Expeditions with Patrick McMillan

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Patrick

Well, this is definitely not the kind of grassland that I expected to see in Arizona. I mean, this is not short-grass prairie. This is the famous sacaton. >> Giant sacaton, Sporobolus wrightii. Yeah, I like sacaton. It's great habitat for javelina, western diamondback rattlesnakes, Botteri's sparrow. >> Which is an uncommon sparrow. >> Very uncommon. >> What is special about this place? It's obviously bottomlands. >>

Linda

Right. It likes to get its toes in the water. It does well here because the depth to groundwater is less than 15 feet. >>

Patrick

And grass roots can go down a long way. >>

Linda

Yeah, we've found sacaton that goes down more than 20 feet. >>

Patrick

Wow! >>

Linda

Those are some serious root systems for a grass! And one thing I'll mention about this place right here, last year this all burned in a wildfire. So all the growth that you see here was from last year's not very generous monsoon and then of course that subsurface moisture. If we have a good monsoon year, this will be up 8 or 9 feet tall, even taller than it is right now. And back when the early explorers came through, they wrote about grass that was as tall as a man on horseback. This was probably it, but there is less than 5% of it left in its original range. It only is found in southwestern North America, and this stand here on the research ranch is arguably the best remaining stand in the United States. >>

Patrick

This is a bedrock of this habitat and for the wildlife here, and we really need to perk up and care about it. It's amazing, though, in this light. >>

Linda

Yes, it is! >>

Patrick

Just an incredible patch of grass!

surf roaring

Patrick

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