Friends of Ironwood Forest

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.