Ajo Mountain Drive Stop 18

Wildlife activity begins to liven as the sun dips below the horizon.

NPS Photo/K Ceballos

Quick Facts

Location:

Mile 17.3 [km 27.8] along Ajo Mountain Drive

Stop 18

What Does the Future Hold?

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is filled with plants, animals and humans that have adapted to the Sonoran Desert’s unique environment. Some species migrated here, some adapted to or survived the changing climate during the past 10,000 years, but all will need to continue evolving to adapt to this ever-changing environment. Long-term monitoring projects taking place within the monument and nearby wilderness reserves indicate that our climate has begun to change again. Many of the plant and animal species that we associate with the Sonoran Desert are threatened: bighorn sheep, the Spadefoot toad, even our beloved saguaro. How will these species, and others, adapt to survive unforeseen changes? Can they adapt to the changing environment? What new species might move to the monument? What does the future hold for the Sonoran Desert? We are only beginning to understand these questions. This desert is a magnificent living biome with relationships that span the entire space. Plants depend on animals to disperse their seed around the desert by ingestion and digestion or by transport. Animals depend on plants for food and shelter. Even plants depend on other plants for their survival (cacti and nurse trees). Just because you see something dead in the desert, don’t assume that it has no purpose. Death begets life out here in the desert. A dead or dying saguaro may mean that a wood rat or a lizard may take comfort in its shade. The connections all over this incredible land is what makes it the Sonoran Desert.

We hope you enjoyed your time on this loop drive and that you’ve learned the story of this mysterious Sonoran Desert: that everything is connected and comes full circle, that it is filled with amazing adaptations for survival, that we are just beginning to understand the Sonoran Desert, and that new things are being discovered every day. Keep your eyes and ears open and maybe you’ll discover something new too.

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” Dr. W. Edwards Deming