RestoringConnections

Newsletter of the Sky Island Alliance Vol. 9 Issue 2 Summer 2006

The border near Naco, Arizona. Photo courtesy Kat Rodriguez, Derechos Humanos.

Borders and Boundaries

2 Summer 2006

From the Director’s Desk:The fence looked like any other. It was your typical

three-strand barbed variety they sell down at thehardware store. It’s used for just about anything thatneeds to be fenced in or fenced out, in addition toserving as the ubiquitous means of delineating one’sproperty boundary. The barbed wire I came across onthis particular day served all of those needs, plus anadditional purpose that was cause for a moment ofpause. It served as the dividing line between theUnited States and Mexico. Since the Gadsden Purchasein 1853 when the United States bought southernArizona and New Mexico’s bootheel from Mexico (for$12/acre in today’s dollars!), the main cause forconcern along the international line has been makingsure the wandering cattle stay on their respective sides.The fence I came across seemed to be doing a prettygood job at that. Unfortunately, cattle managementseems to be the least of our concerns along that fenceline today.

Later on, after thinking about the significance ofthat little barbed wire fence and the large politicalbarrier it represents, I found myself watching theUnited States Senate debate border and immigrationissues before passing a reform bill on May 25th.During the debate, a particular Senator came to thefloor and proclaimed “Good fences make goodneighbors” as he called for authorization to builddouble- and triple-layer 15-foot high walls along theU.S.-Mexico border. That’s a far cry from the barbedvariety that currently exists along most of theboundary. I couldn’t help but dwell on the effects that15-foot high triple-layered walls would have on local,regional, and continental wildlife movement patterns.The Sky Island region is a premier example of theinterconnectedness of ecosystems — it spans thetemperate and sub-tropical, the Sonoran andChihuahuan. What would a wall mean for the jaguar,for the ocelot, the black-tailed prairie dog, orhundreds of other species (including various species oflow-flying birds) that rely upon the ability to travelbetween our two countries for their daily, seasonal, orannual life-cycle needs?

Sky Island Alliance is a non-profitmembership organization dedicated to

the protection and restoration of the richnatural heritage of native species and

habitats in the Sky Island region of thesouthwestern United States and

northwestern Mexico. Sky Island Allianceworks with volunteers, scientists, land

owners, public officials and governmentagencies to establish protected areas,

restore healthy landscapes and promotepublic appreciation of the region’s unique

biological diversity.

520.624.7080 • fax 520.791.7709info@skyislandalliance.org

www.skyislandalliance.orgPO Box 41165

Tucson, AZ 85717

StaffMatt Skroch

Executive Directormatt@skyislandalliance.org

Acasia BerryAssociate Directoracasia@skyislandalliance.org

David HodgesPolicy Directordhodges@skyislandalliance.org

Trevor HareField Coordinatortrevor@skyislandalliance.org

Janice PrzybylWildlife Monitoring Programjanice@skyislandalliance.org

Mike QuigleyWilderness Campaign Coordinatormike@skyislandalliance.org

Cory JonesGIS Specialistcory@skyislandalliance.org

Sergio AvilaWildlife Biologist & Outreach Specialistsergio@skyislandalliance.org

Nicole Urban-LopezMembership & Outreach Coordinatornicole@skyislandalliance.org

Jennifer ShoplandConservation Associatejennifer@skyislandalliance.org

Sky JacobsOffice Assistantsky@skyislandalliance.org

NewsletterJulie St. John, Editor & Designerjulie@skyislandalliance.org

Board of DirectorsPaul Hirt, PresidentSteve Marlatt, Vice PresidentNancy Zierenberg, SecretaryDale Turner, TreasurerBrooke GebowLainie LevickRurik ListOscar MoctezumaRod MondtAngel MontoyaChris RollPeter Warshall

Send us your poetry, your words of wisdom, your art!We want to keep this newsletter filled with inspirational, informative material, andwe’d like your help! Do you write poetry? Draw, sketch, paint or photograph? Like toaddress regional conservation issues? Review books or websites? Anything that relatedto the Sky Islands region is fair game! You can respond to items in our recentnewsletter, comment on your experiences as a volunteer or conference-goer, etc. Orgive your favorite small-town restaurant a boost by writing a review and letting uspromote it! Also, let us know if you are interested in being a regular contributor, e.g.with a column each issue.

Restoring Connections is published three times a year and the deadline for our nextnewsletter is August 15, 2006. Material submitted after that date may be saved forsubsequent issues.

Please email submissions to: newsletter@skyislandalliance.org, or mail them to SkyIsland Alliance, PO Box 41165, Tucson, AZ 85717. Resolution of digital imagesshould be at least 300 dpi if possible.

The impacts of our current border andimmigration policy are obvious — the environmentaldamage and loss of human life currently occuring isnot acceptable. A solution exists, although it’s morecomplicated than building big fences betweenneighbors. The solution doesn’t lie at the point ofconflict in this case, but rather it lies within acomprehensive perspective that must acknowledge themulti-faceted realities of our situation. For one, wemust acknowledge the ecological reality that ourborder environment is not divided, but rather verymuch connected. That connection, to every extentpossible, must remain intact. Otherwise, we risktarnishing the basic principles that sustain the workthat so many share — namely landscape-levelconservation planning that strives to reconcile andmend the often differing realities of ecology andpolicy.

Thanks to a bad map and James Gadsden’saspirations of a southern transcontinential railway 153years ago, the Sky Islands now span the politicaldivisions of two countries. This somewhat uniquecause for our current international land ownershippatterns poke at a larger issue and concept of bordersand boundaries. In early May, Sky Island Alliance andits partners hosted the 6th conference on Research andResource Management in the Southwestern Deserts.The theme of this year’s conference was “Borders,Boundaries, and Timescales” and we appreciated thethoughtful discussion that emanated from the manydifferent contexts that these three concepts can beviewed from. This issue of Restoring Connectionsstrives to bring you a comprehensive perspective ofborders and boundaries. While one particular borderis in the spotlight today, we hope to broaden theperspective that these topics can take, and provide athoughtful look into just what a border is.

Matt SkrochExecutive Director

Elegant trogon by Sky Jacobs

Table ofContentsCrossing Boundaries 4

Beautiful Borders 5

Overlapping Boundaries 6

How long can the elusive Mountain lionpass through our manmade borders? 7

Blurred Lines, Borderless Wings 8

Welcome to the Border 10

Historic Ranches & the Persistence ofBiodiversity 12

State Natural Areas on the Border 14

Rattlings 15

Exploring El Pinito 16

Weeds Across Borders III 16

The American West 17

Restaurant Review: Coyote Pause 18

Protect Arizona’s Roadless Areas! 18

Field Schedule 19

Photo Contest! 19

Sky Island Alliance 3

A Shi fting Line Across Timeby Julie St. John, Editor

Our Sky Island bioregion was politically bisectedover 150 years ago to fulfill one man’s vision ofmaking the West commercially dependent upon theSouth instead of the North. There was gold in thenew state of California, a fervor to open the rest ofthe United States to trade with the Far East, and adirect and winter-free route across the lowest sectionof the Continental Divide which was perfect… exceptfor the fact that it was south of the US border.

