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HELP
CLEAN UP TRASH, CLOSE ROADS
THIS SATURDAY IN IRONWOOD
FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT
Join
the Arizona Wilderness Coalition
and the Bureau of Land
Management for a day of service
this Saturday 4-25-03
in Ironwood Forest National
Monument. As a result of
U.S. border policies that
are increasing Border Patrol
presence in urban areas such
as San Diego and El Paso,
more remote lands such as
Ironwood Forest National Monument
are experiencing a tremendous
amount of immigrant, drug
smuggling and law enforcement
traffic. This activity
is creating illegal wildcat
roads and leaving literally
tons of trash in the National
Monument. BLM is not equipped
to deal with this enormous
problem, and needs our help!
The workday will begin at
8 am, and continue until dark.
Participants should bring
plenty of water, work gloves,
and wear long sleeves and
pants. Since bees are known
to inhabit the area, please
do not bring sodas or other
sugary drinks. For more information
and directions to
the cleanup and restoration,
contact Arizona Wilderness
Coalition's Central Arizona/Sonoran
Regional Coordinator
Jason Williams at (928) 717-6076
or Brian Segee at (520)
623-5252, ext. 308.
APPEALS
HALT PROPOSED TELESCOPES
IN SANTA RITA MOUNTAINS
Native
Americans, the Center for
Biological Diversity and Sky
Island Alliance (SIA) won
appeals on 3-22-03 against
construction of the proposed
"Very Energetic Radiation
Imaging Telescope" (VERITAS).
The U.S. Forest Service's
SW Regional office overturned
a January decision by
Coronado NF Supervisor John
McGee that had placed the
telescopes near a sweat lodge
and sacred site in Montosa
Canyon on the Coronado National
Forest, in southeast
Arizona. Three separate challenges
to the project were
filed by the Center and SIA,
the Tohono O'odham Nation,
and To All Our Relations.
The project would have authorized
the construction of
seven 34-foot tall optical
reflector telescopes with
sides 265 feet in length,
a 4,500 square foot control
building, septic field, underground
utility connections,
and communication links within
Montosa Canyon, a prominent
and currently undeveloped
drainage along the west side
of the Santa Rita Mountains.
The ten-acre array of telescopes
would detect high-energy
gamma rays emitted from sources
in the universe, such as
black holes and exploding stars.
The Native American non-profit
organization "To
All Our Relations" currently
operates a sweat lodge
within Montosa Canyon as
a place where young American
Indians and others, under
the guidance of their elders,
re-establish their self-identity
through spiritual and
cultural ceremonies, including
the sweat lodge.
POST-FIRE
"SALVAGE" TIMBER
SALE ON NORTH RIM OF GRAND
CANYON APPEALED
On
2-06-03 the Center for Biological
Diversity and the
Southwest Forest Alliance
appealed the proposed "Hidden
post-fire salvage timber
sale," located on the
North Rim of the Grand Canyon
within the Kaibab National
Forest. The sale, approved
by North Kaibab District
Ranger Jill Leonard in December,
calls for logging 1.3
million board feet of trees
from 336 acres. The sale
would log 80% of the ponderosa
pine habitat burned by
the Hidden Fire, started
by an abandoned campfire in
the summer of 2001.
The North Rim of the Grand
Canyon, particularly the
Kaibab Plateau area where
the sale is located, harbors
some of the most extensive
tracts of old growth ponderosa
pine remaining in the Southwest,
and has long been recognized
as a paradise for wildlife,
including the Northern goshawk,
Kaibab squirrel and the famous
Kaibab mule deer herd.
President and sportsman Teddy
Roosevelt was so impressed
by the area that in 1906
that he designated it the "Grand
Canyon Game Preserve."
Within the Preserve, the
Forest Service is required
to make the protection of
wildlife its highest management
priority, yet the agency
continues to ignore this
mandate by planning timber
sales which log old-growth
and large trees.
Learn
more at the Center's Ancient
Forests web site.
