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

Burned Territories

The Rattlesnake Peak territory (MT #0501013) is located in the Chiricahua Mountains of the Coronado National Forest, west of Portal, AZ. The original territory size is 202 hectares (498 acres) and the addition of our 1-km radius circle increased our survey area to 362 ha (896 ac). The original territory ranges in elevation from 1,968 - 2,415 meters (6,457 - 7,923 feet) and lies predominately on north-facing slopes, with 43% of the territory having an aspect between 315 - 45 . The average slope over the territory is 25.0 . The Rattlesnake Peak territory was paired with the unburned Barfoot territory located approximately 2 kilometers to the northeast.

Along with the Mormon Canyon and Rucker Canyon territories, the Rattlesnake Peak territory was burned by the Rattlesnake fire in 1995. We had 59 habitat survey points within our original territory boundary and 22% of these showed no evidence of recent fire. 53% showed only evidence of ground fire, 19% burned to some degree (but not completely) into the canopy and 7% showed complete stand-replacement burn. 0% of the survey points were inaccessible or otherwise not surveyed.

Prior to the fire, 39% of the territory had a Pine cover type, 46% had a mixture of Pine and Oak, and 7% had a Mixed-Conifer cover type. 8% was classified as "Other".