San Pedro Riparian

U. S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Arizona - Gila District Tucson Field Office The Friends of the San Pedro River (FSPR) is a volunteer, non-profit organization that is dedicated to the conservation, protection and enhancement of the natural and cultural resources of the San Pedro River. They work closely with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the federal land manager of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. They share their love for the river in a variety of activities. Volunteers assist visitors at the San Pedro House and Fairbank Schoolhouse. Docents lead nature and history walks, offer special events, give presentations, and provide educational programs for school children. Further information about FSPR is available at www.sanpedroriver.org. Content Contributors: Virginia Bealer, Jane Chambers, Gabrielle LaFargue, John Rose, Renell Stewart, Ron Stewart Illustrations: Rachel Ivanyi, Lori Kovash (page 6) 2 Species shown on front cover: yellow-billed cuckoo, gray hawk, yellow-breasted chat, black-chinned hummingbird, vermilion flycatcher, Mexican duck, great blue heron, green kingfisher, queen butterfly, southern dogface butterfly, gartersnake, American beaver, mule deer, yellow monkeyflower, rabbitbrush, bulrush, sacaton, Fremont cottonwood, Goodding’s willow. 4 Cottonwood Trees and Water Birds like yellow-billed cuckoos, tanagers, nuthatches and warblers find ________ to eat on the bark, branches and leaves of cottonwoods. Fill in the blanks with one of these words: Shelter Beavers Seeds Insects Wounds Shade Scientist Wind Root Many birds, including woodpeckers, goldfinches, Cooper’s hawks, western screech-owls, and great-horned owls, use cottonwoods for _________ and nest sites. The cottony parts of cottonwood trees are the fluff attached to the tiny seeds. It helps them float on air currents to new places to grow. ______also carries pollen from male to female trees. A skin cream made from cottonwood bark is said to help _______ heal. _______ eat the living part of cottonwood branches just under the bark, and use the branches to make dams, creating ponds that other animals use and slowing water for recharge. Trunks of cottonwoods often fork near the base, creating a broad area of ________ as they grow, cooling water and helping to prevent evaporation. With a shallow _____system reaching only about 10 feet deep, cottonwoods often signaled the presence of springs and rivers to people passing by. In order for cottonwood _____ to grow into trees, they must land on wet sand bars after a late spring or early summer flood, then quickly grow roots deep enough to survive floods that follow. Fremont cottonwoods are named for explorer and ________ John C. Fremont. 5 SPRNCA Bingo The San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area is home to a wide variety of plants and animals. You can observe many of them by walking through the mesquite grassland surrounding the river, and under the trees alongside the river channel. Below is a list of some of the common plants and animals that live near the San Pedro River. See if you can find four in any row, column or diagonal in the chart below. butterfly hawk harvester ant nest turtle spider snake fish lizard cottonwood leaf dragonfly bird mesquite gourd toad yucca 6 cactus Animal Adaptations Adaptations are structures or behaviors that help an organism (a single living thing) survive in its habitat (place where it lives). What are some adaptations of SPRNCA animals and plants that help them survive in the SPRNCA? Write the plant or animal after its adaptation. Gila longfin dace Gila woodpecker Javelina Horned lizard Desert tarantula Hog-nosed snake Four-winged saltbush Pinacate beetle Spadefoot toad ANSWERS: Gila long-finned dace; Pinacate beetle, javelina; four-winged saltbush; Gila woodpecker; horned lizard; spadefoot toad, hog-nosed snake; desert tarantula. Stays wet when water levels in the river drop during the day by hiding in mats of algae or under logs or stones in the river. ____________________________________ This creature cannot y, so it sprays an irritating chemical from its rear end at predators. ____________________________________ Has poor eyesight and can’t run fast, but it has long, sharp teeth like spears (“javelin” in Spanish) for defense, and scent glands to rub on rocks and trees to signal other members of its species. ____________________________________ Has light-colored hairs on its leaves to reeect sunlight and can grow in soil with high levels of salt. ____________________________________ Tongue is very long and has a sharp tip with hooks that can help it pull soft grubs out of wood. ____________________________________ Can bury itself underground and surround itself in a case that keeps it from drying up between summer rainy seasons. ____________________________________ Has an upturned snout that helps it dig for lizard eggs in sandy soil. liza ____________________________________ Has barbed hairs that can irritate a predator that gets too close, much like a porcupine’s spines. ____________________________________ Can’t easily outrun predators, so it puffs up ai spreading out its horns, and shoots with air, blood from its eye sockets to confuse its foe. _____________________________________ 7 At the time of the Clovis, Murray Springs was a marshy area that attracted animals. It was a good spot for Clovis hunters too, since animals in the marsh couldn't move as quickly to escape. Archaeologists have found bones from mammoths and bison the Clovis killed at this site. A camp was found nearby where the Clovis butchered and cooked animals, and made stone tools, including distinctive spear points. 