azgf

Snow, Passes Online, Helicopters

Posted - Charles Miles

Mt. Lemmon Highway reopened – Tucson News Now, Rain in Tucson, travel restrictions on Mount Lemmon – Arizona Daily Star, Mt. Lemmon receives first snowfall of season – Rikki Mitchell, Rain in Tucson, snow in mountains likely Saturday – Arizona Daily Star: Several articles from the past week about storms with both rain and snow – with more in the forecast! Remember that on snowy days there is always a chance that the highway will close.

Purchase Coronado passes online Friday – Sierra Vista Herald: “Coronado National Forest day and annual passes will be available for purchase online beginning this week.” Check the Coronado National Forest Homepage for details. In the Santa Catalina Mountains travel on the highway, parking at vistas/observation points along the highway, parking at most trailheads (and hiking!) and parking in Summerhaven does NOT require a pass or fee – however developed areas such, as the picnic areas in Bear Canyon, do require a pass.

Plan to use helicopters in Arizona wilderness draws complaints – Brenna Goth – The Arizona Repulic: An article about the Arizona Game and Fish request filed earlier in the year for a Wilderness Act exception to allow helicopter use in an area including the Four Peaks, Hellsgate, Mazatzal, Salt River Canyon and Superstition Wilderness areas. Arizona Game and Fish has made a similar proposal in the Pusch Ridge wilderness that appears to still be under consideration. Project Page – Pusch Ridge Wilderness, Tonto National Forest – as I understand it the comment period for both of these proposals has already ended. While helicopter use would make capturing and studying Bighorn in these Wilderness Areas easier – and I suspect that these requests will be approved – I lament the disturbance of/intrusion on this small portion of our public lands and don’t think this proposal merits an exception to the Wilderness Act.

Catalina Bighorn Sheep Advisory Committee – Meeting Notes, Public Records Request

Posted - Charles Miles

The Friends of Wild Animals have been a vocal opponent of the Bighorn Sheep Reintroduction Project – whether or not you agree with their views they seem to have done the interested public a service with a recent Public Records Request. In response to their request the Arizona Game and Fish Department has produced documents including meeting notes for the Santa Catalina Bighorn Sheep Reintroduction Advisory Committee.

These notes are fascinating because the Advisory Committee meetings are closed to the public. There have been quite a few details released about the reintroduction project – but this is the first time (that I am aware of) – that any meaningful details about these meetings have been released. The Friends of Wild Animals have posted their conclusions about the the notes in Bighorn Sheep Committee notes reveal pattern of secrecy and deception (covered by Sonu Wasu of Tucson News Now in Watchdog group blasts Bighorn Sheep advisory board members for ‘secrecy’).

In addition to posting their own opinions on the documents the Friends of Wild Animals have posted a pdf of the notes (they note: “We have put the scattered documents into chronological order and rescanned them. To obtain the original files, please email [email protected].”).

With public lands, wildlife, Wilderness and the AZGF involved in this project it is disappointing that these meetings were not open to the public. These notes – where the members appear to struggle with the details of habitat and fire, Mountain Lions, how to measure success, environmental regulations and details about GPS collar transmissions are actually refreshing reading – surely I am not the only one who finds projects that operate behind closed doors, work to present only a carefully crafted media message, stick to ‘talking points’ and maintain suspicious levels of optimism very hard to trust/believe? I didn’t come away from reading these documents with the impression that they demonstrate the “lack of integrity” that Ben Pachano, spokesman for Friends of Wild Animals, found – but I also don’t understand why any of this information needed to be a secret.

5/2 Bighorn Sheep Reintroduction Project Update and News Update

Posted - Charles Miles

Status update for 4/14 to 4/27 (all updates are currently available here). There were no deaths during this period. Five lambs have been observed and another video of the lambs has been released. The update makes some notes about fire regarding management options, fires that have burned in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness and it’s impact on habitat – interesting for the perspective and historical details.

The Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club has sent and published letters expressing concern over the Bighorn reintroduction to Arizona Game and Fish and the Coronado National Forest. I thought the questions about habitat that both letters raised were interesting – they note the decision to go ahead with this project even though much of the habitat the sheep were released into was rated ‘poor to fair’ and inability of the project to address development around the mountain which may have been a factor in their disappearance. Also mentioned in the letters are potential impacts to the Wilderness values of the area and a request for information on/evaluation of the impacts on the Bighorn Sheep populations where individuals have been removed for translocation. The letters and some brief reactions are covered in this article from the Arizona Daily Star – in the article a representative from Arizona Game and Fish states that “a decision has not been made yet on whether to proceed with plans to release another 30 bighorn sheep in the Catalinas this fall”.

The annual restrictions on off-trail travel in the Bighorn Management Area ended April 30 – it will be interesting to see if hikers begin to report seeing the sheep and if that has an impact on public opinion, although the temperatures in Tucson at the moment are less than ideal for exploring the Pusch Ridge area…

 

On Thursday, May 1, there was a public meeting about the Recreation Concept Plan for Sabino Canyon – Tucson News Now reports that “Several issues were brought up for discussion, including parking improvements, an eco-friendly shuttle system, new shuttle routes, extended bicycle hours and improved signage along the trails and expanding the current visitor’s center, among many other sggestions.” The article also notes that comments can be emailed to Linda Stamer at [email protected] until 6/1.

 

A time lapse of the April 15 Lunar Eclipse from the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter by Adam Block was featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day.

 

Canceled race leaves many Mt. Lemmon marathon runners without refunds – at least some entrants to the canceled The Mount Lemmon Marathon have not received refunds of their entry fees. A May 2 message on the Mount Lemmon Marathon notes the the event will no longer operate under the current owner and states:

“As of today the MLM staff is working on getting refunds set to send out. We do apologize it has taken so long. The operating costs of this events are very high and there are a number of event costs that we could not recoup. Our goal is to have refunds sent out with in two weeks. Do to the expenses involved, registration cmpany costs, medals, ins. etc. the refund amount will reflect some of the operational losses.”

 

4/30 – Reports from KGUN9 and Tucson New Now of an injured hiker being helped by PCSD and Rural Metro – I did not see any additional details but in the KGUN9 article the picture shows cars parked at Hairpin Turn near the base of the mountain.