Tumacacori Wilderness Legislation Introduced

[DesertRose]

I'm proud to say I had a small part in helping to get this going years ago. It's taken a long time, but I'm so glad it's finally getting a chance to see a chance to become a reality.

Why do we (Jonathan and I) support this?

Population in southern Arizona is booming. More and more of our wild lands are being surrounded by developments and our true wild experiences lost - like the chance to hunt in an area without the constant groan of an ATV engine . . .

This is the one area in our region where jaguars have been photographed numerous times . . . and it's a wild, beautiful place.

There are plenty of roads around it which will remain in place - but if we don't designate the core area now (which is largely roadless) we may not have it for long, due to things like drug and human smuggling, enforcement activity, and thoughtless 4x4 activity.

Here is the Friends of Tumacacori information on the legislation. Regardless of what you think of Grijalva or others in Congress (we're Republicans), we urge some of the Portal community to help us support this!

http://www.tumacacoriwild.org/PressReleases/FOTH-SIA-AWCPressRel-080307.html

 

[TrAiLbUs1]

The area around Tumacacori is amazing :wings: human encroachment has devastated that region. When settlers first moved down here, there were sightings of grizzly bears, huge packs of wolves, elk the whole nine. Now we are left with only a few species, and much less land, I've had enough of these developments coming in and destroying these last few serene habitats
Very cool that you were a part of starting that, you should be proud

 

[DesertRose]

Thanks! Welcome to the Portal, and I love the area around Toostoned, Arizona, too. Spent a year working on a book about the San Pedro River and enjoyed the excellent bars and burgers there.

Keep helping us spread the word that overlander enthusiasts can be conservationists and wilderness supporters, too.

 

[calamaridog]

Do you have a map of the proposed wilderness area?

 

[DesertRose]

Do you have a map of the proposed wilderness area?

Here is a non-technical map (not the final map, which will be hashed out in the creation process with local stakeholders and Forest Service).

You can see from the larger map (link below) that existing roads are preserved - those are the cherry stems.

This area is where we've had 4 different jaguars come up from Mexico. What an amazing thing! We're all pretty excited about this - especially as the Tucson-Nogales corridor grows by leaps and bounds.

From the information pages:

Roads and Access in the Tumacacori Wilderness

http://www.tumacacoriwild.org/images/TumacacoriHighlandsWildernessMap-thumb.jpg

Wilderness Areas are encouraged to be enjoyed – some of Arizona’s most popular destinations are designated Wilderness.

Driving vehicles inside Wilderness Areas is not permitted, although access to Wilderness Areas is essential for allowing the public to reach trailheads or other destinations.

While our Wilderness Areas are all different, they all share one theme – human or horse power is the only way to go. That said, wheelchairs are certainly allowed in all Wilderness Areas.

The Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness Proposal preserves more than 20 separate access roads that will allow visitors to reach a wide variety of areas on every side of the Wilderness. Opportunities for motorized recreation will remain ample on those and other roads surrounding the area.

While the interior roads will not actually be included in the Wilderness, a buffer around them will be created so that visitors can legally drive to one of the multiple access points.

The Wilderness Act states, “wilderness areas shall be devoted to the public purposes of recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical use.” While mechanized equipment isn’t allowed in Wilderness, these beautiful areas are encouraged to be enjoyed by all.

Under human power, visitors gain a unique perspective on their natural heritage exemplified by the Tumacacori Highlands.

Hiking, horse-packing, photography, camping, bird-watching, hunting, fishing and other human-powered recreation are popular activities in the Tumacacori Highlands that will be preserved and enhanced with Wilderness designation.

 

[calamaridog]

I'm not familiar with that area so thank you for posting the map. I've spent some time around Ajo, Tuscon, and Sierra Vista, but I've never seen that area.

I have always been under the impression that "wilderness" areas were off limits to hunting but this is not the case? Also, would Mountain Bikes qualify as "human powered recreation" here as well?

Not to be a pest, but what about existing damage and trash due to the influx of illegal border crossers and law enforcement activities in the area. Does the Wilderness designation offer additional protection for the area from these influences? That would be a nice thing...

So many questions and so little time Thanks for responding.

 

[DesertRose]

I'm not familiar with that area so thank you for posting the map. I've spent some time around Ajo, Tuscon, and Sierra Vista, but I've never seen that area.

I have always been under the impression that "wilderness" areas were off limits to hunting but this is not the case? Also, would Mountain Bikes qualify as "human powered recreation" here as well?

Not to be a pest, but what about existing damage and trash due to the influx of illegal border crossers and law enforcement activities in the area. Does the Wilderness designation offer additional protection for the area from these influences? That would be a nice thing...

So many questions and so little time Thanks for responding.

Excellent questions!

Wilderness areas make the best hunting areas - in fact, during the 1960s when the original Wilderness Act was taken to Congress by a group of citizens, it included some of the country's foremost hunting enthusiasts and advocates along with naturalists and hikers like the Muries.

Game species such as deer, bear, and elk are able to better live out their lives and breed in Wilderness areas with less mechanical interference. Today more than ever this is important - being in Calif., you know this!

