Friends of Ironwood Forest

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.