Love Sedona

Nature’s Neighborhoods, Part 2

The eco-zones that comprise Sedona also include our riparian zone. This zone comes from the Latin riper, meaning river. In Sedona, when you’re by water, you’re by Oak Creek. It’s pretty much all we’ve got.

 Oak Creek is a whole new world. Suddenly, leafy trees (“deciduous”) appear. These include the towering Arizona sycamores and cottonwood trees that give us autumn foliage each year. The foliage can begin in late September at the north end of the Oak Creek Canyon, and endure past Thanksgiving downstream by Red Rock Crossing.

 The creek is clear and usually clean, so with a good eye you may spot the brown, rainbow or speckled trout that swim in it. Spotting fish is also the habit of marvelous Great Blue Herons, who like to do this in the afternoons along the creek. The critters of the high desert – including javelinas, coyotes, lizards, bobcats, deer and jackrabbits – will wander into this area too.

 It was here by the creek that pioneers of the modern community lived. That includes Bear Howard, the Purtymans, the Thompsons and the Schnebly family. If they were going to get water, they had to carry it, so better to live close.

 For more information on ecology, check out the award-winning Sedona's Top Ten Hikes.

 

Nature’s Neighborhoods, Part 1

 Your neighborhood has a name, but what do we call neighborhoods in nature?

 We call them “life zones,” “ecological zones,” or abbreviated, “eco-zones.” Here, at a given altitude, we find a climate and all the plants and animals that thrive in it. Depending on the degree of detail, some count more than 10 different zones in Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon. Let’s discuss the three most prominent ones.

 The first is “high desert.” As a true desert receives less than 12 inches of precipitation – and Sedona averages 14 – it doesn’t actually qualify for desert status. Nonetheless, the term is locally popular, and reflects a generally dry climate. About half of Sedona’s precipitation in this “neighborhood” comes from rain, in the form of the summer monsoons, and half from snow, which tends to fall on winter nights and melt away quickly in the morning.

 “High desert” terrain often rests between 3,500 and 5,500 feet of altitude (as Sedona does) and is sometimes referred to as “pygmy forest.” This reflects the short height of Arizona cypresses, junipers and piñon pine trees. “P.J.”, as in piñon and junipers, is another common name. Manzanita and scrub oak (or “shrub live oak”) bushes are also common. In high desert we find javelinas, coyotes, bobcats, deer, and jackrabbits, along with falcons, hawks, ravens and western jays.

 I’ll describe another eco-zone in my next post. For more information on ecology, check out the award-winning Sedona's Top Ten Hikes.

Wildlife: Mountain Lions

In over 5,000 miles on the trails, I still haven’t seen a mountain lion in Sedona, but I hope someday I will.

 

First, they are powerful, beautiful animals. Adults weigh 70 to 165 pounds; stand 2 1/2 feet tall at the shoulder, and measure 6 feet long, plus a few more feet for a tail. Females are smaller than males, and both range in color from gray to tawny. Kittens have spots.

 

Mountain lions are at the top of the food chain, preying on deer, among other small to medium-size mammals. Their teeth have developed to make them remarkably successful hunters and carnivores. Although they could be about at any time of day, most hunting is done at night, and alone. A large kill will be covered over by the cat, who will return several more times to feed.

 

The range of this incredible feline, elsewhere called "cougars," can be over 100 square miles, although it may share this terrain with others. In Arizona, it is estimated that around 3,000 exist. We find mountain lions from southern Canada through southern South America.

 

While they are worthy of respect, your fear is unwarranted. In over a century of recorded history together, there have been fewer than a dozen human fatalities in North America due to mountain lions. In Sedona, the number of sightings is very few and far between.

 

I have seen mountain lions in the wild and in captivity are they are amazing to behold. In Sedona, I’ve only found their scat and their footprints, but they are surely out there, somewhere.