His name was James Gadsden and he waspresident of the South Carolina Railroad Company.His friend and fellow empire dreamer, JeffersonDavis, then U.S. Secretary of War, got him appointedas US Minister to Mexico with the instructions to buyfrom Mexico enough territory for a railroad to theGulf of California.

Some background… At the end of the MexicanAmerican War in 1848, Mexico abandoned its claimon Texas and in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgoceded two-fifths of her territory to the United States— all of California, Nevada and Utah, part ofColorado, and most of Arizona and New Mexico —for a mere $15 million. The treaty map, however, hadsome major inaccuracies (misplacing El Paso and theRio Grande being the two most egregious), which ledto four years of polite wrangling and/or posturingamong various US and Mexican boundarycommissioners, surveyors and politicians. The realestate in question, about the size of Pennsylvania,became known as the Mesilla Strip. Depending onone’s perspective, it was either a no man’s landplagued by frequent Indian raids, or a prime swath ofreal estate including the Santa Rita del Cobre coppermines and the lush Mesilla Valley. Perspectives aside,in the end, it came down to money.

Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Annawas heading a financially bankrupt government. Heand Gadsden negotiated and renegotiated boundariesand prices many times, with the press, politicans, andpublic in the wings, taking sides. The Mexican peoplesaw Santa Anna’s actions as yet another betrayal oftheir country, and in the U.S., northern and southernpoliticians were already priming themselves for afight as to whether the new western territories wouldbe pro- or anti-slavery. Finally, on December 30,1853, Gadsden and Santa Anna, in the Treaty ofMesilla, more popularly known as the GadsdenPurchase, agreed to exchange the land (shaded ingrey in the map above) for $10 million. The treatywent into effect in 1854, interestingly also including a

provision, never exercised, allowing the U.S. theoption of building a transoceanic canal across theIsthmus of Tehuantepec.

The deal was so unpopular in Mexico that SantaAnna was unseated as dictator and banished. Andalthough Gadsden was successful in his purchase —acquiring not only his route, but also valuable naturalresources and the towns of Yuma, Tucson, Nogales,Wilcox, Douglas, Lordsburg, Deming and Mesilla —he did not live to see the completion of the SouthernPacific Railroad. The purchased lands were initiallyappended to the existing New Mexico Territory, andthe North and South continued to play tug-of-warover them. In 1861, the Confederacy claimed thesouthern portion of the Territory and formed theConfederate Territory of Arizona, mostly comprisedof the lands acquired by the Gadsden Purchase. In1863, using a north-south dividing line, the Unioncreated its own Arizona Territory out of the westernhalf of the New Mexico Territory, which alsoincluded most of the newly acquired lands. TheUnion’s boundaries held after the Civil War, and bothArizona and New Mexico became states in 1912. Atlast, the boundaries were fixed.

From a number of fine articles inthis issue you will find that the onlyfixed aspect of natural borders is thatthey are constantly in flux — whetherfrom climate change, human impact,opportunistic migration, invasivespecies, you name it. The elements ofthe natural world — so intimatelyinterconnected — must be able toevolve together… or perish.

Over 150 years ago, a line wasdrawn in the sand. It divided not only afunctioning, highly diverse bioregion,but families, cultures, and ways of life.Now the US Congress is consideringbuilding an impermeable, toweringstructure on that line. As ArizonaGovernor Janet Napolitano says, “Builda 50-foot wall, and they’ll build a 51-foot ladder.” But she’s not talking aboutthe jaguars, wolves, lions quails, bees,and so many other species that makeour Sky Island bioregion so special.What will become of them? And in theend, what will become of us?

Sky Island Alliance supports comprehensiveimmigration legislation that will reduceenvironmental impacts on private and publiclands along the United States-Mexico border byfacilitating legal immigration through establishedports of entry. Sky Island Alliance will also provideinput to border agencies to help reduce negativeimpacts on wildlife and sensitive habitats thatmight be caused by border security technology andinfrastructure. We are particularly concerned withthe proposed construction of walls, fences andother barriers in wildlands along the border thatwould interfere with the movement of wildlife thatutilize habitats on both sides of the border.

— Sky Island Alliance Board of Directors, June 2006

Crossing Boundariesby Mike Quigley,Wilderness Campaign Coordinator

Thinking about boundaries and borders, I’mreminded of a Peter Gabriel song, “Not One of Us”.The song is about how groups of people makethemselves into smaller groups of people to feelstrong by excluding others.

Social boundaries are as real as fences or lines ona map. Perhaps that’s a vestige of our distant past —where tribal membership and rapidly classifying thereal world into threats and nonthreats was necessaryfor survival. Perhaps that’s an extension of theboundary between self and other. Perhaps that easilyreinforces a comfortable sense of belonging, or avoidsthe effort and risk of thoughtful reconsideration, orprovides an easy means to dismiss others.

There’s comfort in knowns, to be sure. Socialboundaries can be useful, defining a set ofexpectations and patterns for us. But by defining,they divide — us and them, with me or against me,friend or foe, right and wrong.

I’m dismayed that so much of the public andpolitical discussion in America today reinforces theboundaries that separate us rather than theunderlying values that unite us. Most of us are a Venndiagram of beliefs and attitudes — overlappingcircles describing our current positions on variousissues. Imagine layering someone else’s diagram onyour own — look for the similarities. It’s been the

rare time when I’ve found absolutely no overlap. Orwhen I’ve found complete overlap. Most of us belongto several communities and groups and we movebetween them, move through the group boundaries.For most of us, the boundaries are both dynamic andpermeable. And underneath we share some commonvalues — even if we express or show them differently.

We have more in common than we havedifferences. For example, poll after poll showspreserving and protecting the environment rankshigh among people’s priorities — regardless of theirpolitical affiliation, socioeconomic class, or positionson other issues. Environmental stewardship is a corevalue most Americans share, it’s where most of ourvalues’ Venn diagrams overlap — whether we’reconservationists, office workers, hunters, ranchers,students, construction workers, or whatever.

