The IBA area encompasses 27 miles of the Little Colorado River and its tributaries from its headwaters on Mount Baldy through the Wenima Wildlife area in Apache County. It includes the tributaries of the East Fork, the West Fork, the South Fork, Rosey Creek, Benny Creek, Hall Creek and Butler Canyon. Several lakes are also within the watershed including Lee Valley Reservoir, White Mountain Reservoir, Bunch Reservoir, Tunnel Reservoir, River Reservoir and Becker Lake. For more information on birding this area, go to our birding guide and click on Zone 2. This riparian corridor represents a significant amount of intact, diverse habitat. With changes in elevation, the habitat ranges from spruce-fir and aspen through ponderosa pine and pinyon-juniper grassland. Alder, willow, walnut, and cottonwood trees live along the river. The watershed supports a great variety of breeding species, many of which nest only in the high elevations in Arizona. A diversity of migrating birds may be found here as well. Wintering waterfowl are abundant on open water. Bald Eagles and Ferruginous Hawks are also among the winter visitors. In our research, we found a total of 255 species that have been recorded here. For a species list click here to print “Birds of the Little Colorado River Watershed IBA” (Requires Adobe Acrobat).

More on the IBA program. The IBA program is a priority for National Audubon, and for Audubon in Arizona. National Audubon believes that this can be a vital part of the mission of bird habitat conservation. For more information about the IBA program from National Audubon click here. In Arizona, Audubon has already recognized several other IBAs around the state, and other chapters are continuing to work on nominations. For more on the Important Bird Area program in Arizona, Tucson Audubon has IBA information on their website at: www.tucsonaudubon.org. The coordinator of this program is Scott Wilbor who can be reached at swilbor@qwest.net or (520)629-0757.
The White Mountain Audubon Chapter has put together this nomination, and will be working on collecting data for a future nomination of the Blue River Watershed in conjunction with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. If you would like to help with this project, or would like more information on our IBA program, send us an email at whitemountainaudubon@hotmail.com.

Northeastern Arizona All-Birds Committee. White Mountain Audubon participates as a member of the Northeastern Arizona All-Birds Committee. This committee is a cooperative effort by several government, tribal, and private representatives working together on a variety of projects related to bird populations and habitats. Initiated by the Intermountain West Joint Venture of the North American Waterfowl Initiative, this group works towards restoring, maintaining, and improving bird population numbers under priorities set by the following plans: North American Waterfowl Management Plan; Partners In Flight; North American Shorebird Plan; and the North American Waterbird Plan. Cooperators besides White Mountain Audubon include: Arizona Game and Fish Department, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, White Mountain Apache and Zuni Tribes, The Nature Conservancy, and Ducks Unlimited.

Some of the priority projects in our Committee working area include: 1) livestock exclusion fencing of specific wetlands and springs; 2) habitat improvements on several wetland systems on both Forest and Tribal lands; 3) classification of the upper Little Colorado River and the Blue River as Important Bird Areas by National Audubon Society; 4) riparian habitat condition assessment on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest; 5) cottonwood/willow plantings in key riparian areas such as Wenima Wildlife Area; 6) studies on the impacts of the Rodeo-Chediski wildfire on woodpeckers and other forest birds; 7) construction of nesting platforms for Ospreys; 8) aspen regeneration; and 9) restoration and protection of grasslands for Mountain Plover, Burrowing Owl, and other species.

Concho Lake Restoration Project. In partnership with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Concho School District, we have been involved in planning a project to enhance the habitat at Concho Lake. Funded through a grant proposal, this project will include plantings of cottonwood trees and emergent vegetation, such as rushes, along the lake shore. In addition, nest boxes for a variety of cavity nesting birds will be placed near the lake. A nesting platform for Osprey is also planned. We hope to do some of the planting in the fall of this year, and have this project completed by December of 2004. Volunteers will be needed to help with planting rushes, placing nestboxes, and monitoring. For more information on birding at Concho Lake, go to our Birding Guide page and click on Section 1.

Nestbox Program. (Photo at right: Sipe Nest Box Placement). With the help of many volunteers, White Mountain Audubon has initiated a nestbox program. Our first placement of nestboxes occurred in March of 2002, where we place approximately 20 boxes at the Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area and 10 boxes at the Wenima Wildlife Area. Both wildlife area’s are near Springerville and are managed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Currently, member Paul Gomben along with several volunteer members, are leading a nestbox program for the Pinetop-Lakeside and Show Low areas, working to place nestboxes at a variety of locations. We want to thank both Lanny Richard and Warren Goff for making and donating the original 30 nestboxes to start off this program, as well as all of our nestbox volunteers. We always need volunteers for this effort; if you have an interest, please contact us.