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40-610: The Cibola National Forest is organized into several divisions over three states. The Rita Blanca National Grassland 92,989 acres (376.3 km) in Dallam County, Texas , and Cimarron County, Oklahoma , Black Kettle National Grassland 31,286 acres (126.6 km) in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma , and Hemphill County, Texas , and McClellan Creek National Grassland 1,449 acres (5.9 km) in Gray County, Texas , are in

80-564: A National Grassland on the Great Plains near the community of Texline in northwest Dallam County, Texas , in the Texas Panhandle , and in southern Cimarron County, Oklahoma , in the western Oklahoma Panhandle . The principal city in the area is Dalhart, Texas , which houses the XIT Museum . The name Rita Blanca (Little White River) was applied to a stream by Spanish sheepherders in

120-966: A land area of 92,989 acres (376.31 km ). The greater part, 77,463 acres (313.48 km ) is in Texas, and the balance 15,860 acres (64.2 km ) is in Oklahoma. Rita Blanca National Grassland is administered by Cibola National Forest , along with the Great Plains Black Kettle National Grassland , Kiowa National Grassland , and McClellan Creek National Grassland , and forest ranger districts in New Mexico. The Cibola National Forest headquarters are located in Albuquerque, New Mexico . There are local ranger district offices located in Clayton, New Mexico . A team led by Donald L. Hazlett studied

160-421: A low of 3,700 feet (1,100 m) in southeastern Dallam County, Texas. It is not a solid block of protected land, but rather several small blocks of U.S. Forest Service –owned native prairie grasslands, interspersed with privately owned property. The area is classed as semi-arid, and serves as habitat for pronghorn , rabbits, prairie dogs, coyotes and predatory birds.. Vegetation is primarily shortgrass . It has

200-711: Is a north–south flyway for birds migrating from breeding grounds in Alaska and Canada to their overwintering areas in South America, some species travelling as far south as Patagonia . The Allegheny Front flyway in the central Appalachian Mountains is an important flyway for migratory birds traveling from their northern breeding grounds to their southern wintering sites. The East Atlantic Flyway starts from northern North America, Greenland , Iceland , northern Europe and western Siberia and leads to wintering areas in western Europe and North Africa, with some birds continuing down

240-564: Is home to more bird and mammal species than any other ecoregion in the Southwest. The Rio Grande Watershed, which contains the Cibola’s four mountain ranger districts, ranked second out of eight watershed regions for species of greatest conservation need (SGCN) in the New Mexico Game and Fish’s Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. The Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy also ranked

280-1008: The Manzano Mountains . Congress designated the Manzano Wilderness in 1978. The Mount Taylor Ranger District manages land in northern Cibola , southern McKinley , and western Sandoval counties in western New Mexico. Mount Taylor and Zuni Mountains are within the Mount Taylor District. Overseeing approximately 800,000 acres, the Magdalena Ranger District is the largest of the Cibola National Forest's four mountain districts. The Cibola’s Magdalena District manages land in south central New Mexico in western Socorro , northeastern Catron , and northern Sierra counties. The Bear Mountains , Datil Mountains , Magdalena Mountains and San Mateo Mountains are all within

320-536: The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 in the United States resulted in a need for more information on bird migration. Frederick Charles Lincoln was put in charge and improved methods for trapping and banding , developed record-keeping procedures, recruited banders, fostered international cooperation, and promoted banding as a tool for research and wildlife management. He found it was possible to establish

360-559: The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology . Additional multiple uses that occur on the Cibola National Forest include grazing, mining, logging, and oil/gas development. The lands in the Cibola National Forest have a rich cultural history. The forest itself grew out of lands first established as Forest Reserves in the late 1800s to protect natural resources, such as watersheds, trees, and soils. The human and cultural history of these national forest lands stretch back well before

400-674: The New World and megafaunal extinction .“ Much of the now Magdalena Ranger District were a province of the Apache . Bands of Apache effectively controlled the Magdalena-Datil region from the seventeenth century until they were defeated in the Apache Wars in the late nineteenth century. Outlaw renegades Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch and notorious Apaches like Cochise and Geronimo have ties to

440-695: The Oklahoma – Texas panhandle region. The combined Cibola National Grasslands are 262,141 acres (1,060.8 km2) in size. New Mexico is home to much of the Forest, including the Kiowa National Grassland 136,417 acres (552.1 km) in Harding , Union , Mora , and Colfax counties, New Mexico. The Cibola National Forest's Sandia Ranger District is just east of Albuquerque in Central New Mexico and includes

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480-531: The 1800s. Basham noted in his report documenting the archeological history of the Cibola’s Magdalena Ranger District that “[t]he heritage resources on the district are diverse and representative of nearly every prominent human evolutionary event known to anthropology. Evidence for human use of district lands date back 14,000 years to the Paleoindian period providing glimpses into the peopling of

520-712: The 19th century. It was later used by the XIT ranch and has been applied to other geographic features in the vicinity. Both Rita Blanca National Grassland and Kiowa National Grassland (KNG), farther west in New Mexico, are the result of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The Dust Bowl experience had shown the U.S. Government that climatic challenges made total conversion of the Great Plains to agriculture not only infeasible but undesirable. The National Industrial Act and Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, which passed Congress in 1933 and 1935, gave