Then why is it that environmental protection isnot a public policy priority? Why is the environmentunder increasing attack — from owls or affordablehousing locally to the seemingly-weekly efforts tosneak drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refugeinto the next “must pass” bill to hit the Senate? Why,when we share the common ground of wanting ahealthy environment, is that not reflected in ourgovernment policies, corporate actions, and evenpersonal choices? And why, if so many of us share thevalue of preserving our wild heritage, is there somuch distrust, bickering, and name-calling aroundenvironmental issues and so little collaboration on atruly broad level?

We’re being divided to be conquered. We’re beingpresented false dilemmas as givens — it’s owls orjobs; it’s drilling in the Arctic or gas at 5 bucks agallon; it’s pollution-belching factories or trashingthe economy. And we’re being placed in little circlesand told everyone else is out to get us. Hunters can’ttalk to environmentalists because the enviros willtake away their guns. Conservationists can’t talk toranchers because ranchers just want to abuse the landfor profit. Our boundaries become barriers. Ourbarriers become more stationary and impermeable.

Doors close, windows are boarded up. We entrench.And we lose.

We lose because preserving the natural world is abig challenge. With little business profit potential, it’sone that requires a lot of helping hands and minds,one that requires conversation and cooperation, andlikely some measure of unselfishness. In short, itrequires a lot of people—diverse people—workingtogether for the common good. When boundariesbecome barriers, conversation becomes debate,cooperation becomes selling out, unselfishnessbecomes weakness, and improving the worldbecomes a quaint notion rather than an achievablegoal.

So what’s to be done? I submit that examiningone’s own biases and beliefs is a good place to start— an open mind is required, caring is required, andwe have to be comfortable with ourselves if we’re tobe comfortable with others. Then, let’s talk — toothers. Reach out beyond the obvious boundaries;engage in a discussion with someone we might notroutinely talk with. And I mean real discussion —not debate. Go to boundaries and look around.Challenge some stereotypes. We’ll likely be beatenback or turned away at times. It’s not about beingPollyanna-can’t-we-just-all-get-along; it’s aboutgetting things done. We need to stay true to ourprinciples; but maybe when we go to the boundarieswe’ll see others looking around and reaching out,maybe we’ll learn some things. Regardless, it seems anecessary effort to me — it’s at boundaries where theaction is, where change occurs, where growthhappens.

It’s easy to see boundaries, and easy to take themas more than they are. It’s easy to see the differencesbetween us. It can be hard to look for the commonground, to see the core values we share with others. Itcan be hard to reach out across boundaries. We candivide ourselves into smaller groups to feel strong byexcluding others. Or, we can include others and bestrong.

4 Summer 2006

SIA staffers Sergio Avila and Mike Quigley find common ground at the border. Photo by Ed LaGrande.

Border marker 130, west of Nogales.Photo by Mike Quigley.

Beautiful Borders Reflections of Sky Island Margins and Fringesby Peter Warshall, SIA Board Member & Maniacal Naturalist At Large

Borders are beautiful. Some faded, ragged, orsharp, contrasting colors or shadows and light,outlining patches of Earth, appearing or disappearingwith time. Especially now, when borders can be seenfrom satellites or through microscopes, theirboundaries delineate so many thoughts andimportant images — where the fence separatesgrazed from over-grazed, riparian from hillslope,lichen into fungal filaments and algal blobs. Ofcourse, as a local maniacal naturalist, I have a specialaffection for borders of the southwest, especiallythose of the Madrean Sky Island archipelago.

The hugest borders enclose the air masses thattravel over the sky islands — the Arctic air mass, thePacific maritime air mass, and the Caribbeanmaritime air mass. In summer, a highly unstable, dry,hot but clearly defined tropical continental air masshovers over the sky island region, only to disappeareach fall. (You can go to gacc.nifc.gov/swcc/ andclick on “weather” and then “GOES Satellite Imagery”to see the boundaries of these air masses that impactthe sky islands in the visible, infrared, and watervapor.) These borders are quite distinct if somewhatseasonal and ephemeral. They scud the loweratmosphere bringing the equipates of winter and thelightning-strewn monsoons of summer. Sometimes,the edge of the Pacific maritime air mass creepsnortheast into the sky islands and brings fall tropicalstorms. These borders teach a lesson: you can becoherent (an air mass has predictable moisture andtemperature content) and yet moveable. Themaritime air masses are well-circumscribed moveablefeasts of water. In nature, a border does not mean“nailed to the landscape.”

Some sky island borders change slowly. Theborders between the Neotropical/Holoarctic flora andthe Nearctic/Neotropical fauna are a good example.These borders became more clearly defined when theland bridge between North and South Americaallowed the movement and mixing of very differentcohorts of species. The border organized itself overmillions of years and through dozens of climatechanges and animal/plant movements. The border is,in some sense, a belt of points — the unique limit ofone species meeting another species also at its uniquelimits. Maples can grow with organ pipe cactus; oakswith palms. Fourteen plant families reach theirnorthern limits in the sky island region (includingthe northern Sierra Madre). Seven bird families reachtheir southern limit and four their northern limit.Until recently, thick-billed parrots and trogons mixedwith nuthatches. About 30 bird, over 35 reptile, and145 mammal species reach their limits. The edges oftheir distributions form the border. The border is nota thin line but an exceptional strip of the planet — akind of beaded belt of creatures at their geographicalfringe.

Since the “border” is a matrix, many detailsremain mysterious to humans. Why the yellow-eyedjunco, a perfectly capable flyer, draws a psychological(or some other) line between two sky islands, we donot know? Similarly, another capable migrant, theMexican chickadee refuses to fly north and cross aline paralleling I-10; while its counterpart, theMountain chickadee, rarely crosses the same bordergoing south. Sometimes, we can guess at what a

border means to a bird. The Mexican duckshould have probably been named theCienaga duck. In the past, it gave up long-distance migration and only flew shortdistances between wetlands. With thecoming of cattle tanks, wetland pocketsincreased and some long-distant migrantmallard ducks stopped migrating andsettled in cattle tanks or sewage ponds.Today, they breed confidently with theMexican (sic Cienaga) duck. The Mexicanduck is now losing its identity (it’s beendowngraded from species to race) as itshomeland security disappears.

The most famous borders of the skyislands are part of their definition. Skyislands are isolated mountain ranges with astack of biotic communities, layered oneon top of another. One layer must be anoak-pine forest to be part of the Madreanarchipelago. Each layer has a top andbottom border. Naturalists try tounderstand these borders — they slantdownward on the south and west side of amountain more than on the north andeast; they vary with canyons and self-shadowing from adjacent peaks, and they vary withsoil types. The pine-oak appears as a slither on thePinalenos; fattens out on the Huachucas; andblossoms on the Sierra Oposura.

