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[RC] Fw: WILDALERT: Arizona Monument Needs Your Help - Hickory Ridge ArabiansIt is important that riders in Arizona and the south west comment on the proposed plan. If you look at what the Wilderness Society wants, it amounts to closure. Make your voice heard. Jerry Fruth Chairman: AERC Trails Committee *************************************************** *Your WildAlert for Tuesday, November 11, 2003 *************************************************** Few of America's newest National Monuments match the Agua Fria National Monument in south-central Arizona for its rich combination of wildness, archaeological treasures, and diverse wildlife, all within a short drive from a major metropolitan area. Therein lie both the monument's uniqueness and its vulnerability. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released preliminary draft alternatives, part of a process that will lead to a plan for the management of this lovely area, and asked citizens to comment on them. We have a great opportunity now to influence the way the Agua Fria is managed for the decade ahead and beyond. We hope you will help us take advantage of that chance! HOW YOU CAN HELP: Contact the BLM before the November 15 Deadline! None of the draft alternatives the BLM has presented will give the monument the protection it deserves. We must urge the BLM to revise its alternatives to safeguard the Monument's wild character, its wildlife and its archaeology. You can send that message to the BLM immediately by clicking here: http://ga1.org/campaign/agua2_tws ********************************************* THANK YOU! We appreciate your taking time to let the BLM know that you want the Agua Fria National Monument managed to protect its wilderness, its archaeology and the other remarkable values for which it was set aside. There is a sample letter below you can draw from should you wish to write your own comments to the BLM. We certainly hope you will! Your thoughts, in your words, will be the most influential. And if you have visited the Monument, please talk about your experience in your comments. We've also provided contact information. Thanks, too, for being an invaluable part of WildAlert, our online community of wilderness activists. ********************************************* BACKGROUND Within the Agua Fria National Monument's 71,000 acres are at least 450 prehistoric sites as well as spectacular rock art from the ancient people who lived there. It encompasses the canyon of the Agua Fria River and two large mesas. There is glorious wilderness in this Monument, too, the more remarkable because it lies a scant 40 miles north of Phoenix, AZ. The Monument ranges in elevation from 2150 feet to 4600. Valuable riparian forests occur within its semi-desert. They, along with water from the Aqua Fria itself, harbor quite exceptional biological resources, including several sensitive species. They include the Mexican garter snake, lowland leopard frog and desert tortoise. Javelina, pronghorn, pumas and neotropical songbirds also find a home there. This is the range of values the Monument, proclaimed in January 2000, is meant to permanently protect. And the final management plan, to which these draft management alternatives will eventually lead, will provide the blueprint by which the BLM will care for the Monument in the years ahead. THREATS: Unmanaged Motorized Use, Vandalism, Grazing The Monument's proximity to booming metropolitan areas sets the BLM a real challenge in its management. We seek alternatives that will minimize roads and bar them completely from sensitive wildlife areas. The alternatives must preserve areas that now have wilderness qualities, which the BLM itself has said includes Agua Fria Canyon, parts of Perry Mesa and tributaries of the Agua Fria River Canyon and Indian Creek. The Agua Fria River has been proposed for designation as a Wild and Scenic River. The BLM should ensure that the river corridor be cared for in such a way as to protect those values and should also include provisions for the study of the Agua Fria's tributaries to determine their suitability for protection as Wild and Scenic waters. TOO MANY MOTORS IN TOO MANY PLACES The draft alternatives need the most improvement in their provisions for managing motorized use. Specifically, the alternative the BLM finally settles upon must specify that no additional roads will be built. It must provide that primitive zones (those with true wilderness qualities, generally referred to in the draft alternatives as "backcountry" zones) are closed to cross-country off-road vehicle use and that travel be restricted to designated roads. And it must not provide for the construction or designation of scenic byways in the primitive or wilderness zones. Such routes will only encourage motorized use in areas that have already suffered from too much of it, areas such as the Bloody Basin Road and the Perry Mesa. That use, at that level, would threaten archaeological sites and natural resources. As a general matter, adoption of the Citizens' Agua Fria National Monument Transportation Proposal would remedy most of the transpiration-related shortcomings in the BLM's draft alternatives. Draft Alternative D is similar to the citizens' plan, but it would leave open some roads through pronghorn fawning areas and movement corridors, through desert tortoise habitat or leading to major archaeological sites. If the draft alternatives propose far too little protection for wilderness, they also offer too little security for wildlife. We believe that the BLM should craft an alternative that creates two new wildlife management areas that will protect pronghorn fawning and established movement patterns. To support this protection, the alternatives must also propose the closing of roads and other routes that work to fragment habitat or to impede movement across established wildlife corridors. PRONGHORN-FRIENDLY FENCES OR NONE Fences, too, should be removed and new fences prohibited, except