Friends of Ironwood Forest

Meet Shiloh Walkosak!

As a Zookeeper or a Wildlife Rehabilitator Shiloh’s passion has always been helping people to see their own special connection to the wildlife and wild places around them.  After spending much of her career in captive animal management Shiloh decided to focus on the land. “The connection between wildlife communities and our own communities is the land we all share.”

As Outreach Coordinator, Shiloh will assist the board in fulfilling its mission by managing the Friends of Ironwood Forest membership program, coordinating volunteers, coordinating existing projects, and organizing new volunteer projects and educational programs, in addition to other tasks. 

Shiloh has a strong commitment to the preservation and enjoyment of natural and cultural resources and we look forward to having her as a part of the Friends of Ironwood Forest community.

The Friends of Ironwood Forest (FIF) is a volunteer and membership non-profit organization. We work to protect the biological, geological, archaeological, and historical resources and values for which Ironwood Forest National Monument was established. We accomplish our mission through volunteer and professional projects and activities such as interpretation, education, fundraising, and advocacy. We work in consultation and coordination with the Bureau of Land Management’s Tucson Field Office.

If you are interested in volunteering on the Monument, scheduling a program for a group or just learning more about the Ironwood Forest Shiloh can be contacted at shiloh@ironwoodforest.org.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY

CLEAN UP OF SHOOTING SITES AT THE IRONWOOD FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT

Help clean up several shooting sites and erect signs at the Ironwood Forest National Monument, on BLM-administered lands, and Arizona State Trust Lands.

Date: Saturday, June 16, 2007

Time: 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. (or until work is completed)

Where: Check in location is on Pump Station Road, about 1 ½ miles north of Avra Valley Road. Take I-10 west to Avra Valley Road, exit # 242, Pump Station Road is about 12 miles west of exit. Follow signs to check in site.

What to bring: Wear appropriate clothing, including sturdy shoes, gloves, and hat. Temperatures will be hot — bring additional water or snacks. Water, equipment and tools will be provided at the check in site.

Host agencies: Bureau of Land Management, Tucson Field Office – Arizona Game and Fish Department – USFS Santa Catalina Ranger District.

Call the BLM Tucson Field Office at 520.258.7240 for questions, or Maile Adler, BLM Park Ranger, at 520.405.0393.

FIF and other groups are hosting two open houses on the plan: 5/16 in Tucson and 5/17 in Phoenix. Stop by for more information on BLM’s plan for managing the Monument and for help in writing comments.

The target shooters and off-roaders are putting strong pressure on the BLM to allow inappropriate shooting and riding in the Monument. We need more conservation voices to be heard. Please do your best to attend one of these meetings.

BACKGROUND

The Ironwood Forest National Monument was established by Presidential Proclamation in June 2000. The 129,000-acre Monument, located about 25 miles northwest of Tucson, encompasses several desert mountain ranges including the Silver Bell, Waterman, and Sawtooth ranges, and possesses one of the richest stands of ironwood trees in the Sonoran Desert. The Monument contains several archaeological districts and a significant system of cultural and historical sites covering a 5,000-year period. The Monument also features a wide diversity of vegetation and wildlife. The ironwood system provides roosts for hawks and owls, burrows for desert tortoise, forage for desert bighorns, nests for white-winged doves and other birds.

The Resource Management Plan is supposed to provide guidelines for protecting these resources and limit impacts in the Monument. However, the BLM’s preferred alternative does not go far enough to provide adequate protection for wildlife, native plants, cultural resources, or primitive areas.

The public has an opportunity to comment on this draft plan until May 30- please do! Comments may be submitted in writing to: Mark Lambert, IFNM Planner, BLM, 12661 East Broadway, Tucson AZ 85748 or may be submitted via e-mail at AZ_IFNM_RMP@blm.gov.

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THREATS TO THE MONUMENT

The proximity of the monument to Tucson and Phoenix has also made it attractive to off-road vehicle use. Unchecked cross-country travel destroys fragile desert soils, inhibiting vegetation recruitment and harming wildlife species. Recreational shooting takes its toll on the visual resources and harms vegetation. Livestock grazing may be having long-term ecological consequences, eroding soils, spreading invasive species, and impairing wildlife habitats. In addition, Ironwood Forest National Monument has become a corridor for illegal activities, from undocumented immigrants and drug smugglers to a growing number of so-called “wildcat” roads used and created by law enforcement.

For more information, contact Scott Jones at 602-254-9330 or scott@ironwoodforest.org or Lori Andersen at 520-388-9925 or lori@ironwoodforest.org.