NEW ARIZONA
GOVERNOR HOLDS STATE'S FIRST
FOREST HEALTH SUMMIT
On
3-10-03, Arizona's newly
elected Governor Janet Napolitano
convened the state's first
ever "Forest Health
Summit" in Prescott.
Napolitano stressed the need
to move beyond the fear and
blame that has dominated
Arizona's forest politics
since last summer's Rodeo-Chediski
wildfire. Several hundred
participants, including federal,
state and locally elected
representatives, Forest Service
and other agency personnel,
academics, and representatives
from environmental organizations
including the Center
for Biological Diversity
attended the summit.
Participants agreed on thirty
recommendations to forward
to the Governor, the large
majority of which conform
to policy positions advocated
for many years by environmental
organizations. These recommendations
include: the need
for the State legislature
to give local governments
the authority to set and
enforce rules on making personal
property less vulnerable
to fire, such as banning wood-shingle
roofs and requiring the clearing
of "defensible
space" around private
residences; the need to prioritize
the thinning of small trees
next to communities in the
"wildland-urban interface";
advocating for
greater allocations of federal
money to pay for fuel-reduction
projects in National Forests;
and finding uses for and
developing markets for small-diameter
trees.
The Governor's office has
issued a full report following
the summit, available at
www.governor.state.az.us,
and will soon be appointing
a Forest Health Advisory
Committee.
Learn
more at the Center's Ancient
Forests web site, or
the Center's Forest
Fires and Forest Health
web site.
RELOCATED
GRAY WOLF SHOT AND KILLED;
$15,000 REWARD
A
two-year-old relocated male
Mexican gray wolf that had
recently paired up with a
female was found dead on 3-09-03,
near the Green Peaks area
of the Apache-Sitgreaves National
Forest. The wolf had been
trapped on the San Carlos
Reservation in January, and
relocated to an area near
the town of Vernon, 20 miles
east of Show Low.
It was captured from an area
considered safe to wolves,
and relocated to a place
with greater road access, making
wolves more vulnerable. Two
wolves had previously been
killed in the Vernon area.
Neither the male nor its
mate had ever been involved
in livestock predation,
and they formed just the
third natural pairing since
wolves were reintroduced
five years ago.
There are now 11 wolf deaths
under investigation in
eastern Arizona and western
New Mexico. The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service will
pay a $10,000 reward for information
leading to an arrest in this
wolf shooting, and the
Center for Biological Diversity
is offering an additional
$5,000 for information leading
to an arrest in any of
the 11 cases.
Individuals with information
they believe may be helpful
in solving these crimes should
call: Arizona Department
of Game and Fish Operation
Game Thief at 1-800-352-0700.
Learn
more about the Mexican
Gray Wolf at the Center'
wolf web site.
U.S.
GAME AND FISH DECISION TO
KILL MOUNTAIN LIONS CHALLENGED
The
Center for Biological Diversity,
Fund for Animals, Animal
Defense League of Arizona,
Humane Society of the United
States, Mountain Lion Foundation,
Forest Guardians,
Animal Protection Institute
and the Flagstaff Activist
Network filed a suit 4-16-03
against the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and U.S.
Forest Service countering
an Arizona Game and Fish
decision to kill mountain lions
in order to boost bighorn
sheep populations.
The plan sanctions the killing
of 36 mountain lions
by hounds, snares and firearms
to reduce predation on
bighorn sheep in the Tonto
National Forest and Four
Peaks Wilderness area, southwest
of Roosevelt Lake.
Bighorns once roamed the
area in larger numbers but
were nearly extirpated by
hunting, habitat destruction,
drought, and disease from
livestock. Despite these factors,
it is legal to hunt the bighorns,
and the study area
serves as a federally authorized
domestic sheep driveway,
through which thousands are
herded to reach grazing
allotments. Another factor
not considered in the study
is that livestock grazing
in the Four Peaks Wilderness
has contributed to a decline
in the mule deer population,
and resulted in higher predation
levels on bighorns
than other areas.
Click
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Diversity, and ensure a future
for wildlife and habitat.
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