Ironwood Forest National Monument is located in the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. Created by

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

by Presidential Proclamation 7320 on June 9, 2000, the monument is managed by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

, an agency within the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

. The monument covers , of which are non-federal and include private land holdings and Arizona State School Trust lands. A significant concentration of

ironwood Ironwood is a common name for many woods or plants that have a reputation for hardness, or specifically a wood density that is heavier than water (approximately 1000 kg/m3, or 62 pounds per cubic foot), although usage of the name ironwood in E ...

(also known as desert ironwood, ''

Olneya tesota ''Olneya tesota'' is a perennial flowering tree of the family Fabaceae, legumes (peas, beans, etc.), which is commonly known as ironwood, desert ironwood, or palo fierro in Spanish. It is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Olneya''. This t ...

'') trees is found in the monument, along with two federally recognized

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

animal and plant species. More than 200

Hohokam Hohokam () was a culture in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico. It existed between 300 and 1500 AD, with cultural precursors possibly as early as 300 BC. Archaeologists disagree about ...

archaeological sites have been identified in the monument, dated between 600 and 1450.

Flora and fauna

Carnegiea gigantea - Ragged top, late afternoon

Flora

An array of flora are present in the Ironwood Forest National Monument. The lower elevations are in the Sonoran Desert

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

. One of the notable trees native here is the elephant tree (''

Bursera microphylla ''Bursera microphylla'', known by the common name elephant tree in English or 'torote' in Spanish, is a tree in genus ''Bursera''. It grows into a distinctive sculptural form, with a thickened, water-storing or caudiciform trunk. It is found in ...

'').C. Michael Hogan. 2009
''Elephant Tree: Bursera microphylla'', GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg
/ref> Small populations of the endangered Nichols turk's head cactus, although not found among ironwood trees, occur in very localized limestone-rich areas within the monument. ;Ironwood trees The desert ironwood (''

'') is a very long-lived tree, with some specimens estimated to be more than 800 years old. Desert ironwood is a

keystone species A keystone species is a species which has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance, a concept introduced in 1969 by the zoologist Robert T. Paine. Keystone species play a critical role in maintaini ...

because it provides a nursery environment of shade and protection that enables young seedlings of other species to become established despite the harsh desert climate, where daytime high temperatures can exceed . The ironwood also provides shade and roosting area

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s for birds. Its smoky lavender-colored blossoms provide

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

for bees and other insects, as well as

forage Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term ''forage'' has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used m ...

for animals. The blossoms produce bean pods which also provide food for desert animals. ;Prehistoric ecology Lists of dominant plants in the prehistoric

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

plant community A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant co ...

of the

Waterman Mountains The Waterman Mountains are a low mountainous landform in Pima County, United States. Notable among the tree species is the elephant tree (''Bursera microphylla'') which species exhibits a contorted multi-furcate architecture; most of these froze i ...

area in the monument have been published in a sequence that currently dates back to the last glacial period, the

Late Wisconsin Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

period. Dominant trees of that era, based upon pollen records, were Utah juniper (''

Juniperus osteosperma ''Juniperus osteosperma'' (Utah juniper; syn. ''J. utahensis'') is a shrub or small tree native to the southwestern United States. Description The plant reaches , rarely to 9 m, tall. The shoots are fairly thick compared to most junipers, in ...

''), single-leaf pinyon (''

Pinus monophylla ''Pinus monophylla'', the single-leaf pinyon, (alternatively spelled piñon) is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to North America. The range is in southernmost Idaho, western Utah, Arizona, southwest New Mexico, Nevada, eastern and souther ...

''), and redberry juniper (''

Juniperus pinchotii ''Juniperus pinchotii'', commonly known as Pinchot juniper or redberry juniper, is a species of juniper native to south-western North America, in Mexico: Nuevo León and Coahuila, and in the United States: south-eastern New Mexico, central Texa ...

