Conservation in Action: Tom Van Devender
Why is the study of plants and animals especially important in evaluating the health of the Sky Islands ecoregion?
Vegetation is the basic structure of habitats —- desertscrub, grassland, oak woodland, pine-oak forest, etc. Studying plants is the best way to evaluate the health of habitats. Linear riparian habitats that pass through all habitats are more shady and humid than nearby uplands, often with streams and permanent water. Aquatic animals, including salamanders, frogs, fish, and dragonflies are excellent indicators of the health of Sky Island riparian habitats.
What kinds of questions will your studies be trying to answer for CONANP for their proposal to protect Sierra Huérfana?
The Sierra Huérfana is an isolated Sky Island mountain range located 80 km east of Hermosillo in central Sonora. It is a rounded granite dome covered by oak woodland with a skirt of tropical foothills thornscrub. CONANP (=the Mexican national park service) is working on establishing the Sierra Huerfana as an Area Natural Protegida (ANP). Unlike a National Forest in the United States, much of the land is owned privatelly or by communal ejidos. In April, MABA will take an Expedition of about 50 people to the range to do intensive inventories of all plants and animals. Documenting the biodiversity of the Sierra Huérfana will greatly strengthen the proposal to the Mexican government to establish the ANP. Discovery of species new to science, species with threatened or endangered protection status, or major extensions of their distributional ranges always add value to protected areas. MABA Expeditions are always high energy gatherings of people that love Sky Islands, are interested in natural history, and are concerned about protecting biodiversity. The Sierra la Huérfana Expedition will show the local residents that the natural resources are extraordinary, and that a broad range of biologists and agency personnel are interested in protecting it.
What techniques do you use to study your subjects? What is the most valuable kind of data?
MABA Expeditions are bioblitzes that document the biodiversity through observations by large groups of skilled biologists. Each specialist has his own observation methods — bird watchers use binoculars early in the morning, entomologists attract moths and beetles with lights at night, scorpions are yellow in ultraviolet light at night, etc. Basic observations are species points located with coordinates from a GPS. After the trip, I gather observations and add them to the MABA database. The MABA Expeditions have been very successful, and have become well known. Participants on the Sierra la Huérfana will come from Cananea, Hermosillo, and Moctezuma in Sonora, Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona. Biologists will also come from the Instituto de Ecología in Mexico City, the University of California at Irvine, and Harvard University in Boston.
