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Forest Report from Central New Mexico, U.S.A.

Written by the students of Culebrear Home School

Class or age : Grade 7

Name: Cibola National Forest


autumn
This photo comes from a United States
Department of Agriculture publication
called "Go for the Gold".

General information

Location: Central and West Central New Mexico

Road to Sandia Mountains
Road to Sandia Mountains

This forest covers 7 different mountain ranges :-

1) MAZANO MOUNTAIN RANGE/SANDIA MOUNTAINS
MOSCA PEAK 9,509 FEET IN ELEVATION
SANDIA CREST 10,678 FEET IN ELEVATION

view of Sandia Mts
View of Sandia Mountains

2) GALLINAS PEAK 8,615 FEET IN ELEVATION

3) SOUTH BALDY MOUNTAIN 10,783 FEET IN ELEVATION

closer view of Sandia Mts
Closer view of Sandia Mountains

4) SAN MATEO MOUNTAINS
MT. WITHINGTON 10,115 FEET IN ELEVATION

5) DATIL MOUNTAINS/GALLINAS MOUNTAINS
MADREM MOUNTAIN PEAK 9,560 FEET IN ELEVATION

6) ZUNI MOUNTAINS
LOOK OUT MOUNTAIN 9,128 FEET IN ELEVATION

7) MT. TAYLOR 11,301 FEET IN ELEVATION

view from Sandia Mts
These photos taken from the approaches
to the Sandia Mountains and from a
lookout on the East side of the Sandia
Mountain Range were supplied by Linda Kirkpatrick.
view from Sandia Mts
Snow on the distant
mountain tops.

The Cibola National Forest is 1.6million acres, ranging from 5000ft to 11,301ft in elevation.

The climate varies with elevation, from desert up through juniper, pine, and spruce-fir forests.

The range of vegetation is a mirror of the forests you meet as you travel from here to the northern parts of Canada.

Appearance

The Sandia Mountains were created by an uplift, creating the forested Eastern slopes and a craggy cliff on the Western side.

Sandia means "watermelon" and the mountain gets its name from its delicate pink colour during sunsets.
view of Sandia Mts
Craggy cliff on the Western
side of the mountains.
view from Sandia Mts
Summer in the Mountains.

Seasonal Changes

Summer
During Spring and Summer, leaves serve as factories manufacturing most of the foods necessary for a tree's growth. This takes place in the leaf cells that contain chlorophyll, which gives the leaf its green colour.
Autumn leaves
Autumn leaves

Fall or Autumn
But leaves also contain orange and yellow pigments masked much of the year by the green cholorophyll.


Autumn view
Autumn view

During the short days of Autumn, the leaves stop manufacturing and the chorophyll breaks down, allowing the other pigments to show through.

Winter trees
Winter trees

Winter
During winter, there is skiing available in the Cibola National Forest at Sandia Peak Ski Area.

Winter view
Winter view
Winter snowfalls usually provide three months of excellent cross-country skiing and snowshoeing on wilderness trails.

Life in this forest

Animals

There are a few mountain lions and black bears.
Bighorn sheep were introduced and a small herd struggles to survive.
Several Abert's squirrels were transplanted here from mountains in south central New Mexico in the 1940s.
The squirrels seem to be thriving here now.

Deer
Deer live in these mountains
Aspen trunk
Aspen trunk eaten
by deer and elk.

Deer and elk live in these mountains and the winters are quite harsh. The deer and elk survive by eating leaves and new shoots on the Aspen trees and the bark of taller trees.

Aspen is usually the first tree to appear after a fire or logging. Aspen sprouts from suckers in the ground and as it grows, it shades the ground allowing young fir and spruce trees to take hold. Once they do the Aspen falles over and dies.

The Forest Service helps keep Aspen as part of the forest by planned burning and selective logging where deer and elk spend the winter.

Birds
At Raptor Perch, there is a special perch built above the large power lines. This perch is designed to provide a safe landing for birds of prey like hawks and falcons that use the area as a flyway.

Importance of this forest

This forest area is very important for recreation - there are trails to walk on, picnic areas, camping grounds, restaurants and roads that take you to vantage points from which you can enjoy the view.
Forest trail
Forest trail

Future of this forest

No Trace Ethic
The Forest Service publishes material to educate people to follow the No Trace Ethic - leaving the Park exactly as they found it.

Literature, Art, Music, Dance and your forest

History and Mythology

The village of San Antonito, on the Sandia Crest National Scenic Byway, has housed an Hispanic community since the mid 1800s. The village lies within the Piñon-juniper belt. This type of vegetation is found from Northern Mexico to Southern Colorado and is called the "Pygmy Forest".

Near this village and elsewhere in the park are found dark, reddish-brown rocks which were deposited by ancient rivers more than 280 million years ago. They are red because of a high iron oxide content and this formation is called Abo sandstone.

During the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps were given employment in these mountains making access roads to Sandia Crest and linking outlying areas. The camp they lived in is still there.

Commercial logging was halted within the Cibola National Forest in 1969 and there has been no livestock grazing within the park since 1951.

Just after entering the park (at 7160ft) near Tinkertown (where there is a museum) there are dark gray layered rocks which are layers of limestone and shale. These rocks were deposited 300 million years ago by a shallow sea. Most of New Mexico was a seafloor then. When the sea level fluctuated, alternate layers of limestone and shale were deposited. This formation is known as Madera limestone.

Over thousands of years, activities like hunting, gathering, mining, irrigation and worshipping have been part of the traditional ways of American Indian tribes. In the 1700s and 1800s the mountain served as a common-use area for land grants. It was converted to public ownership with the dedication of the National Forest in 1907.

At 8640ft there is an abandoned mine. Before World War II, prospectors searched the Sandia Mountains looking for gold, silver, lead or copper. Few fortunes were made. Mining in the mountains is now mostly non-existent.

Sandia Mountain is part of the Rio Grande Rift Zone - a giant block of the earth's crust tipped up sideways.
As the Sandia Block tilted up 15 degrees the Rio Grande trough sank.
The same formations that occur at 7280ft in these mountains are also found 15,000ft below sea level under Albuquerque.
This is an indication of how much the earth moved when the Sandia Mountains lifted up.

The mountains are awe-inspiring, the forests are varied and the local native cultures have regarded this area as sacred for generations.
Reference Sources :
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The contact person for this report is Linda Kirkpatrick

This page has been visited times since 21st Oct, 1996.

Computer Co-ordinator : Judith Bennett: This page was last modified 26th Dec, 1996