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OPEN HOUSES

The Friends of Ironwood Forest, in conjunction with the Sierra Club and other groups, is sponsoring two open houses in order to create a friendly, informative atmosphere and to assist in writing comments. Refreshments, maps, and talking points will be provided. This is your best opportunity to learn more about the plan, the changes BLM should make, and to get help with your comments.

Wed, May 16^th, 6 – 8 pm
Pima County Parks and Recreation
3500 West River Road, Tucson

Thu, May 17^th , 6 – 8 pm
The Phoenix Zoo (Pavilion)
455 N. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix

If you can’t attend one of the open houses, please consider submitting your own comments. Additional information, including talking points and a sample letter, are included below.

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In addition, the BLM is hosting another public meeting specifically for people to provide verbal comments. This meeting is scheduled for May 19, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Pima Community College West Campus, 2202 W. Anklam Road, Tucson, in the Proscenium Theater, located on the east side of the campus. Sign in for speakers will begin at 9:30 a.m. The meeting will be a question-and-answer format with a panel of BLM specialists. Each person will be given up to two minutes to ask a question or provide a comment, which will be recorded by a note taker.

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TALKING POINTS

Protection of monument resources is the paramount purpose of Monument designation and multiple uses should only be allowed where they do not conflict with this overarching directive. The BLM should specifically commit to monitoring the resources to ensure no harm to the monument.

Off-road vehicles (ORVs) must stay on 71-miles of existing designated routes. Restrict the repeated use of illegal routes by implementing a “signed open” policy, meaning that roads are not open unless specifically posted as such.

The BLM should use recent road surveys to immediately close illegal spurs, duplicate roads, and roads into unsafe areas. The BLM should also provide periods of active enforcement to ensure compliance from road users.

Target-shooting is not an appropriate use for the Monument. We support the BLM’s plan to ban this practice within the Monument. There are plenty of lands outside the Monument for this activity.

Protect the full 36,990 of wilderness-quality lands in the Monument. The Monument lands offer the opportunity to protect large areas of roadless, scenic landscapes and the BLM should act to maintain these areas, as it provides the best protection for Monument resources.

Desert bighorn habitat should remain unfragmented and undisturbed. Wildlife waters should be kept to a minimum within the Monument.

The BLM must be aggressive in preventing non-native weed infestations in the Monument, since these plants can bring fire, displace native vegetation, and impact wildlife populations. The best way to prevent them is by preventing disturbance from off-road travel, livestock, and development. The BLM should also mandate that only local genotypes of native species will be used in restoration activities.

Livestock grazing leases should be actively considered for retirement and the BLM should allow voluntary compensated relinquishment. Many of these allotments aren’t consistently monitored, leaving too many unknowns about the status of the Monument resources. Allotments that aren’t meeting baseline standards for rangeland health should be closed.

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SAMPLE LETTER

Mark Lambert
IFNM Planning Lead
Bureau of Land Management, Tucson Field Office
12661 East Broadway
Tucson, AZ 85748-7208

Dear Mark,

Thank you for providing an opportunity to comment on the draft resource management plan for the Ironwood Forest National Monument. I support the National Environmental Policy Act and appreciate the public participation that it affords. I care about the Ironwood Forest National Monument and I am concerned with and affected by the management of monument resources.

The Presidential Proclamation that established the Ironwood Forest NM recognized the unique values of this special place, including biologic, geologic, and cultural resources. These irreplaceable values must not be destroyed by extractive uses, and the BLM is charged with protecting them above all else.

I applaud the BLM for choosing to limit recreational target shooting in the Monument and strongly agree that this is not an appropriate place for target shooting. Target shooting on the Monument is closely associated with trash dumping and has had clear effects on the native flora. I also support the removal of Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) designations within the Monument because I believe the entire area should be treated like an ACEC.

I am particularly concerned that the BLM’s preferred alternative does not provide adequate protection for the precious natural resources found on the Monument. In many cases, Alternative B would be better for protecting natural resources. For example, I support the provision in Alternative B to only use native species in revegetation efforts. Non-native species should not be intentionally introduced in the desert southwest since weed invasions are already a problem. Additionally, I do not believe that terming this alternative “the most restrictive” alternative provides an unbiased description of this management style. Instead, I believe the BLM should emphasize that it is the best alternative for wildlife and vegetation, but still provides appropriate levels of use.

