LOCALIZATION: In the Marín Municipality, Nuevo León, at the south end of the Sierra de Picachos, with a northwest-southeast orientation.

AREA: 9,328 hectares of mountain range, with altitudes up to 1,350 meters above sea level and steep walls.

CLIMATE: Temperate (semi-hot) and sub humid, with an average annual rainfall of 600 to 800 mm and average annual temperature of 20 to 22 o ¾C.

VEGETATION: Oak forests and sub-mountanous bushes.

BIODIVERSITY OF LA MESA, NUEVO LEON

Group	No. of species	Endemics	Special protection	Threatened	Rares	Endangered
Plantas	88				1
Anfibios	1		1
Reptiles	3			1	1
Aves	120		2	8	1	3
Mamíferos	14					1

ECOLOGICAL BENEFITS: It is a zone of high biological diversity, as there are species from the North American Flatlands, the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plains and the Sierra Madre Oriental provinces, that made a biological corridor and provide refuge to resident and migratory birds, mammals and reptiles.

There are species found in La Mesa like the black bear (Ursus americanus eremicus), placed under the “endangered” category by the NOM-059-ECOL 94, and in the Appendix II of CITES (SEMARNAP, 1994). Other species, like the Montezuma quail (Cyrtonyx montezumae) and the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) are considered “vulnerable”; the cougar (Puma concolor) has being placed under the “special protection” category by the NOM-059-ECOL- 94 (CCFFNL, 1995).