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 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is proposing an unprecedented habitat development scheme for the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness in Arizona, the largest wildlife refuge Wilderness outside Alaska. The plan calls for constructing five new water developments and enlarging five existing ones, each designed to hold approximately 11,000 gallons of water, along with at least three collection points that divert natural overland flows to the tanks via pipelines. Construction would require the use of a backhoe at six sites, plus 240 to 360 helicopter trips to fly in equipment, construction materials, and personnel, all in Wilderness. The FWS’s Environmental Assessment (EA) also includes a plan for an unspecified number of “temporary waters” (with up to 2000-gallon capacity) in undisclosed locations, requiring frequent truck or helicopter trips to refill them. Additionally, the FWS is proposing to install feeding platforms and storage pallets to provide bailed alfalfa and pellets for Sonoran pronghorn, requiring up to 15 helicopter and 10 truck trips per season.
By any measure, this level of development, motorized use, and intentional manipulation of natural conditions makes a mockery of the refuge’s Wilderness status. But the matter is complicated because the project is ostensibly being done to benefit the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, a species that is certainly on the edge of survival.
Sonoran pronghorn occupy approximately eight percent of their native range, which included most of southwestern Arizona, northwestern Sonora, Mexico, and southeastern California. Approximately 170 pronghorn live on Cabeza-Prieta, though 70 of the pronghorn are in a semi-captive, non-wilderness herd that is provided supplemental feed and water in a non-wilderness portion of the range. The pronghorn recovery plan calls for 300 animals across 1.6 million acres of the Cabeza-Prieta, Organ Pipe National Monument and Goldwater military range.
Wilderness Watch supports efforts to protect and recover Sonoran pronghorn, but those efforts also need to honor the Wilderness. The EA contains this “Action Plan” along with a “No Action Plan,” but it does not consider any real options to the proposed plan. Wilderness Watch believes the agency should first explore heavy-handed management actions on non-wilderness lands, including the Goldwater range, as well as expanding the captive-herd efforts until the pronghorns' natural habitat becomes more secure. Some of the main factors for its current precarious status include poaching in Mexico and a profusion of human activity associated with illegal border crossings and border patrol activities, which drive the pronghorn from their preferred areas.
We believe the proposed project runs afoul of the Wilderness Act and is unnecessary. We encourage you to take action. Comments are due 6/11/11 and can be submitted by mail to: Refuge Manager, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, 1611 N. Second Ave., Ajo, AZ 85321 or emailed to James_Atkinson@fws.gov, or faxed to 520-387-5359.
Some points you might make:
• Urge the FWS to fully explore habitat enhancement options on non-wilderness lands, including the Goldwater range, and to expand the semi-captive program until conditions allow for the native habitat to be restored and the animals returned to the wild.
• Tell the FWS that destroying the wilderness character of Cabeza-Prieta is an unacceptable approach to pronghorn recovery. All other options must first be pursued before such a heavy-handed proposal should even see the light of day.
• Remind the FWS that Sonoran Pronghorn survived for years without artificial water sources and feeding stations. The FWS should consider the impact other Refuge management actions and uses are having on the population, including its recent decision to open the refuge up to more off-road vehicle use.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s EA comments
• Click here to read the Environmental Assessment
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