Thousands of acres of oak savanna

During two weeks of driving over many gravel roads in southeastern Arizona, I have been seeing huge areas of oak savannas that are completely different from anything we have in the Midwest. Although we discuss the rarity of Midwest savannas, the southeastern Arizona savannas can hardly be considered "rare". I have no idea how many acres of savannas there are here, but it must be considered in the hundreds of thousands of acres.

Of course, the oak species are completely different. The oaks in the image above are emory oaks (Quercus emoryi), one of the most common oaks of SE Arizona. This species is found not only in open savanna, but other associations such as oak-juniper woodlands. It is one of the most common oaks in southwestern U.S., and provides a lot of wildlife benefits (its acorns are prized by deer).

Emory oak is adapted to recurrent fire. Small trees killed by fire readily resprout and large trees survive fires of low severity.

Unfortunately, this isn't the fire season, but there is plenty of information on the web about some of the larger wildfires that have occurred over the past decade. Fascinating area!

This will be my last post from Arizona. Despite airline delays due to the Midwestern snow storms, I will hopefully be home by Friday. Too bad. I am just getting used to a climate where the sun shines all the time!