I support Alternative B’s provision to manage 36,990 acres of land within the Monument to preserve wilderness characteristics. This represents less than a third of all land within the Monument, but would provide higher quality habitat for wildlife and more opportunities for quiet recreation, which, the BLM notes in the analysis, is the most frequent visitor use.

I support Alternative B’s plan to remove livestock from the Monument at the conclusion of the current leases. The Ironwood Forest is no place to sustain cattle operations without serious and long-term consequences. Given the lack of monitoring data to show that livestock is not harming the land in any way (soils, biological crusts, vegetation-type conversions, Monument resources), the BLM should err on the side of common sense and caution and administratively close the grazing allotments. The RMP should allow for voluntary and/or compensated permanent relinquishment of these permits and should set some firm science-based ecological parameters for administrative closure.

I strongly disagree with the preferred alternative’s provision to allow off-road vehicle travel on 142 miles of routes through 117,530 acres. Alternative B, which allows for 71 miles of roads through 90,360 acres is more than enough area to manage for off-road vehicle travel. In addition to minimizing the total miles of routes open to ORV travel, the BLM also has the responsibility to ensure that routes and trails avoid and/or do not cause disturbance to sensitive wildlife habitats and riparian areas. These noisy, polluting machines disturb wildlife, degrade air quality, spread non-native species, crush vegetation, destroy cultural resources, accelerate erosion and are generally not compatible with the preservation of Monument resources or values. The BLM must not cave to political pressure to allow ORV users broad access to this national treasure. Imposing strong limits on motorized vehicle travel will also help prevent the further proliferation of illegal, user-created wildcat routes that so clearly impact the monument’s resources.

Thank you for considering my comments and please keep me informed when the final plan comes out.

Sincerely,

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tucson Field Office announced publication of the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (DRMP) for the Ironwood Forest National Monument (IFNM). The document will be available for a 90-day public review and comment. Please attend one of the important public meetings and/or submit written comments to the BLM.

This 129,000-acre Ironwood Forest National Monument is located northwest of Tucson and encompasses the Silver Bell, Ragged Top and Sawtooth Mountains and contains one of the richest stands of ironwood trees in the Sonoran Desert. Ironwood Forest National Monument is also home to the Nichol Turk’s Head Cactus (Echinocactus horizonthalonius var. nicholii), an endangered species. Despite its national monument status, the area continues to face multiple threats including illegal off-road vehicle use that carves up fragile desert soils among its saguaros and ironwood trees.

The BLM has scheduled five public meetings to present the plan to the public and allow for discussions and questions with BLM staff. Friends of Ironwood will have members at all the meetings to help you. Please attend one of the following meetings:

• March 29, 2007 from 6-8pm in Tucson
  Pima County Parks & Recreation, 3500 West River Road
• April 3, 2007 from 6-8pm in Sahuarita
  Sahuarita High School, 350 West Sahuarita Road
• April 5, 2007 from 6-8pm in Chandler
  Chandler Public Library, City Council Chambers, 22 South Delaware Street
• April 10, 2007 from 6-8pm in Sells
  Legislative Council Chambers, Main Street
• April 12, 2007 from 2:30-4:30pm in Tucson
  Pima County Parks & Recreation, 3500 West River Road

Click here for our “How-to Guide” for commenting on the management plan. Included in this guide are instructions on what to say at the public meetings and talking points for your written comments.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is soliciting comments through May 30, 2007 on this management plan. If you cannot make one of the meetings, you can also request a copy of the DRMP and submit commits by contacting Mark Lambert, Project Lead, at BLM Tucson Field Office, 12661 E. Broadway Blvd., Tucson, AZ, 85748, by calling BLM at 520-258-7200, or by e-mail at AZ_IFNM_RMP@blm.gov. Please specify which media type you prefer.

BACKGROUND

The IFNM was established by Presidential Proclamation in June 2000. The 129,000-acre monument, located about 25 miles northwest of Tucson, encompasses several desert mountain ranges including the Silver Bell, Waterman, and Sawtooth ranges, and possesses one of the richest stands of ironwood trees in the Sonoran Desert. The monument contains several archaeological districts and a significant system of cultural and historical sites covering a 5,000-year period. The monument also features a wide diversity of vegetation and wildlife.

Ironwood trees can live more than 800 years and are more numerous here than anywhere else in the Desert Southwest. They serve as the dominant nurse plant in the region, providing shade and water for saguaros and other plants growing beneath, and also serve as home to a remarkable range of wildlife. The ironwood system provides roosts for hawks and owls, burrows for desert tortoises, forage for desert bighorn sheep, and nests for white-winged doves and other birds.

