Although we live in one of the most arid places in the world, Tucson is located in the middle of a biological “sea.” There are 57 forested mountains with peaks at elevations between 3,000 and 10,000 feet that make up what’s known as the Madrean Sky Island region, or the Madrean Archipelago. Stretching from northern Mexico into southeastern Arizona and western New Mexico, these sky islands are characterized by their oak, pine, and aspen-laden apexes, though they are isolated from each other by wide expanses of desert and grassland—“seas” that operate as wildlife corridors between each unique mountain ecosystem.
