User:SkyIslander

Hello,

My name is SkyIslander. I am a resident of Southern Arizona, in the United States.

Southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northwestern Mexico is home to the Madrean Sky Islands. This Sky Island Region is comprised of a number of mountain ranges surrounded by lower elevation desert valleys. The sky islands are notable because of their rich habitat and diversity of animal and plant species.

These mountain "islands," forested ranges separated by vast expanses of desert and grassland plains, are among the most diverse ecosystems in the world because of their great topographic complexity and unique location at the meeting point of several major desert and forest biological provinces. The region is a blend of tropical and temperate, harboring well over half the bird species of North America 29 bat species, over 3,000 species of plants, and 104 species of mammals--a diversity exceeding anywhere else in the U.S.

This diversity is among the most threatened in North America by land development, climate change, poor livestock grazing practices, fire suppression, off-road vehicles, and resource extraction. 

There are approximately 27 Madrean sky islands in the United States, and 15 in northern Mexico. The major Madrean sky island ranges in the United States are the Baboquivari Mountains, Chiricahua Mountains, Pinaleño Mountains, Santa Catalina Mountains, and Santa Rita Mountains.