Santa Rita Experimental Range
A range of discovery.
A living laboratory for rangeland ecology and natural resource management.
The roughly 52,000-acres of Sonoran upland, mesquite savannah and oak woodland in the shadow of the Santa Rita Mountains have the distinction of being one of the longest continuously operating research areas in the world.
About
Since its founding in 1902, the Santa Rita Experimental Range has been a principal site for pioneering range research on the restoration, protection, and management of semi-arid grasslands in the Southwest.
It is a world-class facility, thanks to the long-term historical and biological databases that have been maintained since its creation. The Santa Rita Experimental Range is home to the National Science Foundation's long-term National Ecological Observatory Network for the Southwest U.S, as well as one of the most expansive ecological data sets to document regenerative and sustainable management – including repeat photography dating back to 1902 and repeat measured vegetation transects dating back to 1953.
The accumulated information on the ecology of the semi-desert system at Santa Rita Experimental Range is more complete than the cumulative data for any other tract of comparable size and diversity in the world. Results of this research have direct applicability to over 20 million acres of semi-arid rangelands in the United States and another 20 million acres in northern Mexico.
Between 2013 and 2021, more than 120 research projects have been conducted on the Santa Rita Experimental Range by researchers from the University of Arizona, the Southwest Watershed Research Center of the US Department of Agriculture (ARS-USDA), the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), and by other universities, research centers, museums, and associations from all over the United States, Canada, and Europe, that visited the experimental range to collect data for their projects.
Examples of these extended partnerships include the universities of California, Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming, the Audubon Society, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the Chicago John Murphy Herps Field Museum, the universities of Bristol (United Kingdom), and of Quebec (Canada), and the Max Planck Institute (Germany).
The Arizona State Land Department (ASLD) holds title to and leases to the Arizona Board of Regents more than 50,000 acres of the Santa Rita Experimental Range. ASLD manages approximately 9.2 million acres of State Trust lands within Arizona. These lands were granted to the State under the provisions of the federal Enabling Act that provided for Arizona’s statehood in 1912. These lands are held in trust and managed for the sole purpose of generating revenues for the 13 State Trust land beneficiaries, the largest of which is Arizona’s K-12 education.
The Coronado National Forest holds title to over 100 acres of the Santa Rita Experimental Range, including the Florida Station Headquarters, and this land is made available to the University of Arizona through a 60-year term special use permit.
Data Resources
The Santa Rita Experiment Range hosts one of the world’s largest publicly available ecological data sets. This data series includes an archive of over a century of repeat photography; transect and plant species, composition monitoring; soil, climate and precipitation data; current and past livestock management plans; as well as extensive data resources from our partners with the National Ecological Observatory Network and the USDA Agricultural Resource Services. These data provide an extensive baseline that shapes our perspective of the past and informs our understanding of the dynamic systems that influence our future.
Florida Station Headquarters on the Santa Rita
As the U of A’s only designated biological field station, Florida Station serves as the SRER headquarters and offers a variety of unique research, teaching and outreach opportunities. This historic facility is the continuation of a long standing partnership between the University of Arizona and the US Forest Service dating back to 1922. Florida Station offers a classroom setting, WiFi, sleeping accommodations for up to 27, a multi purpose lab and conference space all in a scenic mountain setting only 45 minutes from the U of A main campus.
The Santa Rita Ranch
Since its founding, the Santa Rita Experimental Range has worked with Arizona's livestock industry to grow understanding and approaches to sustainable grazing. The Santa Rita Ranch owns the cattle that have been authorized to graze on the range since the 1960s and works with the Arizona Experiment Station to develop and implement the annual grazing plan. The McGibbons also provide use of cattle for various experiments, including the ongoing Virtual Fence project (VENCE).
