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Abstract
Since 2015 the Madrean Discovery Expeditions (MDE) of GreaterGood.org (GGO) has completed biotic inventories in the Sierras Buenos Aires, Cucurpe, Elenita, Juriquipa, and el Tigre in northeastern Sonora, Mexico. The MDE Education program shares the results of the Expeditions with residents who live in the adjacent river valleys. Raising awareness about the amazing diversity of animals and plants will help protect these unique Sky Island mountain ranges for the future. MDE educators have given presentations to about 1751 students and 101 teachers in 25 schools in 22 towns in northeastern Sonora. Ten schools were telesecundarias - middle schools that receive class material via satellite. Power Point presentations on various aspects of the biodiversity, biogeography, and natural history of the Sky Islands Region were given to each class. Students were asked to identify animal photographs taken as part of GGO’s Project WILDCAT in the lower Río Bavispe Valley south of Granados. The images included four native cats: jaguar (Panthera onca), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), mountain lion (Puma concolor), and bobcat (Lynx rufus). Students in the smaller towns had better local knowledge of plants and animals than students from bigger, more urban towns. School visits included observing insects, flowers, and leaves under a binocular microscope, and students reading text about bats, hummingbirds, pollination, and migration. Materials given to each school included a booklet on Sonoran natural history in Spanish, hummingbird feeders, seeds for a pollinator garden, and a field guide to birds in Spanish.
Parent Publication
Keywords
forest restoration,
history,
climate,
soils,
vegetation,
geomorphology,
watersheds,
water quality,
water quantity,
fluvial ecosystems,
fish and invertebrate fauna,
riparian ecosystems
Citation
Reina-Guerrero, Ana L.; Van Devender, Thomas R.; Cirett-Galan, J. Mario. 2022. Madrean discovery expeditions education program in Sonora, Mexico. In: Neary, D. G.; Gottfried, G. J., eds. Collaboration Now for the Future: IV Conference on the Biodiversity and Management of the Madrean Archipelago. Proceedings RMRS-P-79. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 164-172.