Crossing the vertical borders on a sky island canbe beneficial. Black bears, for instance, ignore thevertical borders of their homeland sky islands, eatingcactus fruit at the bottom, then wandering past theencinal, the pine/oak, the mixed conifers, and intothe high mountain cienagas for a few roots. They dotheir border crossing in a few hours, leaving telltalesigns of cactus fruit in conifer forest scat. Manymigratory birds nest at elevations that take the skirtof snowfields into account. If the border of thesnowfield is thick and distinct in June, they will nestdownhill. Like the air masses, it is important to keepin mind that borders can be vertical, not just a lineon the ground.

Over time, the montane borders of each layermove up and down. The sky island borders havemoved fifteen to twenty times over the last twomillion years of glaciations. About 11,000 years ago,the glaciers were at a maximum with small glacialbodies on the Pinalenos. The Pinyon-Juniperwoodland border was about 2,900 feet ASL but nowis at 4,800 to 7,700 and climbing. During these fluxes,the valleys were, at times, not borders between themountains, but bridges. The yarrow spiny lizard, forinstance, marched north as the glaciers retreated,crossing valleys that may have had oak riparian oroak woodland valleys.

Right now, with climate change and humandisturbance for instance, the upper edge of theEngelmann spruce/corkbark fir layer is moving upand “off the top” of the Pinalenos. Fire has literallysacrificed the forest edge to the atmosphere. Spruce,stressed by climate, has also been attacked by fivespecies of insect pests and thousands have died. Theclear border between the high elevation spruce/fir

and the lower elevation mixed conifer (whichincludes much more Doug fir) has fragmented. Untilthere is a new glacial advance, the border may neverreturn.

In short, all borders are temporary. We look atthem within “time frames” that are of interest. Wecan trap ourselves into believing that a border issomehow “solid” or immovable. This mindset iscommon in both human and natural history. But,borders sing a wistful improvised frame-of-referenceblues.

Perhaps the most sacrilegious attitude towardborders occurs among invasive plants and animals.They have not experienced the bio-geo-history thatdefined their niche or place in the community.Exotics ignore natural borders. Starlings move intosaguaros displacing the desert form of the purplemartin. Buffle grass does not stay within thegrassland where it was planted. A major goal ofecological restoration is to keep the natural borders— prevent the southwest from becoming ahomogenous landscape of exotics and human-adapted cultivars. At times, as with various sky islandlilies, the protection of the species requires an actualperimeter fence around the cluster of plants.

We are now in an era where humans areinterposing barriers, inserting dividing lines that havelittle relationship to Nature’s borders. Theseintrusions have the greatest impact on the largecarnivores and migrating hoofed-animals likepronghorn, who need large tracts and many habitatsfor survival. The jaguar has become emblematic of“borderless wildlife” in search of homeland security.It reminds us how arbitrary lines on maps are not inany way comparable to the rich and textured marginsof the sky island stack of biotic communities, or thenorth-south mix of tropical and temperate creatures.

Sky Island Alliance 5

Spruce-fir forest on Mt. Graham near Big Creek. Photo by Matt Skroch.

Photo © William Wyrick

6 Summer 2006

How long can the elusive mountain lion passthrough our manmade borders? by Kerry L. Nicholson, Graduate Research Assistant, University of Arizona.Corresponding map on back cover.

One of the challenges for the 21st century will beto determine how wildlife can co-exist with anexpanding human population. This will be especiallyimportant as humans expand into the habitats oflarge mammals (i.e., large predators and ungulates)inhabiting large landscapes. Mountain lions (Pumaconcolor) are cryptic, crepuscular, and exist inrelatively low densities. They are one of the mostdifficult large-terrestrial mammals to study in theworld. However, mountain lions are ideal animals toexamine how a large predator is influenced byurbanization because mountain lions can adapt to avariety of environments that overlap with humans.The International Union for Conservation of NatureCat Specialist Group (IUCN) has called for increasedresearch of wild cats in urban settings, becauseurbanization is one of the gravest threats to wild catspecies worldwide. Within the past decade,researchers have initiated several studies of mountainlions in urbanized settings throughout the westernUnited States. When humans and mountain lionsshare the same landscape, conflicts arise includingmortalities from vehicles, poisoning fromrodenticides, shooting, and concerns for humansafety.

Research addressing if and how mountain lionsand humans can co-exist is relatively new. Studiesthat specifically examine mountain lion movementswithin urban landscapes are limited and most thusfar are based on sighting locations or locationsobtained on an irregular basis.

Due to its rate of development, Tucson, Arizona,provides an ideal location to study mountain lionmovements and interactions with an increasinglyurbanized landscape. To address many of theseurban-mountain lion issues, an intensive jointmountain lion study was initiated in 2005 by ArizonaGame and Fish Department and the University ofArizona using GPS technology. This study willanswer some crucial questions and issues aboutmountain lions’ responses to urban situations. Some

of the questions to be examined include: Aremountain lions using urban areas? What are themovement rates through various landscapes types?How are they moving between mountain ranges? andHow do they interact with each other?

Expanding human development andfragmentation is inevitable. In Arizona, Interstates 10,8, and 40 (I-10, I-8, I-40) bisect the state. The CentralArizona Project is a canal system running from theColorado River through Phoenix and south ofTucson. There are also proposals to erect a barrierbetween Arizona and Mexico to prevent the illegalimmigration of humans (Arizona Daily Star, 12March 2006). These man-made structures arepotential barriers to all wildlife. They fragment thelandscape and eventually diminish the connectivitynecessary for wildlife persistence. If the public wantsmountain lions populations to persist in Tucson,changes will need to be made in landscape decision-making and management. Managers may needconservation strategies that go beyond traditionalland acquisition by government and includeeconomic programs to preserve critical landscapes onprivate land. The plights of the Bighorn sheep on theCatalina Mountain’s Pusch Ridge and the Floridapanther, which is making its last stand in southFlorida, are prime examples of situations that couldhave been prevented through forethought,commitment, and follow-through. Arizona has theability to learn from these mistakes and beginplanning now.

In Florida, urban development has effectivelyfenced in the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi),leaving its genetic viability — and species survival —in question. The panther population is so isolatedand restricted by development that if attempts aremade to disperse, the amount of pavement necessaryto cross to reach more suitable habitat increases thelikelihood of collision. If the panthers choose not todisperse, they compete with each other for thelimited resources available which often results in

death. The fate of the Florida panther has likelyreached the point where manipulation by humans,such as translocations, is likely the only way for thepopulation to survive. Is this the future of allmountain lions adjacent to urban centers?

Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) provide anexample of what can happen when conservationefforts do not consider animal movement or landneeds. One goal in establishing the Pusch RidgeWilderness in the Catalina Mountains was to provideprotected habitat for desert bighorn sheep. Thepublic wanted bighorn sheep, and wanted to be ableto have the experience of viewing bighorn sheep.However, during development of management plans,little or no thought was given to corridors providinglinks to other mountains — a necessity for thesurvival of sheep populations. Due to continueddevelopment, a building and housing barrier wassoon established around Pusch Ridge Wilderness,which effectively fenced the sheep and reducedavailable habitat. The bighorn sheep conservationgoal failed. There is no viable sheep population in thePusch Ridge area and none have officially beendocumented in the Catalina Mountains for the lastten years. Now that desert bighorns have declined, wemust question the management strategies for the area— if the mountains surrounding Tucson had beenmanaged by conserving numerous habitat patchesand allowing for potential dispersal, would there be aviable population of bighorn sheep in the SantaCatalina Mountains?

The current mountain lion study in Tucson hassuccessfully collared nine lions from the surroundingmountain ranges. This study began in 2005 with thefirst lion captured in May. One lion was collared,released and subsequently killed by another lionwithin a week of release.

In August 2005, a second lion was captured in thebackyard of a private landowner bordering theCatalina Mountains and fitted with a spreadspectrum satellite collar (Telonics, Inc., Mesa,Arizona). The 989 locations obtained from the malelion’s collar indicate this mountain lion used theCoronado National Forest in the Santa CatalinaMountains, the Tortolita Mountains, Picacho PeakMountains, the Ninety-six Hills and the BlackMountains, surrounding and within, 60 km ofTucson, Arizona (see map on back cover). Wecollected data from August 2005 until April 2006. Thehome range (159,000 ha) incorporated several largeparcels of land that are slated for development,including parcels near the Biosphere and landbetween the Tortolita and Black Mountains, whichhas been approved for development within the nextfive years. The land will have approximately 5,000new homes and businesses associated with newcommunity development. The mountain lion’shabitat already incorporates some developed areasand active living communities. Movements betweenthe Santa Catalina Mountains and the TortolitaMountains cross Oracle Road on numerous occasionsand are on the edge of the currently developingcommunities.

Future studies need to examine lion use of urbanareas, inter-mountain movements, humaninteractions and response practices. Mountain lionscan move easily between several mountain ranges oracross borders, and therefore unimpeded land mustbe set aside for persistence of this species. Studiesthat document how lions interact with urbanizationare important, but unless action is taken toimplement the findings, mountain lions adjacent tourbanization will not have a future.

Overlapping Boundariesby Janice Przybyl, Sky Island Alliance Wildlife Monitoring Program

During the five-day training workshop, WildlifeMonitoring volunteers learn about the behaviorpatterns, natural history, and habitat requirements ofour six focus species. Four of these species — puma(mountain lion), bobcat, jaguar, and black bear —are solitary and elusive. If you are ever so lucky to seeany of these critters in the wild, then most likelyyou’ll encounter only one individual. If you see twoor more bears together or two pumas together, thenyou’ve stumbled upon a mother with young, siblings,or a mating pair. At all other times, puma avoidspuma, bear avoids bear, bobcat avoids bobcat, andjaguar avoids jaguar.

These animals are territorial and mark using avariety of visual and olfactory modes tocommunicate their presence on the landscape.Tracking volunteers learn where to locate, and how torecognize and photo-document “wildlife messageboards.” For example, black bears declare theirpresence and intentions by scratching and biting treetrucks, telephone poles, fence posts, signposts, andother similar structures. Next time you’re cinching ona backpack before your hike, stop and examine thetrailhead sign for telltale scratches in the wood (seephoto, lower left).

Male felines create “scrapes” — both a visual andolfactory cue — by swiping their hind feet backwardto create two parallel furrows. Then they spray themound of organic litter at the end of the furrowswith urine (see photo, upper right). Femalesoccasionally create scrapes. Bobcat scrapes are similarin construction to a puma’s, but are notably smaller.

Whatever the characteristic sign, the messagecould be “KEEP OUT.” Interactions between adultmales are anything but sociable. Physical encounterscan result in a fierce skirmish that is fatal to one ofthe animals, so avoidance is key. But then again, forthe purposes of mate seeking, close encounters

between members of the opposite sex aredesirable and the message may be “Female inestrus seeking local male with healthy genes.”

Male puma — and most likely jaguar —territories are extensive and do not overlap,therefore delineating boundaries of homerange is essential for survival. Female rangesare smaller and do overlap with other femaleand male territories. In fact, an individualmale territory often encompassesneighboring female territories. Bobcat andblack bears follow suit, but there is lesssegregation between male territories. Ourremaining two focus species — Mexican graywolf and coati — are social animals that existin family packs or troops with hometerritories that may be more dynamic andresponsive to prey fluctuations, wateravailability, and seasonal changes.

Multiple species can share the same spotof earth. The mosaic of jaguar territoriesoverlay puma territories, which overlaybobcat territories, which are containedwithin bear territories or the home ranges of wolfpacks. So how do similar carnivores share thelandscape? Again, avoidance is key. Encounters aredeadly to the smaller species. Puma outweigh bobcatand jaguar trumps puma. The scratching, scrapingand spraying described earlier can telegraph thewhereabouts of one species to another species.

Avoidance can operate by partitioning thelandscape both spatially and temporally. For example,bobcats might prefer more vegetative cover whilesharing the same habitat patch with pumas. Inaddition, bobcats prefer smaller prey than wouldpumas or jaguars. However, in southern Arizona andnorthern Sonora, jaguars and pumas compete for thesame large prey. Recent information from studies

along the Arizona-Mexico border indicates that“nervous” pumas are accommodating the largerfeline and are restricting hunting to times whenjaguars are not moving.

Even with overlapping territories and homeranges, wildlife move fairly freely over the landscapeto fulfill dietary and mating needs. However, one setof boundaries can overtly obstruct wildlifemovement — the overlay of human politicalboundaries.

Often political or jurisdictional changes aredelineated only on a map. A signpost or a barbedwire fence — wildlife friendly, we hope — may be theonly indication on the ground that one crossed fromArizona to New Mexico, from private property toNational Forest, from the United States to Mexico.However, our claim on the landscape increasinglydegrades and fragments wildlife habitat, threateningspecies survival. Recent legislative proposals andpublic impetus in the United States are pushing toconstruct sizeable walls along the internationalborders with Mexico.

The Sky Island bioregion spans the internationalborder and subsequently so do the ranges of manyspecies that inhabit the sky islands. A wall that isimpenetrable to humans will affect the home ranges,movement patterns, and migratory routes of bobcats,badgers, bears, birds, bees, and more. What will bethe fate of the one or two male jaguars stranded onthe north side of the wall? Discussions ofimmigration policy and border security issues shouldincorporate awareness of how our human boundariesoverplay wildlife territorial requirements andmovement patterns.