560-615: The Apache Kid Wilderness. Stories of depredations by the Apache Kid, and of his demise, became so common and dramatic that in southwestern folklore they may be exceeded only by tales of lost Spanish gold. Native Americans lingered in the San Mateos well into the 1900s. We know this by an essay written by Aldo Leopold in 1919 where he documents stumbling upon the remains of a recently abandoned Indian hunting camp. A mining rush followed

600-501: The Apache wars – gold, silver, and copper were found in the mountains. It wasn’t until this time that extensive use of the area by non-Native Americans occurred. While some mining activity, involving gold, silver, and copper, occurred in the southern part of the range near the end of the nineteenth century, the prospecting/mining remnants are barely visible today due to collapse, topographic screening, and vegetation regrowth. While miners combed

640-862: The Arizona-New Mexico Mountain Ecoregion, within which the Magdalena and Mt. Taylor Ranger Districts are located, second out of six ecoregions in the state for SGCN, with 80 identified SGCN. The Nature Conservancy has identified the San Mateo, Magdalena, and Datil Mountains within the Cibola's Magdalena Ranger District as key conservation areas due to their ecological diversity. The Cibola offers an abundance of recreational opportunities including picnicking, backpacking, camping, skiing, hiking, wildlife-viewing, star-gazing, horseback-riding, hunting and mountain biking as well as driving for pleasure and enjoying

680-579: The Beefsteak Trail. The trail began use in 1865 and its peak was in 1919. The trail was used continually until trailing gave way to trucking and the trail official closed in 1971. In 2008 the Trigo Fire burned 13,709 acres (55.48 km) mostly within the Mountainair Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest. Rita Blanca National Grassland Rita Blanca National Grassland is

720-585: The Cibola is for the Langmuir Research Site, with 31,000-acres on South Baldy Peak. The Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research was established to study atmospheric processes that result in lightning, hail, and rain. The Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MRO), also located on South Baldy, studies astronomical events with a 2.4-m telescope and the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer. Both Langmuir and MRO are operated by

760-514: The Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Many bird populations migrate long distances twice a year. The most common pattern involves flying north in the spring to breed in the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere or the Arctic during summer and returning southward in the autumn to wintering grounds in warmer regions, often on the other side of the equator. A similar pattern occurs in

800-570: The Gila Forest Reserve, created by President William McKinley in 1899, making the U.S. Forest Service the “oldest continuous business in Magdalena.” Cibola biomes range from Chihuahuan desert to short grass prairie to piñon-juniper to sub-alpine spruce and fir. The region also boasts wildlife as diverse as the biomes they inhabit. Animals represented include: Due to the Rio Grande , a large variety of migrating waterfowl and other birds follow

840-738: The Great Lakes, following the lower Ohio River , the Missouri and the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico , and on to Central and South America. There are no mountains on this route. The Central Flyway starts from central Canada and crosses the Great Plains before continuing southwards to the Gulf of Mexico, merging with the Mississippi Flyway. There are no mountain barriers on this route. The Pacific Flyway

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880-713: The Magdalena District. There are two Wilderness areas in this District – the Apache Kid (44,626 acres) and the Withington (19,000 acres) Wilderness areas, both of which are in the San Mateo Mountains. In addition to the designated Wilderness, the Magdalena Ranger District has 205,972 acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas. The Magdalena Ranger District's officers are stationed in the Village of Magdalena. The District has roots in

920-762: The Manzanita Mountains, which stretch south, between the Sandia and the Manzano Mountains. The Manzano Mountains are managed by the Cibola National Forest's Mountainair Ranger District. The Mountainair Ranger District manages national forestland in Torrance , northwestern Lincoln , and eastern Valencia counties, which are in central New Mexico. Within the Mountainair District are the Gallinas Mountains and

960-435: The San Mateos. Vicks Peak was named after Victorio, “a Mimbreño Apache leader whose territory included much of the south and southwest New Mexico.” Famous for defying relocation orders in 1879 and leading his warriors “on a two-year reign of terror before he was killed,” Victorio is at least as highly regarded as Geronimo or Cochise among Apaches. Perhaps the most famous outlaw was the Apache Kid whose supposed grave lies within

1000-411: The aerial Sandia Peak Tramway with a restaurant and skiing at the top. The two most popular recreational activities on the Cibola are hiking/walking and viewing natural features with 35% and 15% of visitors citing these as their main activities, respectively. In addition to ample recreational opportunities, the Cibola provides special facilities for scientific research. The largest special use permit on

1040-436: The autumn and will depend on such factors as wind direction and the availability of food at staging points. Flyways may not be the shortest route available but may have curves or doglegs. Birds of different species may follow similar routes, and populations from one area may merge with other groups and diverge to reach different destinations. Flyways tend to avoid obstacles such as mountain ranges and oceans, running parallel to

