San Pedro RiparianJunior Ranger |
Junior Ranger Activity Guide of San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (NCA) in Arizona. Published by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
_____________________________________
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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.
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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? ____________________________________
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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?
_____________________________________________________________________________
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Animal Tracks at San Pedro
Riparian National Conservation Area
Whiptail lizard
Roadrunner
Deer
Beaver
Javelina
Bobcat
Raccoon
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Cut on dotted line