Our region is international and the speciescontinental.

“No Trespassing!” aka a mountain lion scrape.Sky Island Alliance photo.

Many trails provide message boards for black bears. Sky Island Alliance photo.

Sky Island Alliance 7

8 Summer 2006

Blurred Lines, Borderless Wings By Ken Lamberton kjlamb@mindspring.com

Trees tower over us, screening the air of sunlightand sound but not the cottonwood fluff, which driftsacross the road like down plucked from the breast ofa songbird. We park at a gate leading to the fourthresidence on today’s agenda, a ranch house on thenorth bank of Tanque Verde Creek, and immediatelyI hear a sharp kek, kek, kek. “There it is again,” I say toBill. “Every time we stop, it’s like they’re welcomingyou.”

“Or taunting me,” he says, slipping on his strawfedora and denim jacket.

At just after sunrise, I’d met Dr. William Mannan,professor of Wildlife and Fisheries Science, outsidehis office at the University of Arizona, “Bio East”building, and together we drove through the morningcommuter rush to Tucson’s east side. Negotiating citytraffic is what Bill Mannan does well, even whilekeeping an eye on every tall tree we pass as he scansfor the subjects of his study: urban Cooper’s hawks.The study is in its tenth year, and Bill Mannan iscontinuing the research that wildlife biologists JimDawson and Clint Boal began in the mid 1990s.Then, these scientists were calling it a “phenomenon.”It still is: Cooper’s hawks, and other raptors as well—red-tailed and Harris’ hawks, great horned owls—nesting in Tucson, in residential areas, in city parksand cemeteries, in the trees above Golf N’ Stuff.

In 1994, Jim Dawson, then a University ofArizona professor, submitted a report to the ArizonaGame and Fish Department saying he was convincedthat Harris’ hawks began nesting in developed areasin Tucson in the mid-1980s, “and in the short timesince have established a significant urban-nestingsegment of the population in Arizona.” The behaviorwas unknown in the 60s and 70s.

What interests me—it’s part of the reason why Iasked Bill Mannan if I could join him during some ofhis field work—is the behavioral shift the raptorsmust make to live in an urban environment. And whythey are making the shift in the first place. Normally,Harris’ hawks inhabit the Sonoran Desert outsideTucson, feeding on ground squirrels and cottontailsamong the paloverde and prickly pear and nesting ingiant saguaro cacti. In the city, the chocolate-brownor black, rufous-shouldered hawks prey on animalsdrawn to bird feeders and desert landscaping andnest in tall eucalyptus and pine trees. Researcherscounted 72 nests over a broad swath of north Tucsonin 1994; today, there are twice the number in twicethe area. The incursion continues. As I write from myhome on the west side of Tucson, a pair of the birdsare courting and mating in my neighborhood for thefirst time in our forty years here. Only yesterday, Iheard a screech from the top of our utility pole andlooked to see the smaller male standing on—andscreaming from—the back of his mate. The two havebeen hoisting deadwood into a pine tree across thestreet, and are feeding on the rabbits and doves in myyard. And, two weeks ago, I watched a Harris’ hawkfly across a six-lane street near the busy intersectionof Grant and Oracle roads and land on a billboard.You can’t get any more urban than that.

In 1995, when I first heard about and becamefascinated with the phenomenon, I met with ClintBoal, a falconer and U of A graduate student whowas finishing his Ph.D. dissertation on urban

Cooper’s hawks. He had learned that the hawkshad been nesting in Tucson for the previousfive years and believed they had only recentlyarrived here. I wanted to know why.

Cooper’s hawks, crow-sized birds of prey inthe accipiter clan, which includes the largergoshawk, seem the most unlikely city dwellers.The hawks commonly inhabit undevelopedforests and woodlands, their short roundedwings and long narrow tails adapted for quietlytwisting and darting among tree branches andshrubs to chase down other birds, their primary prey.In this environment, the hawks are shy and secretive.In the city, however, Cooper’s hawks hunt, court, andreproduce in a place where the human populationexceeds half a million citizens. Researchers havecounted as many as 80 active nests in one season,some of them densely packed—another urbanbehavioral shift—into neighborhoods and parks. InTucson, families picnic on fried chicken undercottonwoods that spill feathers as hawks feast ondoves.

Of all the raptors invading our city, we know themost about Cooper’s hawks. We know that there areat least three likely reasons why the hawks nest inTucson.

The first is trees. Large trees. Not the twistedresident mesquite or green-skinned paloverde but thehuge, water-loving aliens like eucalyptus and Aleppopine and our native cottonwood. “I found thatCooper’s hawks in Tucson generally selected small,grove-like aggregations of exotic, large, well-canopiedtrees as nest sites,” Clint Boal writes in his Ph.D.dissertation, adding that the level of human activitydid not seem to disturb them. City hawks, in contrastto those more rural, have adjusted to people—evencrowds of three-foot-high little leaguers—in order tonest in urban trees.

The second reason is water. Cooper’s hawksnormally nest close to water, and the birds may befavoring the city’s plethora of fountains, pools,birdbaths, and irrigation systems. But water in thedesert also draws other birds, and this, with thepopularity of bird feeders, may account for the thirdreason urban living agrees with Cooper’s hawks:food.

Doves, both mourning and inca, are the hawksprimary prey in Tucson and also some of Tucson’smost common birds. This abundance of food mayactually permit the hawks to shrink their territories,another city adaptation (not unlike the one humansmake), allowing them to nest much closer to eachother.

It would seem that city life appeals to Cooper’shawks, that the urban habitat, with its plentifulresources, provides the birds with what ecologists calla population “reservoir.” But there are drawbacks—the risk of electrocution from power lines, impactswith cars and reflective windows, disease. Disease is aparticular problem for young hawks. From 1994 to1997, Clint Boal studied Cooper’s hawks inmetropolitan Tucson and compared them with non-urban Cooper’s hawks inhabiting riparian andwoodland areas outside Tucson. Although urbanhawks nest earlier and lay more eggs per clutch,probably another benefit of abundant prey, it turns

out that nestling and fledgling deaths are greater thannon-urban hawks, ten times greater. The culprit isTrichomoniasis, a disfiguring disease caused by aprotozoan and spread by the hawks’ favorite food—doves.

Clint Boal suggests that, because more than halfof juvenile Cooper’s hawks in the city don’t reachadulthood, and because Tucson continues to drawadult birds from outside, the urban environment maybe functioning not as a reservoir but as a populationsink, an ecological deathtrap. A La Brea tar pit forCooper’s hawks.