1080-408: The barriers and following routes along the coast or along major river valleys. Passerines often fly on a broader front across the terrain, either flying over or circumventing obstacles on the route, according to their evolutionary adaptations. In selecting routes, birds may overcompensate for predicted winds. Terrestrial birds tend to travel over land, raptors need routes where thermals can give them

1120-593: The concept was first conceived and applied to waterfowl and shore birds . The flyways can be thought of as wide arterial highways to which the migratory routes of different species are tributaries . An alternative definition is that a flyway is the entire range of a migratory bird, encompassing both its breeding and non-breeding grounds, and the resting and feeding locations it uses while migrating. There are four major north–south flyways in North America and six covering Eurasia, Africa, and Australasia. The passing of

1160-605: The federal government authority to buy failed cropland, and the Bankhead–Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937 gave authority to transfer about 3,850,000 acres (15,600 km ) to the Soil Conservation Service to restore the eroded soil and to protect the grasslands. In 1960, Congress approved the creation of KNG and RBNG. The elevation of Rita Blanca National Grassland ranges from a high of 4,700 feet (1,400 m) in northwestern Cimarron County, Oklahoma, to

1200-675: The flyways to help with the management of migratory birds . They studied all migratory birds and established the Mississippi Flyway , Atlantic Flyway , Mountain Flyway , and Pacific Flyway . The Atlantic Flyway starts in northern Canada and Greenland and follows the East Coast of the United States to the Caribbean Sea , and on to the tropical Central America . The Mississippi Flyway starts from northeastern Canada and passes over

1240-683: The history and ecology of the Kiowa and Rita Blanca Natural Grasslands, and reported its findings to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service in 2009. The RBNG has a very complex natural ecosystem, with a wide variety of flora and fauna. They found, for example, 826 different species of vascular plants , representing 81 different families. Flyway A flyway is a flight path used by large numbers of birds while migrating between their breeding grounds and their overwintering quarters. Flyways generally span continents and often pass over oceans . Although applying to any species of migrating bird,

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1280-467: The lift they require, sea birds prefer ocean routes and wetland birds need routes with suitable staging sites; deltas and coastal wetlands provide reliable food sources for this purpose whereas inland wetlands are less predictable. In North America , the flyways used by migratory waterfowl are divided into four geographical paths. Each flyway has a different composition of species and habitat . The United States Fish and Wildlife Service established

1320-709: The most visited mountains in the state of New Mexico. The Sandia District includes national forest land in eastern Bernalillo and southeastern Sandoval counties, and includes the Sandia Peak Tram and the Sandia Crest National Scenic Byway. The Sandia Mountains lie in the northern portion of the District. It is here where Congress designated the Sandia Mountain Wilderness (37,200 acres) in 1978. The Cibola's Sandia Ranger District also includes

1360-522: The mountains for mineral riches during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, stockmen drove tens of thousands of sheep and cattle to stockyards at the village of Magdalena, then linked by rail with Socorro. In fact, the last regularly used cattle trail in the United States stretched 125 miles westward from Magdalena. The route was formally known as the Magdalena Livestock Driveway, but more popularly known to cowboys and cattlemen as

1400-747: The northern breeding grounds of water birds in Siberia and leads across Asia to the Indian subcontinent. Little has been published about birds using this flyway. The East Asian–Australasian Flyway starts at the Taymyr Peninsula in Russia and Alaska and extends southwards to southeastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand. This flyway overlaps with the West Pacific Flyway. About 60 species of shorebird use this route. The West Pacific Flyway links New Zealand and

1440-400: The river's flyway during the spring and fall. Birds of prey are also present using the updrafts and thermals along the north-south alignment of the central mountains for their migration. The ‘ sky islands ’ region of the Cibola hosts more than 200 rare plant and animal species, with more than 30 species listed as endangered or threatened by New Mexico or the federal government. The region

1480-457: The routes used by waterfowl during their annual migrations and he developed the flyway concept, a key idea in the management and regulation of hunting of migratory birds; by establishing the routes used, estimates of population sizes could be made and suitable protection could be put in place. The special vulnerability of waterfowl and shorebirds on their international migrations, with their specific needs for suitable wetland stopovers, resulted in

1520-478: The signing of the Ramsar Convention in 1971. As a result, over 2300 Ramsar sites have been established around the world, many being situated on flyways where they provide the vital habitat needed by the birds on their journeys. "The concept of flyway is essentially an operational concept linked to waterfowl whose populations one wishes to manage over their entire migration space." —Convention on

1560-409: The southern hemisphere with birds flying south to breed and north to overwinter, but on a much smaller scale. The flyway, or route, taken by different bird species varies, but each population has its traditional staging points along the route where birds feed to build up their energy reserves to prepare for the next migratory stage; the route used on the spring migration may be different from that used in

1600-630: The west coast of the continent to South Africa. The Black Sea-Mediterranean Flyway starts from northern and western Siberia and leads across Asia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to northern Africa. Little has been published about birds using this flyway. The Asian–East African Flyway starts from the northern breeding grounds of water birds in Siberia and leads across Asia to East Africa. Little has been published about birds using this flyway. The Central Asian-Indian Flyway starts from

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