News & Events
Learn more about the issues affecting the unique natural areas of the Colorado Plateau...
...by getting involved in local events and training opportunities.
Join our Budding Botanist Program
This year GCT volunteers partnered with the Arizona Native Plant Society, Desert Botanical Garden, Forest Service, Northern Arizona University and Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) to begin a statewide effort to document the plant diversity of Arizona through the Plant Atlas of Arizona Project (PAPAZ). “Budding Botanist” volunteers learned in the field and in the classroom about plant identification, how to collect plants, and how to make herbarium specimens. Volunteers joined regional botanists in beautiful Barbershop Canyon near the Mogollon Rim for a 2-day field based training to learn how to collect plants. PAPAZ also sponsored a classroom training opportunity for volunteers at MNA where they learned the basics of plant morphology, how plants are classified, the process of mounting herbarium specimens and toured MNA’s herbarium collections. These botanists-in-training are critically important for documenting botanical diversity throughout the Plateau. Stay tuned for the 2009 schedule that will be available in January for PAPAZ trainings and botanical survey trips across the varied landscape of Northern Arizona. We hope you will join us! To see photos and blogs about the 2008 budding botanists click here.
Restoration at Raymond Ranch Wildlife Area
The Raymond Ranch Wildlife Area is tucked away in the pinyon-juniper forest of Anderson Mesa. The combination of ponderosa pine forest and grasslands on Anderson Mesa provide important habitat for a wide variety of watchable wildlife, from migrating birds to pronghorn antelope, bison, mule deer and elk. Habitat protected within Raymond Ranch, particularly wetland and riparian areas, may provide homes for several sensitive and rare wildlife species.
Join us Tuesday December 9th, 2008, as we assist Arizona Game and Fish Department personnel in their restoration efforts at Raymond Ranch. Three sites, representing three microclimates, have been selected for habitat restoration. Seed collected for this project by the USFS Native Plant Materials Program volunteers is ready to be sown into the ground. Native sunflowers will be sown into an ephemeral lake bottom while buckwheats and other high forage value species will find homes in the upland hill slopes of Raymond Ranch. All species to be seeded have been chosen for the ability to provide an excellent food source for the many species of wildlife that call the area home.
Trip details
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Snacks and some water will be provided
All volunteers should bring sturdy boots, light work gloves, weather appropriate clothing, water and lunch. Cameras are encouraged. Coolers will be provided to store lunches.
Coordination for this project is being handled by the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA). Please contact Keri Stiverson, coordinator of the Native Plant Materials Program at MNA or call (928) 774-5211 x 216 for more information.