Urbanization certainly means a loss of wildlife;roads and concrete don’t mix well with prairie dogsand pygmy owls. But the real tragedy is what we don’timmediately see—that urbanization depletes not onlyspecies from inside the city limits but from outsidethem, that there really are no borders between what’surban and what’s wilderness, between what’sdeveloped and what’s not yet felt the grader’s blade.And the insidious part is the deception. For theappearance of abundance might be the Piper’sassembly call. La Brea is one of this continent’srichest gatherings of species too, fossil species.

We draw lines on maps, erect fences, we lay downpavement for six-lane highways, but wilderness payslittle attention to our proclivity for boundaries.Species always push the limits; they are trespassers bynature. Birds violate our airspace. Weeds encroachupon our sidewalks and streets. Insects invade ourhomes. Like it or not, the lines are blurred. We arepart of the equation, part of the nature of things. ThePoet Alison Deming writes that “the human soul is anaspect of being that comprehends no boundary, noedge.” Why don’t we, of all creatures, understand this?Wilderness is not only a place “over there,” somethingdelineated and set aside on a map for preservationfrom human impact. Wilderness is the cottonwoodsand thistles and dung-hunting beetles in our ownbackyards.

This morning at our fourth stop, a blond womanwearing a blue knit pullover greets us at the gate. Sheknows Bill Mannan from his many previous visits.“Did you see the hummingbird nest?” She asks,pointing into some low branches we’ve just walkedunder. We pause to look. “I haven’t seen your birdslately,” she adds, “but their nest is still there.”

“She’s here,” Bill says. “We heard her as we droveup.”

She is the second owner we’ve found at hometoday. Bill has introduced himself to all the residents

Cooper’s hawk.

Sky Island Alliance 9

of his study sites, and in all cases except for one,people have allowed him access to their property.Generally, residents want to make sure he’s not goingto harm the birds. “Most people love them, thinkingthey’re just terrific,” he told me when I asked abouthow people like having hawks raise clouds of terrifiedsongbirds in their yards. And, residents have becomeextremely helpful with Mannan’s research, callinghim with reports and new sightings.

Earlier, however, at our first stop in a residentialcommunity of mesquite lined streets, neat sidewalksand trimmed lawns, we were searching for a missingpair of Cooper’s hawks. “The Donner nest,” Bill calledthe site, named for the street where the hawks hadnested last year. The nest was gone, unfortunately, cutdown when a homeowner cleared to the edge of herproperty several gigantic cottonwoods.

Bill was unconcerned, knowing that the pairwould relocate somewhere nearby, but I couldn’t helpfeeling some loss as I stared at several table-sized treestumps among the piles of sawdust and twistedsections of branches. Loss for the trees and thehawks. The owner, a thin, dark-haired woman in herthirties, knew Bill, and she knew about the hawks.But all she could say to us as an explanation was,“Thank God. Now I can see my house.”

A few winters ago, a bald eagle visited Tucson forthe first time in anyone’s memory, gracing the city’snorthwest side for several months. I began lookingfor it with my three daughters when people startedreporting its location and talking about how“beautiful and majestic” the bird was, posing onpower poles and feeding on ground squirrels. Thegirls and I drove around Kennedy Park near ourhome after I picked them up from school, our facespressed to the windows of the car as I slowly circledthe park’s ten-acre urban lake. We searched everylarge structure, tree and pole, remembering othertransient birds we had seen—a school-yard pelican, agolf-course great blue heron, three castawayCalifornia gulls. We saw only a red-tailed hawk.

A few weeks later, a passerby found the eagle deadbeneath some utility lines, a victim of accidentalelectrocution.

Shortly afterward, I ran into Scott Richardson,urban wildlife specialist with the Arizona Game andFish Department. He told me that the eagle’s death“probably couldn’t have been prevented.” Although,since the mid-nineties, Tucson Electric Power hasbeen retrofitting problem utility poles to protecturban Harris’ hawks (78 of the hawks were injured ordied from electrocution in 1991 and 1992), the baldeagle’s five-foot wingspan was more than the newdesign allowed for, and its wings eventually madeconnection with two of the wrong wires. “And theeagle was all over the place,” Scott said, “movingaround from one area to the next, pole to pole.”

Maybe we couldn’t have done anything to saveTucson’s first bald eagle, and we should dismiss thetragedy as a fluke. I can’t, however, dismiss the irony.It was our need for power, coal- and gas-producedpower—the same power that operates the computerI’m sitting at now—that caused the death of ourcountry’s national symbol. Maybe this is more thanirony.

Why do I care about one bald eagle? Or a fewhawks that wander into the city and get electrocutedor succumb to disease? Cooper’s hawks aren’t even

endangered. So what if Tucson is a sink for them?The hawks as a species won’t suffer too much. Thereare plenty of other places, remote woodlands andforests and riparian drainages, where the birds canquietly fulfill the roles nature intended for them.

But why should Tucson be a sink for anything?We still don’t know about the status of urban Harris’hawks. Should we allow Tucson, or any city for thatmatter, to be a sink for even grackles and starlings?Or a once-in-a-lifetime bald eagle? The issue herecould be purely ecological: the importance ofpopulation reservoirs and wildlife diversity. Or theissue could be as simple as affection. Affection, too,should have standing. Doesn’t it make sense to worktoward the health of urban species just because welike them, because we value their place in our lives?

Wendell Berry says that we do not live alone.“Living is a communal act, whether or not itscommunality is acknowledged.” We have aresponsibility to each other, to all life that sharesspace with us on the planet, whether we inhabit citiesor homestead roadless regions. The neighborhood isglobal.

Living is a communal act. And living connects usto wilderness in one way or another. There are thingsI can do. I can be aware of my connection to nature’scommunity—and aware of my impact, good or bad,upon it, in general. Specifically, I can makeadjustments. Since I know that window strikesaccount for the deaths of an estimated 100 million toa billion birds every year, I won’t use reflectivewindow coatings or station bird feeders nearwindows. This will aid my resident Cooper’s hawks,since collisions with windows is a major cause ofdeath for adult birds. For the juveniles, I can helpreduce the spread of disease by using less seed andspacing out the feedings to avoid attracting largecongregations of birds to one place.

It’s not much. Just a start.

At site number eight, we’re looking for “possiblenest-building,” and this time another bird alerts us tothe presence of a Cooper’s hawk. “Hear thathummingbird chipping?” Bill says, quickly brakingthe car. “That’s a good sign. They do that a lot whenthere’s a hawk around.” We’re on a residential streetnear Wilmot and Broadway, and I can hear the trafficnoise only a few hundred yards away. Bill has hisscope out and scans a curtain of large pines directlybehind a row of houses, and suddenly a hawk jumpsup out of a fountain in one of the front yards. “Shewas down in the water!” he says, pointing his scope tothe place where she perches in the trees. “Gother!…FU Black.” He notes the band designation inhis field book (Bill inscribes bands with letter pairsthat he can see from a distance; a black band means“female”) and offers the scope to me. As I’mconcentrating on the hawk’s image, her mate beginskekking from another tree. “And there’s the male,” Billsays.

