Bio Gayle Harrison Hartmann has worked as an archaeological editor, archaeologist, historian and conservationist for the past 35 years. She has always been attracted to the wide open spaces and fascinating history of the Western Papagueria, especially Tinajas Altas and the Sierra Pinacate. Currently, she is a Research Associate at the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona. She is also president of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, the non-profit organization that is leading the opposition to a proposed open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson. A Small Place with a Bouncy Name and Big Stories: Why Quitobaquito History Should Be Preserved Presentation Abstract The history of Quitobaquito, a border oasis in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument resists the easy caricatures that underlie current border debates. In contrast to rhetoric that divides people by race, national origin, partisan loyalties, and other markers, Quitobaquito’s waters have attracted a rich blend of peoples for 12,000 years. At the turn of the 20th century, for example, the oasis’s several dozen inhabitants included Jews, Frenchmen, Mexicans, white and black Americans, Asian migrants, and Hia C’ed O’odhams. Among the latter, the Orozco family irrigated fields on both sides of the border. They remained after Franklin Roosevelt designated the national monument in 1937. They erected buildings, hunted game, cultivated nonnative plants, and cut wood. They could not prove title to their land or citizenship in either the US or Mexico. Early park staff objected that the family’s activities spoiled the ideal of a people-less wilderness that had inspired the monument’s creation. As the government built a border fence that would sever the homestead, the Orozcos protested through a white friend to Arizona senator Carl Hayden. Hayden prodded the park to build a gate to allow the family access to its holdings south of the border. But disputes continued, and in 1959 the government bought them out and razed their buildings. Quitobaquito’s story features multicultural settlers, Indian homesteaders, people who simultaneously live on both sides of the border, white ranchers who defend Native resource use, and senators who facilitate transborder passage for brown-skinned people of uncertain citizenship. This is not how today’s rhetoric casts such characters. Quitobaquito invites us to see ourselves and each other not though our divisions but as coinheritors of a diverse past. A national park with a serene pond, healthy ecosystem, intact archeological sites, and rich historical interpretation can help the Quitobaquito story to endure as part of three nations’ heritage. Presenter: Jared Orsi Brief Bio Jared Orsi is Professor of History and Director of the Public Lands History Center at Colorado State University, where he teaches courses on borderlands history and environmental history. He is the author or editor of numerous books and articles, including, most recently, _National Parks beyond the Nation: Global Perspectives on "America's Best Idea"_, co-edited with Mark Fiege and Adrian Howkins (Oklahoma 2016,) and _Citizen Explorer: The Life of Zebulon Pike_ (Oxford 2014). The work presented at the Sonoran Desert Symposium draws from research conducted on behalf of the National Park Service between 2013 and 2017 under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit project and will be revised and expanded into a book. All Hail the Queen: rescuing the Peniocereus greggii var. transmontanus Presentation Abstract Part of Pima County’s award-winning Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan from 1999 included the creation of a Native Plant Nursery to help balance habitat loss due to urban development. Today, the Native Plant Nursery is a 2-acre facility maintaining over 20,000 native plants representing 230 Sonoran Desert species, all destined for restoration projects and other public spaces. Nursery inventory also includes mature plants salvaged from areas being developed, which helps to preserve local genetics and habitat resources while keeping plants out of the landfill. The number one threat to native cactus species is habitat loss to development. Peniocereus greggii var. transmontanus, also known in English as the Arizona Queen of the Night or in Spanish as Sarramatraca, is one of the many endemic cactus species that is salvageable before development happens. Peniocereus greggii has a lifestyle strategy unique from most cactus in the Sonoran Desert that makes rescuing these wild plants from development sites a special challenge. Learn how to spot the cryptic plants in habitat, the correct approach to digging and how to care for wild plants in cultivation once they have been rescued. Presenter: Jessie Byrd Brief Bio Jessie Byrd is the Native Plant Nursery Manager for Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation, which specializes in growing and salvaging native plant species for public projects. Jessie believes that using native plants in urban landscapes can help encourage biodiversity while also significantly reducing long-term maintenance inputs. She earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Arizona and a BA in Biology from Bryn Mawr College. She is a Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society board member and the president of the Tucson chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society. Birds, Lizards, and Bighorns: The Hohokam and Their Animal Icons Presentation Abstract The Hohokam had an intricate relationship with animals of the Sonoran Desert that is revealed in their artwork. Their realistic, playful, and abstract depictions of creatures on pottery, carved stone, shell, and rock art, show not only their close observations of the natural world, but how they viewed that world in a cosmological context. The Hohokam selected certain animals to depict. Horned lizards, snakes, water birds, bighorn sheep, canids, and toads or frogs were favorites, while rabbits and rodents seem never to have been illustrated. This presentation explores how the chosen creatures can be considered as Beings within the broader Mesoamerican-Southwestern belief systems of animism, transformation, duality, directionality, and world centering-world renewing practices. Presenter: Linda Gregonis Brief Bio Linda Gregonis has a master's degree in anthropology from the University of Arizona. She has studied Hohokam archaeology for more than 40 years, with an emphasis on pottery analysis. Her research interests in iconography are focused