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Executive Summary
This report summarizes results of an inventory of
plants, birds, and mammals of Fort Bowie National
Historic Site (NHS) in southeastern Arizona.
Surveys at the park were part of a larger effort to
inventory vascular plants and vertebrates in eight
National Park Service (NPS) units in Arizona and
New Mexico. Our inventory efforts build on past
research for the park; included in this report is the
most comprehensive synthesis of species lists from
past studies of plants and vertebrates. Though we
did not survey specifically for them, we also
include a species lists of amphibians and reptiles
that have been observed or documented at the park.
For a park of its size (405 ha), Fort Bowie
NHS has extraordinary species richness, especially
for plants (638 species) and mammals (57 species).
This diversity results from its geographic location
at the junction of three biogeographical provinces,
its diverse geology, and the presence of year-round
water from an active spring.
xi
We found 45 new plant and vertebrate
species for the park (Table 1) including:
• Plants: two species representing new
families and nine species representing new
genera, including one new genus
(Euphorbia) represented by three species;
• Birds: zone-tailed hawk and common
ground dove;
• Mammals: domestic dog and hooded
skunk.
Based on a review of past studies and our
own work, we consider the inventories of plants
and vertebrates to be 90% complete. With baseline
inventories at Fort Bowie NHS among the most
complete of the 11 parks in the Sonoran Desert
Network, park staff are now in an excellent
position to monitor changes in these resources.
Table 1. Summary results of plant and vertebrate inventories at Fort Bowie NHS, 2002 to 2004.
Number of
UA Effort
Number of Number of new species Total number of
Taxonomic group species recorded non-native species added to park lista species on park listb
Plants 193 13 33 638
Amphibians and Reptiles 8 0 0 40
Birds 109 0 6 189
Mammals 14 1 2 59
Totals 324 14 41 926
a
Species that had not been observed or documented by previous studies.
b
From all sources (see Appendices A-D for complete lists).