8 Place Names on the SPRNCA The San Pedro National Riparian Conservation Area is an important area to Native American people. The most recent Native American tribes to call this area home are the Apache, Tohono O’odham, Zuni, and Hopi people. They have migrated out of the area, but they still come to visit their ancestral homeland by the river. The San Pedro River and the surrounding areas are called many different names by different groups of people. Early American settlers called the San Pedro River the “Beaver River” for all the beaver they found and hunted there. American Indian place names describe the features of the land and water. Important stories are also connected to the land and are reflected in the place names. The Apache refer to the San Pedro as “tulchi” which means “red water”. Picture: Huachuca Mountains - The Tohono O’odham name for Huachuca Mountains are “Vav chukadag” which means “moss or lichen that grows on a northerly facing slope.” If you were naming the San Pedro what would you call it? ____________________________________ 9 Rich silver veins were discovered in the hills near modern-day Tombstone in 1877. Miners dug shafts to remove the ore that contained the silver. The ore was taken in wagons to a mill with machinery to process the rock. First, the ore was crushed into pebbles and then powder. It was then mixed with water to make powde a slurry (paste). Mercury was added to the slurry to make a pulp. Finally, the pulp was heated in a furnace to evaporate the mercury and water to produce ingots of the metal extracted from the ore, mostly silver, but also other metals such as gold, copper, lead and tungsten. Milling the ore required large quantities of water. Boilers would heat water to form steam to power the machines in the mills. Water was also mixed with the crushed ore in the mill. The only adequate source of water was the San Pedro River and because of that the first mills were located there. Dams were built to pool the river water and then move it through ditches and flumes (wooden troughs) to the mills. Once the ore was reduced to metal ingots at the mill, the ingots were loaded onto wagons and then trains for shipment. Millions of dollars in metal passed through Fairbank on the railroads. The first stop for the ingots was a smelter, where they were melted and separated into pure metals. Some of the metal ended up in factories at places like Chicago or New York where it was used to create products sold all over the world. Most of the silver was sent to Federal mints in San Francisco and Denver to be made into coins. Activity: Can you name the coins that contain silver? _____________________________________________________________________________ Can you name something you have used made of lead or copper? _____________________________________________________________________________ 12 13 Living things with a green pigment called chlorophyll (klor-e-phil) (plants, algae and phytoplankton (fy-toe-plank-ten) can convert the sun's light energy to chemical energy in the form of sugars and starches that other living things can eat. This energy passes from one organism to 14 another through a network of food chains that make up a web of energy flow relationships (food web), ending with decomposers such as bacteria and fungi, which return nutrients to soil and water where green organisms can recycle them. eater = consumer of chemical energy food 15 Fairbank Townsite Starting in 1882, Fairbank grew up around a train depot just east of the San Pedro River. The people of Fairbank worked for the railroads, in stores, for the Chinese farmers, and as cowboys. As the town grew, a school was built that taught first grade through eighth grade. The first school burned down in 1920 and was replaced with the building that is still standing. Up to 50 students went here, divided into two classes by age, taught by two teachers. When you visit the school today, it looks much like it did in historic times, with desks and chalkboards. Compare your school with the Fairbank school in the pictures. What differences do you see? Write them below. 16 My school today: Fairbank School: _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ The SPRNCA is home to about 25 bat species that use a variety of food sources. They use their short thumb bones to climb to a good height for taking off. There are more than 1,000 species of bats worldwide. The only mammals that can fly, bats are seldom seen because they are nocturnal (active at night) and shelter out of sight by day. da Bats are important members of many different ecosystems (areas where living things interact with each other and their non-living surroundings). Some bats control populations of arthropods (animals with jointed legs and exoskeletons, like insects and spiders), and others pollinate flowers and/or spread seeds of the plants whose fruits they eat. Bats’ wings are made of a thin membrane stretched between extra long finger bones. See if you can match the bat with what it eats. Each bat’s head has adaptations (structures that help it survive where it lives) that make it easier to find and eat its food. 17 Animal Tracks at San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area Whiptail lizard Roadrunner Deer Beaver Javelina Bobcat Raccoon 18 Cut on dotted line