Brown's Ranch (SCC, CHS)
Brown's Ranch, approximately 1950
FISH AMPHIBIANS REPTILES BIRDS MAMMALS
Brown's Ranch covers 880 acres located within the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. This area, once a working cattle ranch, has been subject to grazing and more recently, illegal dumping and off-road vehicle use. The City of Scottsdale, the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy and the Center for Native and Urban Wildlife at Scottsdale Community College are working together to restore the native desert habitat and wildlife. Students and faculty have been monitoring a 16-acre "restoration area" of Browns Ranch and maintaining species inventories of organisms inhabiting this area. The Brown's Ranch Restoration Project has included the planting of 200 mesquite and palo verde seedlings in an attempt to increase vegetation cover and plant diversity in order to stabilize the ecosystem and sustain natural wildlife populations. The seedlings were germinated from seeds collected on site and were grown in SCC's plant propogation yard. For a documentary video of these projects, see Maricopa Now TV, Schwartzlow's Sojourns, December 2007 and January 2008.
For more information, please visit the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy.
