why are these crags closed for 2 months longer than all the other crags? there's already a HUGE shortage of newby areas on lemmon, yet for some reason these 2 crags are the only ones closed until september. part of this is just me venting, but part of me also wants to know. what's the deal?

It's for the Mexican Spotted Owl and Peregrine Falcons.

*sigh*

i know that we close crags for nesting birds. my question is why are these particular crags closed until september while the others are only closed until july?

The closure on Barnum Rock / Gumby Wall is longer because of the Mexican Spotted Owl. It is the only closure on Mt. Lemmon due to the Mexican Spotted Owl.

John-

First off, I saw two juvenile falcons, most likely Prairie falcons, hunting and roosting at Skye Valley two weekends ago, so the closures in the Barnum area are serving an umbrella purpose (who knows if the USFS even knows this...). Now, on to the owl:

According to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phild.'s "Birds of North America, No. 179, 1995: Life History of the Spotted Owl", the young leave the nest sometime in late May through the end of June. However, they remain in the nest area until late August/early September while their parents continue to feed them and they learn to hunt on their own.

Disturbance (climbing, etc.) to young, semi-independent owls hanging around the nesting area may be more detrimental to the species than if they actually remained on the nest until dispersing on their own.

I would guess that the USFS realizes these facts and places a longer climbing ban in owl breeding areas. It's good to see the USFS actually applying judicious ecological knowledge to management decisions, although I wonder how often they survey for these owls.

well i realize that owls may have longer nesting periods or may require that humans keep their distance more than falcons, but is this the only place on lemmon they nest?

my guess is that humans climb on less than 5% of all rock formations in the catalinas (although probably much less) and yet we still close lots of excellent crags for nesting birds. it seems unreasonable.

the summit crags (the fortress, rapel rock, the ravens) arguably have the best concentration of good climbs on the mountain, yet these crags are only accessible for 3 months out of the year due to closures--and it's really much less than that because 2 of those months are monsoon months.

i respect the forest service's decision to protect birds where they actually need protecting, but this seems excessive.

John, you said: "well i realize that owls may have longer nesting periods or may require that humans keep their distance more than falcons, but is this the only place on lemmon they nest?"

Probably not, but the Mexican Spotted Owl is a Federally threatened species. That means it may be close to getting screwed--unlike you.

I was just posting the pertinent scientific info in response to you asking, Why do they close these cliffs for longer? Like I just said in my last post, I wonder about how often or thoroughly the USFS actually monitors these areas. They may not be nesting at Barnum, but then again, they just might be; falcons definitely are. Let's give these animals the benefit of the doubt and leave them alone for a *portion* of the year. After all, they've had to endure a century or more of logging, road building, and general habitat destruction. There are PLENTY of routes on Lemmon that aren't closed for wildlife.

By the way, according to MP and the USFS, the Summit crags are closed March 15-June 30. That leaves, lemme see, about 8 1/2 months of open climbing?

1. these crags are arguably the best places to take beginners in southern arizona and we have a SEVERE shortage of beginner crags on lemmon already. of all these other routes you speak of, beginners can climb only a very, very few, and no other crag has such a high concentration of climbs in the 5.5, 5.6, and 5.7 range.

2. i can't empathize with the suffering of owls.

3. the summit crags are NOT accessible for 8 1/2 months of the year due to the tendency of the tops of mountains to be cold.

i can get behind the idea that these owls are pretty cool critters that we should save if we can (not only that but they probably fill a vital niche in the local ecosystem), but i would be very surprised if the tiny amount of rock that climbers disturb would really have all that much of an impact on the species.

Jon, I don't understand why you can't see the rationale in it? You can drive your car right along the base of the rock, you can tromp all over the forest, you can set up camp there and roast marshmallows and hot dogs, but touch the rock and you are disturbing the owls. Don't you get it? These owls don't like climbers...

[The closure order specifically reads, "It is prohibited to be upon Barnum Rock..."]

hmmm good point, those owls are petty and cannot stand to watch us climb. climbing is wrong. it's WRONG!!

If climbing is wrong, then I don't wanna be right!