In this issue:

• Wildfires Spark Management Debate - U.S. Southwest
• Cabeza Prieta ATV - So. Arizona
• Salt Creek is NOT a road - So. Utah
• 'Hooked on Growth' Available for Screening

WESTERN WILDFIRES SPARK FOREST MANAGEMENT DEBATE, AGAIN

This month, Arizona instituted a new House Committee on Forest Health that convened July 5 and one of the first testimonies came from one who has his heart set on opening Arizona forests to the timber industry. Republican Congressman Paul Gosar testified that the state's commercial timber industry needs to be resurrected. "But bureaucratic red tape, preventing the private sector from participating in the stewardship of our public lands, combined with the excessive litigation initiated by some extreme environmental groups, resulted in the loss of Arizona's timber industry and the jobs provided by the responsible management of our natural resources,'' he said. (Full Story)

Gosar's rhetoric ignores the science of the situation. Extreme drought coupled with climate change and a century of misguided management created the perfect storm of conditions that have led to this season’s record fires. Ponderosa forests of the type consumed by the Wallow Fire in Arizona, historically relied upon frequent, low-intensity fires, fueled by perennial grasses. These low-intensity fires limited tree densities and created more resilient landscapes. In the past century, those perennial grasses have been all but removed by intensive grazing by domestic livestock. That, coupled with historic logging that removed the large fire-resistant Ponderosa pines, resulted in the sort of “dog hair” density of trees and brush that fuels the current spate of destructive crown fires. (Great Old Blog.)

For the past decade, the US Forest Service, in partnership with local citizens and conservation groups, has been working diligently to thin forests near communities at risk in Arizona and their efforts were rewarded during this horrendous fire season as those communities were mostly spared. One of those towns, Nutrioso, is home base for the In the Footsteps of Aldo Leopold Broadband led by Billie Hughes. (CBD press release.)

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CABEZA PRIETA WILDLIFE REFUGE MANAGERS OPEN ROADS TO ATVS

Situated west of Tucson on the Arizona-Mexico border, the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge is home to pronghorns, desert tortoises, burrowing owls and more. It is also a major thoroughfare for undocumented aliens and the cross-border drug trade. Thus, the US Border Patrol has virtually unlimited motorized access in the Refuge, of which almost 90% is designated wilderness. Now Refuge management has opened the few roads in the Refuge to “street legal” ATVs too, even though there are already over 8,000 miles of illegal off-road vehicle tracks scarring the landscape there. (Map of illegal roads in Refuge)

Great Old Bro Fred Goodsell of Ajo, AZ, a member of the Desert Protectors and a volunteer on the Refuge alerted us to this plan last fall. After protesting to the manager that he thought it was inadvisable to allow off-road vehicles on the already overstressed and remote landscape, Fred and a number of other Desert Protector volunteers were “fired” by the manager. Great Old Broads, along with Wilderness Watch, the Center for Biological Diversity and others, have protested this plan, to no avail. At this writing the conservation community is still considering what action to take. (More details)

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COURT REJECTS R.S. 2477 ARGUMENT FOR SALT CREEK IN UTAH

The U.S. District Court for the District of Utah recently ruled in favor of the National Park Service that Salt Creek in Canyonlands National Park does not meet the test of 10 years of continuous public use, and so is not an R.S. 2477 right-of-way.

In recent years, San Juan County in southern Utah has attempted to gain right-of-way ownership to roads on National Parks, Forests, Monuments, and other federally managed lands by invoking a 19th Century rule (Revised Statute 2477) that until its repeal in 1976, authorized the construction of highways over public lands. Roads that were constructed prior to 1976 were grandfathered and San Juan, like other counties in Utah, wants to claim rights of way on many user-created routes and in streams and canyons in order to prevent these places from being protected as wilderness, roadless, parks, etc. Indeed, the county is currently seeking input from any county resident who can claim to have driven on many suspect routes before 1977, presumably in order to establish historic use to be used in proving R.S. 2477 claims in court.

The fact that a federal court has rejected the Salt Creek streambed as an R.S. 2477 constructed highway is a boost to Broads Recapture Utah! campaign, which focuses Broad attention on the health of the public lands in southern Utah. (The Grand Canyon Trust has more details about this case.)

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'HOOKED ON GROWTH' FILM AVAILABLE FOR SCREENING IN OCTOBER

Host a screening of Growth Busters' documentary, "Hooked on Growth" (www.growthbusters.org/). The directors are seeking interested parties to participate in their "World Premier" screenings starting in October. They hope that there will be a tidal wave of organizational, community and house party screenings. So check out the film and if you are interested email: screenings@growthbusters.org

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Photo of Willow Fire mop-up (13 miles northwest of Forest Lakes, AZ) courtesy of the National Wildlife Coordinating Group
Photo of Salt Creek in Canyonlands National Park courtesy of the National Park Service
Photo of Harris hawk nesting in saguaro courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife
Photo of Hooked on Growth Filming courtesy of growthbusters.org Hooked on Growth director Dave Gardner with New York City crew volunteers, Neha Jain and Valerie Pires
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