The Ironwood Forest National Monument celebrates its 10th anniversary.Fans of the outdoors in Southern Arizona have many opportunities to explore its natural surroundings and supporters of the Ironwood Forest National Monument say this preserve is a great place to start. It is named for the ironwood tree, a tough and resilient species that forms one of the largest populations in the region.
"The bark of the tree is actually so dense that it doesn’t have the typical tree ring dating system as in other trees. The density of the tree actually requires carbon dating to date," says Kristen Lenhardt, a public affairs specialist with the Bureau of Land Management. "The wood is actually so dense that it doesn’t float, unlike the bark from other trees.”
The monument encompasses more than 129,000 acres west of Marana and includes mountain ranges that are full of animal and plant life. One stand-alone mountain, Ragged Top, even has a population of desert bighorn sheep.
The monument is operated by the Bureau of Land Management, but there are also volunteers known as Friends of Ironwood Forest who spend time and resources protecting and promoting area--encouraging locals as well as tourists to visit and explore the site.
“There is a lifetime of learning that could be done out here, just looking at the plants and animals or studying the history of the area both in the last 100 years or even going back five thousand years to when the Hohokam lived here,” says Lahsha Brown, Executive Director of Friends of Ironwood Forest.
The forest was declared a monument by former President Bill Clinton, who also established the Sonoran Desert National Monument southwest of Phoenix while still in office in 2000.
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