THREATS TO THE MONUMENT

Designation of the monument has not eliminated threats to the land, however. Ironwood has become a corridor for undocumented migrants and for drug smugglers, with a growing number of so-called “wildcat” roads. The U.S. Border Patrol exacerbates the problem with its own wildcat roads, an open invitation to destructive off-road vehicle use. The proximity of the monument to Tucson and Phoenix has also made it attractive to off-road vehicle users who follow these illegal tracks or simply take off cross-country destroying fragile desert soils.

TALKING POINTS FOR THE MEETING AND YOUR LETTER

• The monument was created to protect the resources – referred to as the “objects of the monument” in the proclamation. The Draft Resource Management Plan should make protection of those resources its key guiding principle.
• Off-road vehicles should be strictly prohibited on any but designated trails within the monument. The transportation plan should dictate the closure of illegal roads and tracks, including undocumented migrant and boarder patrol illegal routes, and impose travel restrictions that will protect the objects of scientific and historic interest the monument is meant to safeguard.
• 33,417 acres should be designated as Wilderness Study Areas in the Ironwood Forest National Monument, including 6,161 acres at Ragged Top, 11,169 acres in the Sawtooth Mountains, 7,489 acres in the Silver Bell Mountains and 8,598 acres in the West Silver Bell Mountains. Protecting these acres as Wilderness Study Areas will assist the Bureau of Land Management in its responsibility to protect the objects and wildlife of the Ironwood Forest National Monument.
• The monument was created to protect, among other things, “the last viable population of bighorn sheep indigenous to the Tucson basin.” Activities that disturb the sheep and harm the vegetation should be limited.
• Mining threatens the monument resources as well. The mining company Asarco should be required to restore fully the land it illegally disturbed within the monument.
• The monument should be a haven for wildlife and cultural resources. The BLM management plan should protect and preserve the biodiversity, integrity and population viability of wildlife and archaeology within the monument in compliance with the monument proclamation.
• Inappropriate development in the monument can damage the integrity of wildlife corridors, migration routes and access to forage. It also damages the experience of visitors who come to see natural landscapes, natural diversity, and to hear natural sounds and quiet. Development within the monument should be limited.
• The management plan should limit wildcat shooting and prohibit the discharge of firearms on monument lands, except for hunting.
• The highly diverse and rich vegetation warrants the most stringent management and habitat restoration with an emphasis on monitoring and combating invasive species such as buffel grass. Support the goals outlined in the draft to have the appropriate cover and mix of natural native plant species, that each vegetation community is maintained within its natural range of variation in plant composition, structure and function, and that the diversity and distribution of natural native plant communities that presently exist are protected, enhanced, and restored.
• The BLM must monitor visitor uses and impacts as well as the ecological health of the Monument. Guidelines or triggers for action to protect Monument objects should be developed. These “limits of acceptable change” should focus on vulnerable parameters such as sensitive and/or indicator species, numbers and impacts of people, grazing, wildcat (illegal) routes, and any other issues which might result in harm to Monument objects.
• We cannot know how well we are protecting the biological resources of the monument until we understand their condition at the baseline. We should use the strongest protection available until such time that the BLM should define the status and distribution of species within the monument before it develops the final management plan. And the final resource management plan should include plans for careful monitoring.

Send your comments to:

Mark Lambert
IFNM Planning Lead
BLM Tucson Field Office
12661 E. Broadway Blvd.
Tucson, AZ, 85748-7208
AZ_IFNM_RMP@blm.gov

For more information on the management plan, or for help in writing your comments, please contact Scott, Lori, or Murray.

BLM releases draft plan for Ironwood Forest National Monument
Newly-formed monument “friends” group to review plan and offer comments

For immediate release: March 2, 2007

Contacts:
Murray Bolesta, 520-207-8452
Scott Jones, 602-570-0658
Lori Andersen, 520-388-9925

Tucson - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is expected to release its Draft Resource Management Plan/Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Ironwood Forest National Monument today. The draft plan is the first to chart how the BLM plans to manage the 129,000 federal acres now that it has been designated a national monument.

With its designation as a national monument, the BLM has been given a new mandate to manage the monument for the primary purpose of protecting the resources listed in the proclamation, likely reducing the range of activities available under its traditional multiple-use directive.

“We’re anxious to see what the BLM has come up with,” explained Murray Bolesta, a photographer from Green Valley who serves as President of the newly-formed Friends of Ironwood Forest group. “We’re excited to sit down and take a close look at how they plan to protect the important resources of this special place from some serious threats and challenges, such as encroaching development, immigration pressures, illegal OHV use, and uncontrolled target shooting.”

