The Mogollon Highlands: A Naturalist’s Perspective

The Mogollon Highlands:
A Naturalist’s Perspective
a talk with David Gilligan

The Mogollon Highlands is one of North America’s most biologically diverse and underrecognized ecoregions. Situated between the Sonoran Desert and the Colorado Plateau, this remarkable landscape is a crossroads where species, habitats, and geologic histories converge.

Join naturalist and explorer David Gilligan for a journey through the natural history of the Mogollon Highlands. Drawing on decades of observation and exploration, David will examine the geologic forces, ecological communities, and biogeographic patterns that make this region so distinctive. From sky islands and grasslands to forests and canyons, discover the landscapes, plants, animals, and deep-time processes that define the Mogollon Highlands and reveal its place within the broader story of the American Southwest.

Details

Keynote Speaker: David Gilligan – The Mogollon Highlands: A Naturalist’s Perspective

• Thursday, July 9, 2026
• The Federal Venue, Prescott, AZ (101 W. Goodwin Street, 2nd Floor)
• 7pm. Doors open at 6pm
• Cost: General Admission – $10 per person
• Admission Plus One Drink Ticket – $15 per person – Selection of wine from Page Springs Cellars

David Gilligan is a professional naturalist, explorer, professor, and writer. He has developed and taught natural history field programs for Prescott College, The Sierra Institute, and Sterling College, and is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Secret Sierra, In the Years of the Mountains, Nature, Culture, Consciousness and The High Country of the Mind. His academic specialties include vegetation ecology, botany and geology in mountain and desert environments, and nature philosophy. He has trained hundreds of people in expeditionary backpacking, mountaineering, canoeing, and sea kayaking skills necessary for natural history exploration of wild places. David has lived and worked in Arizona, California, and Northern New England, and traveled to mountain environments all over the world.

This presentation is a part of the Mogollon Highlands Festival, a four-day event that brings together science, art, and community in Prescott, Arizona, from July 9 to 12, 2026. Attendees can join keynote talks, research presentations, workshops, guided field trips, and a public community celebration to discover the landscapes, wildlife, geology, archaeology, and cultural history that make the region unique.

Register Here:

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