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

Burned Territories

The Secret Mountain territory (MT #040604) is located on the Coconino National Forest southwest of Flagstaff, AZ. The original territory size is 319 hectares (788 acres) and the addition of our 1-km radius circle increased our survey area to 437 ha (1,081 ac). The original territory ranges in elevation from 1,709 - 2,015 meters (5,607 - 6,611 feet) and has a fairly equal distribution of north-, east-, south- and west-facing slopes. The average slope over the territory is 16.5 . The Secret Mountain territory was paired with the unburned Barney Springs territory located approximately 7.5 kilometers to the northeast.

Along with the Secret Cabin and Secret Canyon territories, the Secret Mountain territory was burned by the Lost fire in 1994. We had 91 habitat survey points within this original territory boundary and 3% of these showed no evidence of recent fire. 16% showed only evidence of ground fire, 29% burned to some degree (but not completely) into the canopy and 51% showed complete stand-replacement burn. 1% of the survey points were inaccessible or otherwise not surveyed.

Prior to the fire, 73% of the territory had a Pine cover type, 20% had a mixture of Pine and Oak, and 2% had a Mixed-Conifer cover type. 4% was classified as "Other" and 1% was unknown.