The Friends of Ironwood Forest (FIF) works to protect the biological, geological, archaeological, and historical resources and values for which Ironwood Forest National Monument was established. The group was formed by community members in November 2006 to support the monument proclamation and organize volunteers to assist the underfunded BLM in projects on the monument.

The public will have 90 days to comment on the plan. The BLM will be holding a series of open houses so that members of the public can learn more about the draft plan and provide comments.

“We’re looking forward to participating in the comment process, and in helping to get the word out about this important opportunity for the public to provide input,” explained Lori Andersen, Secretary of the group.

The group plans on submitting detailed comments on the plan, which will guide management of the monument for the next 15-20 years.

“We hope that the BLM has taken the public’s clear request for a strong and proactive plan to protect the monument’s resources to heart in this draft plan,” said Scott Jones, a member of the FIF board of directors.

During the public scoping phase of the management plan, nearly 8700 of the 9100 comments received by the BLM–roughly 95%–supported emphasizing resource protection as the plan’s highest priority.

Background

Ironwood Forest National Monument was designated by President Clinton on June 9, 2000 under the authority Congress provided the President under Section 2 of the Antiquities Act of 1906. The monument contains approximately 129,000 acres of federal lands within a boundary encompassing an additional 60,000 acres of state and private inholdings.

Possessing one of the richest stands of Ironwood trees in the Sonoran Desert, its landscape is swathed with the rich, drought-adapted vegetation of the Sonoran Desert. These ironwoods serve as the region’s dominant nurse plant, generating a chain of influences on associated understory plants, affecting their dispersal, germination, establishment, and rates of growth. Ironwood trees provide, among other things, roosting sites for hawks and owls, forage for desert bighorn sheep, protection for saguaro against freezing, burrows for tortoises, flowers for native bees, dense canopy for nesting of white-winged doves and other birds, and protection against sunburn for night blooming cereus.

The monument also encompasses several rugged desert mountain ranges, including the Silver Bell, Waterman and Sawtooth, as well as Ragged Top Mountain, a biological and geological crown jewel amid the depositional plains in the monument. The monument presents a quintessential view of the Sonoran Desert with ancient legume and cactus forests.

The geologic and topographic variability of the monument contributes to the area’s high biological diversity. For instance, the ironwood-bursage habitat in the Silver Bell Mountains is associated with more than 674 species, including 64 mammalian and 57 bird species. The monument is home to species federally listed as threatened or endangered, including the Nichols Turk’s Head Cactus and the Lesser Long-Nosed Bat, and contains historic and potential habitat for the Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. The desert bighorn sheep in the monument may be the last viable population indigenous to the Tucson basin.

In addition to its important biological and geological resources, the monument also contains a rich system of prehistoric and historic resources, including three areas (the Los Robles Archaeological District, the Mission of Santa Ana del Chiquiburitac and the Cocoraque Butte Archaeological District) listed on the Federal Register of Historic Places.

Ironwood Forest National Monument is part of the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), the system of special protected lands managed by the BLM. The BLM is currently preparing resource management plans for all five of the national monuments it manages in the state. The final proposed resource management plan for Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermilion Cliffs National Monuments was also released today. The final proposed plan for Agua Fria National Monument and the draft plan for Sonoran Desert National Monument are both expected to be released in early summer.

Help us protect Ironwood Forest National Monument and an endangered cactus by joining FIF in participating in a volunteer service project sponsored by the Sierra Club near the Waterman Mountains.

The service project is set for Sunday, March 4, 2007 at 8am when we will be assisting the Bureau of Land Management with removing buffel grass, a non-native invasive grass, from a portion of the Ironwood Forest National Monument near Tucson. This 129,000-acre National Monument encompasses the Silver Bell, Ragged Top and Sawtooth Mountains and contains one of the richest stands of ironwood trees in the Sonoran Desert. Ironwood Forest National Monument is also home to the Nichol Turk’s Head Cactus, an endangered species.

We will remove the buffel grass with picks – large and small – and bag it for disposal. The plan is to work for about three or four hours, have a lunch break, and finish up no later than 2pm. There will be an orientation session on identifying the grass and how to safely remove it, plus a briefing on the monument and the vegetation. The Sierra Club will provide lunch. Please bring water, a hat, sunscreen, some work gloves, and lots of energy.

There will be a contingent driving down from Phoenix, so contact us for details. For more information on the project and to r.s.v.p. contact Sandy Bahr at (602) 253-8633 or sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org.