in areas where they're necessary to keep domestic livestock out of riparian areas. Where such fences remain or are built, they must include "pronghorn passes." (These use barbless bottom wires at least 16 inches above the ground to accommodate pronghorns' practice of going under fences rather than over them.) None of the draft alternatives provides an adequate primitive area zone. This category must be expanded to include all pronghorn, tortoise and other sensitive wildlife habitat, as well as important archaeological sites. Specifically, a primitive zone should encompass the Sycamore Mesa and Ash Creek areas in the northern part of the Monument to protect their wild values. Finally, we believe that the BLM should build no developed campgrounds within the Monument and limit such camping to established sites in the so-called "front country zone." ***************************************** TAKE ACTION TODAY! The deadline for comments is Friday, November 15. You can send your comments to the Bureau of Land Management immediately by clicking on http://ga1.org/campaign/agua2_tws ********************************************* CONTACT INFORMATION You can mail, fax or email your comments to the BLM at the following addresses: Regular mail: BLM Phoenix Office 21605 N. 7th Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85027-2099 Fax: (623) 580-5580 Email: chris_horyza@xxxxxxx For more information on the Agua Fria National Monument, go to http://ga1.org/ct/idqCMR91xp2X/ You can take action on this alert via the web at: http://ga1.org/campaign/agua2_tws/i8g58s2h7eibx Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this. http://ga1.org/campaign/agua2_tws/forward/i8g58s2h7eibx We encourage you to take action by November 16, 2003 Protect Agua Fria National Monument INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB: If you have access to a web browser, you can take action on this alert by going to the following URL: http://ga1.org/campaign/agua2_tws/i8g58s2h7eibx Your letter will be addressed and sent to: Mr. Chris Horyza (if you live in AZ) ----THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT IN YOUR NAME---- Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here], I write to comment on the draft alternatives the Bureau of Land Management has issued for the Agua Fria National Monument management plan. The Monument deserves the highest possible level of protection for its most important resources: wilderness values, archaeological values and wildlife. Although the draft alternatives include some good provisions, sadly none of the alternatives as presented will ensure this level of protection. Transportation management is certainly the most glaring weakness in the drafts. Adoption of the Citizens' Agua Fria National Monument Transportation Proposal will go far to remedy these shortcomings. While Alternative D is similar to the citizens' proposal, it fails in significant ways. Specifically, I urge you to designate no scenic byways in primitive zones in the Monument, to prohibit all cross-country travel in those zones and to restrict motorized travel to designated roads. I further urge that the alternatives specify that no new roads be built and that existing roads or routes be closed where they cross and fragment important wildlife habitat or lead to important archaeological sites. Because wildlife is such an important value of the Monument, I ask that you include in the alternatives provisions for the creation of two new wildlife management zones to safeguard pronghorn fawning and movement corridors. The alternatives should also prohibit new fences across such habitat, especially pronghorn fawning or movement corridors, and should provide that existing fences be removed unless they are necessary to keep domestic livestock out of riparian zones. Those that remain must include pronghorn passes to ensure free movement of this animal. Please include more of the Monument in primitive zones, by which I mean areas with clear wilderness values. Your draft alternatives use the term "backcountry." That term troubles me as elsewhere across the Bureau of Land Management's estate, off-road vehicle travel is allowed in areas defined as "backcountry." As proposed, these wild zones are too small to protect important habitat for pronghorn, tortoise and other species or to protect important archaeological sites. I am particularly concerned that the proposed primitive zones now omit areas such as Ash Creek and the Sycamore Mesa in the north of the Monument. They must be included. Creation of developed campgrounds is antithetical to the Monument's purposes and should not occur. Camping should be allowed only in designated sites in the least primitive parts of the Monument. Dispersed camping is appropriate within primitive areas, but should not be permitted within one quarter-mile of archaeological sites and water sources. Finally, I urge that you propose alternatives that will close all riparian zones to livestock grazing, to allow naturally occurring fires to burn, where appropriate in grassland areas, and to use only native species for restoration or rehabilitation of disturbed areas in the Monument. Thank you for considering my comments. ----END OF LETTER TO BE SENT---- Sincerely, Jerry Fruth -------------------------------------------------- If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for The Wilderness Society at: http://ga1.org/wilderness/join.html?r=FpqCMR91kdL5E -------------------------------------------------- If you would like to unsubscribe from The Wilderness Society, you can respond to this email with "REMOVE" as the subject, or you can visit your subscription management page at: http://ga1.org/wilderness/smp.tcl?nkey=i8g58s2h7eibx *********************************** Powered by GetActive Software, Inc. Relationship Management for Member Organizations (tm) http://www.getactive.com *********************************** =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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