| The Walnut Creek site is located at 34.9224°N, 112.8447°W,
at an elevation of 1560 m. The leasehold encompasses 113 ha. Two
perennial streams, Walnut Creek and Apache Creek, flow through the
property. The Juniper Mesa wilderness area is approximately one km
north of the property.
 Vegetation on the site includes a unique interior riparian deciduous
forest with adjacent interior chaparral and pinyon-juniper communities.
A fairly well developed cottonwood/willow gallery forest and scrub
willow community is found adjacent to the active stream channels.
Because of the diversity of available resources, habitats and moisture,
the field station promotes a diversity of seasonal, resident and
visiting wildlife species (Abbott and Glomski, 2000).
Structures at WCCER include a 150-m2 manager’s residence,
a 230-m2 multipurpose building, a generator building and five other
significant outbuildings. The multipurpose building is currently
used as office, shop and storage space and houses two horse stalls
and a feed loft (see Figure 2 and floor plan included in the “Supplementary
Documents” section of this proposal). Water at the site comes
from a well that pumps to a 17.8 m2 water storage tank. Sewage
from the manager’s house is handled by a septic tank and
leach field. This sewage system was designed to handle the waste
stream of up to 40 people at one time. At this time, only the manager’s
house has toilet facilities. Other visitors use rented portable
toilets. Running water is available from a number of spigots across
the site. Power comes from a diesel generator and from a small
array of solar panels that provide electricity for the manager’s
residence. Communication is by cell phone and a two-way satellite
internet connection at the manager’s house. Access to the
site is by county maintained paved and gravel roads from Prescott
(55 km to the southeast of WCCER).
In 2004, WCCER will incorporate the nearby Hyde Mountain lookout
into its lease. This higher elevation site (2216 m a.s.l.) has
a small fire lookout cabin with solar power and a water catchment
system. It is approximately 12 km southwest of the Walnut Creek
site and is reached by a 5 km trail off of a Forest Service road.
It is located adjacent to the Apache Creek Wilderness Area.
WCCER is a member of the Organization of Biological Field Stations
(OBFS) and seeks to expand current modes of collaboration with
other field stations in the region such as the Merriam-Powell Research
Station and the Sierra Ancha Field Station.
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