''), and understory plants included ''

Monardella arizonica ''Monardella arizonica'' is a plant species endemic to Arizona in the United States, known by the common name Arizona monardella. Ancient history The species has been confirmed to have been native to northern Arizona since at least the Late Wisc ...

''.

Fauna

According to Proclamation 7320, 674 plant and animal species have been identified in the Silver Bell Mountains within the monument, including 64 species of mammals and 57 species of birds, although the Bureau of Land Management has been unable to verify those claims. Recent studies by the

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre (40 ha) zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery founded in 1952. Located just west of Tucson, Arizona, it features two miles (3.2 km) of walking paths ...

, however, have documented 560 plant species. Resident birdwatchers have documented more than 80 species of migratory and non-migratory birds. One specimen of the endangered lesser long-nosed bat (''Leptonycteris curasoae'') and a night roost were documented within the monument by bat researchers Karen Krebbs and Yar Petryszyn. They concluded that while the monument may be an important feeding stopover during spring migrations, the presence of ''L. curasoae'' in the monument is probably low or incidental. ''Leptonycteris curasoae'' is one of only a few bat species that migrate long distances, coming from as far south as Jalisco, Mexico, more than . The Arizona

desert bighorn sheep The desert bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis nelsoni'') is a subspecies of bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') that is native to the deserts of the United States' intermountain west and southwestern regions, as well as northwestern Mexico. The Bu ...

herd located within the monument is the last remaining

relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

population of desert bighorn sheep in southeastern Arizona, having first migrated into North America during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

epoch. One or two specimens of the cactus

ferruginous pygmy owl The ferruginous pygmy owl (''Glaucidium brasilianum'') is a small owl that breeds in south-central Arizona and southern Texas in the United States, south through Mexico and Central America, to South America into Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Arge ...

, which was listed as an endangered species in March 1997 and delisted by court order April 14, 2006, have been found within and near the monument by licensed surveyors.

History

The

people were the first miners in the area. They mined turquoise in the Silver Bell Mountains.

Silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

and

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

mining began in the Silver Bell Mountains around 1850 and continues today. Bighorn sheep ewes prefer mine tailings for lambing grounds because the high, steep and open terrain enables them to see and escape from predators.

Activities

The Ironwood Forest National Monument is managed for multiple uses including recreation, cattle grazing and mining, although new mining claims and motorized off-road travel are prohibited by the establishing Proclamation. Livestock grazing, which has occurred continuously for at least the last 125 years within the monument, is currently managed at very light or conservative levels of approximately one cow per every 300 to . Domestic sheep and goats are prohibited as a protection to the bighorn sheep. The monument offers almost no surface water but contains sufficient groundwater resources. The cattle ranchers maintain more than 80 individual man-made water sources within the monument, in addition to the 14 water sources maintained by the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society. The presence of human-supplied water supports the exceptional abundance of birds, mule deer, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, mountain lions and other wildlife found in the monument."Wildlife Water Developments and Desert Bighorn Sheep in the Southwestern United States." 2005. Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society. *

Gallery

File:Ironwood_Forest_National_Monument_Silverbell_Cemetery_Arizona_2014.jpg, The Silver Bell Cemetery in Ironwood Forest National Monument. File:Los Robles Archaeological District Cerro Prieto Arizona 2014.jpg, Hohokam ruins in the Los Robles Archaeological District. File:Cocoraque Butte.jpg, Hohokam petroglyphs at Cocoraque Butte.

References

External links

* * * * * *
Friends of Ironwood Forest
a nonprofit organization partnering with BLM to protect Ironwood Forest National Monument by providing volunteer service, advocacy, and visitor education.
Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society
a nonprofit organization committed to increasing bighorn sheep populations in Arizona * {{authority control National Monuments in Arizona Bureau of Land Management National Monuments Bureau of Land Management areas in Arizona Protected areas of Pima County, Arizona Protected areas of Pinal County, Arizona Protected areas of the Sonoran Desert 2000 establishments in Arizona Protected areas established in 2000 Units of the National Landscape Conservation System