Mexican Spotted Owls and Fire, Appendix B:  Individual Territory Summaries and Maps

Burned Territories

The Upper West Fork territory (MT #040212) is located on the Coconino National Forest southwest of Flagstaff, AZ. The original territory size is 272 hectares (672 acres) and the addition of our 1-km radius circle increased our survey area to 386 ha (953 ac). The original territory ranges in elevation from 1,981 - 2,128 meters (6,499 - 6,981 feet) and has a fairly equal distribution of north-, east-, south- and west-facing slopes. The average slope over the territory is 15.0 . The Upper West Fork territory was paired with the unburned Rattlesnake territory located approximately 4.5 kilometers to the south.

Along with the Red Hill territory, the Upper West Fork territory was burned by the Hog/Red Hill Prescribed Fire in 1994 (Peaks 1996). We had 74 habitat survey points within this original territory boundary and 81% of these showed no evidence of recent fire. 16% showed only evidence of ground fire, 0% burned to some degree (but not completely) into the canopy and 3% showed complete stand-replacement burn. 0% of the survey points were inaccessible or otherwise not surveyed.

Prior to the fire, 55% of the territory had a Pine cover type, 34% had a mixture of Pine and Oak, and 8% had a Mixed-Conifer cover type. 3% was classified as "Other".