Bikes are not allowed in Wilderness designated areas except on marked roads. Mountain bikes as such didn't exist when the Act came to pass, so this was a later interpretation. Horses, llamas, and bipeds are allowed.

Down here migration is a huge issue - you are right. I wish I could say that Wilderness could curb some of that, but in truth the designation would not (hey, these people are ignoring international boundaries and rules - a Wilderness sign means nada).

In theory building new roads is not possible in Wilderness (though that rule is set aside for extreme firefighting access) but I believe that homeland security trumps pretty much everything and that executive branch has the power to do things like authorize roads in Wilderness for security issues. Lack of easy roads to walk or drive on does keep migration out. There are plenty of easier routes.

On a totally sidetrack note, last night I just saw off 4 young people from Guatemala who had been lost in our borderlands for 6 days . . . they had been robbed at the border in Sasabe at gunpoint, were frightened, out of water, exhausted. They could have died out there. God bless the good-hearted enforcement people out there who are trying to help people and keep them from dying - but we need to fix things so folks no longer are so compelled to cross an entire continent to work here . . . yes, they are breaking the law, but then again, they have plenty of work here when they get here - good work. These are good, hard-working people - not coming up to be on welfare. They just want to work for a reasonable living. Sigh. Sorry - it's just so tough to put faces on an issue most people just rant about. And yes, they crossed by the Tumacacori Wilderness.

 

[awalter]

Another sad example. Look at the destruction/damage the Border Patrol has accomplished along the El Camino Del Diablo, in the last few years, in the hunt for illegal immigrants

 

[MountainBiker]

Perhaps this area actually qualifies as wilderness, and if so, this is a great accomplishment! In areas that I'm familiar with nearby, wilderness is used where it shouldn't be. There are a million ways to save land from development without making it wilderness.

 

[awalter]

Game species such as deer, bear, and elk are able to better live out their lives and breed in Wilderness areas with less mechanical interference. Today more than ever this is important - being in Calif., you know this!

Some of the largest Elk herds I've ever seen are, year after year, in the Eastern Sierras, enjoying the cultivated & irrigated hay & alfalfa fields of the local farmers/ranchers. They are becoming somewhat domesticated.

 

[DesertRose]

Perhaps this area actually qualifies as wilderness, and if so, this is a great accomplishment! In areas that I'm familiar with nearby, wilderness is used where it shouldn't be. There are a million ways to save land from development without making it wilderness.

I grew up in southern Arizona and know its wildlands very well. Having hiked the Tumacacori Highlands many times and explored around its perimeter by truck, I can say for sure that a wild place like this definitely needs to be Wilderness, as opposed to other types of public land designations (of which there are fewer than a handfull - not a million - and a place can't be designated as Wilderness, which takes an Act of Congress, without meeting some very specific criteria, it's not random at all). I've been involved in saving quite a bit of land, some of it for pretty diverse recreation like Las Cienegas NRA (BLM) or an addition to a state park, with fully developed RV pull-ins.

There are several options for public land designation - all of which have different appropriate types of use - from OHV trails to hiking to hunting to primitive camping to RV-ready plug-and-play campgrounds. Lots of choices and variety out there. As someone who has worked in public and private land conservation for 20+ years, I can say for sure there's plenty of room for all types of recreationists, if they'd only learn to get along and play nice!

Mild rant alert: The "my way or no way" attitude of many people these days is wearing thin for me - whether 4wheelers griping about exclusionary land designations or the girl who was hiking on a designated 4x4 recreation road in Colorado last week (Black Bear Pass) and deliberately stepping in front of trucks (did it to me, did it to another driver) and then giving us dirty looks and sniping that "pedestrians have the right of way". (Or the mountain bikers who glared and wouldn't return our wave and greeting.)

Like our kindergarten teachers said, if we don't learn to get along, there won't be any recess!

 

[DesertRose]

Some of the largest Elk herds I've ever seen are, year after year, in the Eastern Sierras, enjoying the cultivated & irrigated hay & alfalfa fields of the local farmers/ranchers. They are becoming somewhat domesticated.

Yeah, I know - they're like cows in parts of New Mexico, too. But during hunting season, just watch: they disappear like wraiths. We know - it's been 6 years since I had a nice bundle of venison in the freezer!

 

[calamaridog]

Perhaps this area actually qualifies as wilderness, and if so, this is a great accomplishment! In areas that I'm familiar with nearby, wilderness is used where it shouldn't be. There are a million ways to save land from development without making it wilderness.

I agree that many areas under "consideration" for wilderness designation do not need it, however, you will remember in Norcal recently the BRC was involved in and supported the wilderness designation for the Northwestern California Wilderness Bill (HR233). It was certainly refreshing that people were able to compromise in that case.

 

[calamaridog]

Another sad example. Look at the destruction/damage the Border Patrol has accomplished along the El Camino Del Diablo, in the last few years, in the hunt for illegal immigrants

Or look at our own backyard. East County San Diego has been trashed!

 

[DesertRose]

Or look at our own backyard. East County San Diego has been trashed!

Just filled a trash bag with good and clothes from a short 1-mile section of road near our home. The season's heating up. I can hear a Blackhawk right now circling the valley.