I just read “The Mountain Islands in the Desert Sea” (May 2021). It’s well-written and has nice photos, but the theme is grossly exaggerated. Sycamore Canyon is one of the best-documented local areas in Arizona: Botanists have visited and collected there for a century or so. In the SEINet database, there are 3,665 records of plant collections from within a 5-kilometer radius of Sycamore Canyon. Not so superficial, please.

Tom Van Devender,
director of biodiversity programs, Greater Good Charities
Tucson, Arizona

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Atascosa Highlands

by Tom Van Devender, High Country News
June 1, 2021

<h1>Atascosa Highlands</h1> <p class="byline">by Tom Van Devender, High Country News <br />June 1, 2021</p> <p><span class="s1"></span><span class="s2">I just read “<a href="https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/53.5/wildlife-see-the-first-ever-survey-of-the-atascosa-highlands" target="_blank" data-linktype="external" data-val="https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/53.5/wildlife-see-the-first-ever-survey-of-the-atascosa-highlands" rel="noopener">The Mountain Islands in the Desert Sea</a>” (May 2021). It’s well-written and has nice photos, but the theme is grossly exaggerated. Sycamore Canyon is one of the best-documented local areas in Arizona: Botanists have visited and collected there for a century or so. In the SEINet database, there are 3,665 records of plant collections from within a 5-kilometer radius of Sycamore Canyon. Not so superficial, please.</span></p> <p><em><span class="s2">Tom Van Devender, <br />director of biodiversity programs, Greater Good Charities<br /></span></em><em><span class="s2">Tucson, Arizona</span></em></p> <div class="wp-block-group hcn-print-edition-box"> <p>This article appeared in the <a href="/?p=187880">print edition of the magazine</a> with the headline <span class="hcn-magtitle">Atascosa Highlands</span>.</p> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/53-6/letter-to-the-editor-atascosa-highlands/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=121297&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/53-6/letter-to-the-editor-atascosa-highlands/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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