The Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Clark County, Nevada, United States, is an area managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of its National Landscape Conservation System, and protected as a National Conservation Area. It is about 15 miles (24 km) west of Las Vegas. More than three million people visit the area each year.
The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region of lava beds and playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt playa 100 miles (160 km) north of Reno, Nevada that encompasses more than 300,000 acres (120,000 ha) of land and contains more than 120 miles (200 km) of historic trails. It is in the northern Nevada section of the Great Basin with a lakebed that is a dry remnant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan.
The Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area has one of the densest populations of nesting raptors. The National Conservation Area (NCA) is located 35 miles (56 km) south of Boise, Idaho along 81 miles (130 km) of the Snake River, and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The NCA covers 484,873 acres (1,962.21 km2). In descending order of land area it is located in Ada, Elmore, Owyhee, and Canyon counties.
A ciénega is a wetland system unique to the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. Ciénagas are alkaline, freshwater, spongy, wet meadows with shallow-gradient, permanently saturated soils in otherwise arid landscapes that often occupy nearly the entire widths of valley bottoms. That description satisfies historic, pre-damaged ciénagas, although few can be described that way now. Incised ciénagas are common today. Ciénagas are usually associated with seeps or springs, found in canyon headwaters or along margins of streams. Ciénagas often occur because the geomorphology forces water to the surface, over large areas, not merely through a single pool or channel. In a healthy ciénaga, water slowly migrates through long, wide-scale mats of thick, sponge-like wetland sod. Ciénaga soils are squishy, permanently saturated, highly organic, black in color or anaerobic. Highly adapted sedges, rushes and reeds are the dominant plants, with succession plants—Goodding's willow, Fremont cottonwoods and scattered Arizona walnuts—found on drier margins, down-valley in healthy ciénagas where water goes underground or along the banks of incised ciénagas.
Otero Mesa is a plateau in the Trans-Pecos. The plateau extends north from Hudspeth County, Texas into Otero County, New Mexico. Otero Mesa is the dominant landform in Hudspeth County, composing 70% of its land area. Otero Mesa has a more limited extant in Otero County, NM. Overall, 2/3 of Otero Mesa are in Texas, but the colloquial usage of "Otero Mesa" is restricted to the component of the plateau in New Mexico. This is only a political distinction; Otero Mesa is physiographically continuous across the NM-TX state line.
The San Pedro River is a northward-flowing stream originating about 10 miles (16 km) south of the international border south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, in Cananea Municipality, Sonora, Mexico. The river starts at the confluence of other streams just east of Sauceda, Cananea. Within Arizona, the river flows 140 miles (230 km) north through Cochise County, Pima County, Graham County, and Pinal County to its confluence with the Gila River, at Winkelman, Arizona. It is the last major, undammed desert river in the American Southwest, and it is of major ecological importance as it hosts two-thirds of the avian diversity in the United States, including 100 species of breeding birds and almost 300 species of migrating birds.
The Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area is the federal land in northwestern Nevada, under the Bureau of Land Management-BLM management and protection, and the ten Wilderness Areas within it.
The Trout Creek Mountains are a remote, semi-arid Great Basin mountain range mostly in southeastern Oregon and partially in northern Nevada in the United States. The range's highest point is Orevada View Benchmark, 8,506 feet (2,593 m) above sea level, in Nevada. Disaster Peak, elevation 7,781 feet (2,372 m), is another prominent summit in the Nevada portion of the mountains.
Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge provides 117,107 acres (47,392 ha) of habitat for threatened and endangered plants and animals. This refuge, in Pima County, Arizona, was established in 1985.
The San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area contains nearly 57,000 acres (23,000 ha) of public land in Cochise County, Arizona, between the international border with Mexico and St. David, Arizona. The riparian area, where some 40 miles (64 km) of the upper San Pedro River meanders, was, through the efforts of congressman Jim Kolbe, designated by Congress as a Riparian National Conservation Area on November 18, 1988, and assigned to the protection of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
American Prairie is a prairie-based nature reserve in Central Montana, United States, on a mixed grass prairie ecosystem with migration corridors and native wildlife. This wildlife conservation area is being developed as a private project of the American Prairie Foundation (APF). This independent non-profit organization aims to include over 3 million acres (12,000 km2) through a combination of both private and public lands.
Empire Ranch is a working cattle ranch in southeastern Pima County, Arizona, that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In its heyday, Empire Ranch was one of the largest in Arizona, with a range spanning over 180 square miles (470 km2), and its owner, Walter L. Vail, was an important figure in the establishment of southern Arizona's cattle industry. It is currently owned by the Bureau of Land Management with a grazing lease to a private operator.
The Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area is a 63,500-acre (257 km2) United States National Conservation Area located in southwest Utah west of St. George along the borders with Arizona and Nevada. It is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System, and was authorized in the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.
Ciénega Creek is an intermittent stream located in the Basin and Range region of southern Arizona, and is one of the most intact riparian corridors left in the state. It originates in the Canelo Hills and continues northwest about 50 miles (80 km) to an area just outside Tucson, where it becomes known as Pantano Wash. Pantano Wash continues through Tucson and eventually connects with the Rillito River.
Pantano is a ghost town located in eastern Pima County, Arizona, between Benson and Vail. Access is via the Marsh Station Road interchange on I-10. It was established as a small railroad town with the arrival of the Southern Pacific in 1880, supplanting the earlier Ciénega station that was located to the west of Pantano.
Cienega Valley is a valley located southeast of Tucson, Arizona, in the transition zone between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. It is bounded by the Rincon Mountains to the north, the Whetstone Mountains to the east, the Mustang Mountains to the southeast, the Canelo Hills to the south, and the Santa Rita-Empire Mountains complex to the west. Much of the area is now part of the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, which preserves habitat for a variety of threatened plant and animal species in the valley and along Cienega Creek.
The Babocomari River is a major tributary of the upper San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona. The river begins in the Sonoita Basin near the community of Elgin, Arizona, and flows eastward for approximately 25 miles (40 km) before merging with the San Pedro, just south of the Fairbank Historic Townsite in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. The Babocomari drains an area of about 310 square miles (800 km2), including the northern Huachuca Mountains, the northwestern Canelo Hills, and the southern Mustang Mountains, and is one of three drainages of the Sonoita Basin, the other two being Sonoita Creek and Cienega Creek. Vegetation consists of riparian trees along the main channel and small marshy grasslands.
The Little Boquillas Ranch is an historic ranch property located in western Cochise County, Arizona, near the Fairbank Historic Townsite in what is now part of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.
Arivaca Creek is a small valley stream in southern Pima County, Arizona, that is approximately 5.5 miles (8.9 km) long from its origin in Arivaca Valley to its confluence with the Brawley Wash stream system. As a seasonal stream, Arivaca Creek is perennial for only about two miles most years and experiences its greatest stream-flow during winter and the summer Monsoon season.
The Sabinoso Wilderness is a 29,855 acres (120.82 km2) area in San Miguel County, New Mexico. The US Bureau of Land Management owns and administers the wilderness area. The semi-arid wilderness includes few natural resources but has a diverse geology, as well as a range of plant and animal species.
