Archive for June, 2009

Jun 09 2009

Sedonafest 2009

Published by Chris Marzonie under Chris Marzonie, Field Reports

Sugarloaf trail lineupOverland Journal sponsored the 3rd annual Sedonafest which took place in (you guessed it) Sedona, Arizona from June 5th to June 7th and raised over $1,000 for the Arizona Spinal Cord Injury Association. Formerly an FJ Cruiser-oriented outing, this year was open to all makes and as a result, a nice variety of vehicles showed up including Land Rovers, Nissans, Jeeps, an Isuzu, and even a neat little Suzuki Samurai (complete with a misting system to keep the occupants cool in the topless 4×4.) The campground was situated on the banks of Oak Creek, generously shaded with healthy Cottonwood and Sycamore trees while the weather was more than kind to us with cool breezes and plenty of sunshine. Registrants signed up in advance for organized outings to explore local trails in the area and a dinner party was provided by Sierra Expeditions on Saturday night. The following day, teams were off to find waypoints for a GPS challenge held by Expeditioneers. Brian McVickers of Overland Journal brought his family out to join my wife and me in support of the event, and together we had a great time out on the trails and met a lot of new friends. Many thanks to Heidi Van Camp and Mike McCambridge for their fine work organizing and running the event.

Amy McVickers attempts a red rock ledge on the Greasy Spoon trail
Amy McVickers attempts a red rock ledge on the Greasy Spoon trail

Harry's Nissan Xterra 
Harry’s Nissan Xterra

The raffle on Sunday
A crowd gathers at the raffle

The GPS challenge champs received a Red Rock trophy from Expeditioneers and a DeLorme PN-20 GPS from Overland Journal and DeLorme
The GPS challenge champs received a Red Rock trophy from Expeditioneers and a DeLorme PN-20 GPS from Overland Journal and DeLorme

 

 

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Jun 08 2009

Mountain lion tracking

Published by Roseann Hanson under Field Reports, Roseann Hanson

Cougars, or mountain lions, are elusive and so they are rarely seen in the wild. When biologists need to find out information about their lives - even how many there are in an area, and how they move around their territories, which are very large (as big as a hundred square miles) - in the past the only options were expensive and invasive (for the animal) radio tracking collars. But 20 years ago a group in southeast Arizona started testing out tracking on Fort Huachuca, by Sierra Vista, as a way to learn more about lions, as well as black bears. It has been a successful way for biologists and land managers to compile information about the animals, and an even better way for “citizen scientists” to become trackers and help out conservation efforts.

On Friday and Saturday Jonathan (executive editor of Overland Journal) and I were volunteer team leaders for the 20th Fort Huachuca Mountain Lion Track Count. We have been involved with this project for 14 years off and on. It is one of the longest-running wildlife tracking programs in the country, and this was the final count, according to founder Sheridan Stone, the fort biologist. Sky Island Alliance, a non-profit conservation organization in Tucson that works on wildlife linkages throughout the American Southwest and northern Mexico, coordinated the event. We have taught wildlife tracking skills for the organization since 2000.
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Our assigned transect for the weekend was only accessible by a difficult 4WD trail, so Sky Island Alliance asked us to ferry some of the trackers up the mountain. Our team of five piled into my Land Cruiser diesel and headed up at 6 am. Six teams in all spent the weekend surveying sections of trail for mountain lion and black bear tracks and sign; in all, 8 black bear track sets and 11 mountain lion track sets were logged. The data has helped the Fort get an understanding of wildlife numbers and movements over time. Here are some pictures:
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On our 1.5 mile-long transect, we found sign of one lion - a set of tracks heading downhill for about 200 meters. The tracks were hard to see because the wind had been high all night, scrubbing the dirt and disturbing the tracks. In the photo, the track is hard to see; it is between the two and four on the bottom ruler - it is about 2.5 x 2.5 inches, a smallish lion, probably a female. Below is a track from another field session; the large main pad and three lobes at the bottom identify it as cat, and the size as cougar.
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