Bill’s excited. He’s been tracking this particularfemale Cooper’s hawk since he banded her as anestling less than a mile away from here, and he’s justnow beginning to get her whole life history. This willbe the female’s third year as a breeder at this site.Bill’s current research deals with what he calls, “nataldispersal.” “We think the pattern is they bounce allover huge distances, females farther than males, inthe first six to nine months after fledging. After theseexploratory distances they’ll settle down in home

ranges and usually breed in their second year.” Billmentions that when this female was a fledgling hespotted her in Oro Valley, about 20 miles away.

Bill Mannan’s radio telemetry work with Cooper’shawks over the last few years has convinced him thatClint Boal’s conclusions were wrong. Bill doesn’tthink Tucson is an ecological deathtrap for Cooper’shawks. “There’s still some unanswered questionsbecause the hawks are dispersing farther than we cantrack. But adult survivorship in the city is eightypercent.” And ten percent of these hawks show upsomewhere in town as breeders, he explains. “Othersleave the area or just float.” Tucson, in fact, ratherthan being a sink for Cooper’s hawks, may be morelike a reservoir, a source of young birds connectedand contributing to the surrounding wildpopulations.

Disease, however, continues to be a problem forjuvenile urban Cooper’s hawks, and I like to thinkthat a community interest in curbing the infection bykeeping birdbaths and feeders clean and reducingcongested feeding during the summer months whenthe protozoan is most active, has made somedifference. But it’s just as likely that the hawks—aswith Seattle’s skyscraper peregrine falcons—areadjusting to living in the city regardless of whether ornot we are adjusting to living with them. AnneMatthews, author of Wild Nights: Nature Returns tothe City, says, “In cities, people want other people.The real trick will be learning to share the changingurban scene with our newest and most determinedimmigrants, the ones with wings.”

Two weeks later I join Bill Mannan again, thistime with six of his graduate students, at the west-side community park where I had hoped mydaughters would see their first bald eagle. He carries afalconer’s bal chatri trap, a noose-covered, wire-meshbox, baited inside with two energetic house sparrows.A Cooper’s hawk pair has recently adopted the parkand begun nesting, and Bill wants to catch and bandthe male to include it in his study. “The hawks arefilling in places never used before,” he explains.Kennedy Park is one of them. He places the trap closeto the pine tree where the female incubates her eggs,walks a short distance away, and waits. Immediately,the male plunges in and drops onto the trap, snaringits feet among the nylon nooses.

An assistant holds the bird while Bill collects histackle box containing a string of aluminum U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service bands, his own color-coded,plastic bands, pliers and measuring tools, and leatherfalconer’s hoods. We gather around. The bird’s crownand raised hackles are slate-gray, almost blue, itsbreast feathers barred with red. But it’s the coppereyes that draw me. They seem more than justfearless—as though the hawk is looking through us,past this rude circle of students, past the awe on ourfaces. Those eyes miss nothing. I imagine that wemust appear like little more than a blurred line, aporous fringe, that those fiery eyes look through us asthey see right through the human boundary betweenwhat’s urban and what’s wild.

This article was previously published in SonoraReview, the oldest student-run literary journal in thecountry. From start to finish, each issue is put togethersolely by graduate students in the Creative WritingDepartment at the University of Arizona.

Blurred Lines, Borderless Wings continued

Welcome to the Border: The Impacts of Immigration Policy on Wildlife

and Habitat in the Arizona Borderlands

areas, and they represent some of the most pristineand valuable wildlife habitats in the nation. Theseareas offer almost limitless recreation opportunitiesfor residents and visitors alike, and provide stunningexamples of the incredible biodiversity and naturalbeauty found in the borderlands region.

Things began to change for the Arizonaborderlands in the late 1990s, in direct response tothe implementation of Border Patrol’s SouthwestBorder Strategy earlier that decade. This strategy,which includes Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego,Operation Hold the Line in El Paso, and OperationSafeguard: Arizona in Nogales, increases enforcementefforts in urban border areas and shiftsundocumented migration into more remote areas. Itwas a deliberate, strategic decision to funnel migrantsinto the rugged borderland deserts, the underlyingassumption being that the hostile terrain would act asits own barrier and discourage crossers, and the fewwho did risk the trip would be easily apprehended inthese open areas.

However, this assumption was wrong. Experts saythat the total number of migrants illegally crossingthe border has changed very little over time; ifanything, it appears right now to be on the rise.However, what has changed is where the majority ofmigrants are crossing — over half now cross throughArizona’s deserts, mountains and rivers. According tothe Department of Interior, the number ofundocumented migrants apprehended on its landshas increased exponentially — between 1997 and2000, apprehension numbers went from 512 to morethan 113,000. It is estimated that in 2005,approximately 400,000 migrants crossed through theBuenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge alone.

Considering that there has been little change inoverall levels of undocumented migration, it is nosurprise that this policy has taken a heavy tollthroughout the Arizona borderlands. In fact, thescope and extent of environmental damage occurringthroughout the region, especially on protected publiclands, is unprecedented. And worsening.

To visit the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refugeand other borderland parks is to see first-hand theconsequences of this policy. Illegal foot and vehicletraffic has ripped up fragile deserts, created miles ofillegal roads, left behind abandoned vehicles and

huge amounts of trash, and damaged rare desertsprings and wetlands. The degradation caused byillegal migrant traffic has been compounded byBorder Patrol enforcement actions, includingauthorized and unauthorized road and wallconstruction, lighting projects, and patrols by off-road vehicles and low-level helicopters. Short- andlong-term damage being done to these lands includesmassive habitat fragmentation, interruptions incross-border migration, spread of invasive species,and the introduction of air and water contaminants.

Making matters much worse, Border Patrol oftenfails to consider or mitigate their impacts to theenvironment. Like all agencies of the federalgovernment, Border Patrol is responsible forconducting its operations in a lawful and transparentfashion, yet its compliance with environmental lawshas been insufficient, and sometimes completelyabsent. Among the laws that govern Border Patroloperations are those intended to keep citizensinformed of plans and actions that affect theenvironment, and give them an opportunity to voicetheir opinions. These laws include the NationalEnvironmental Policy Act (NEPA), EndangeredSpecies Act (ESA), Wilderness Act, and the NationalWildlife Refuge Administration Act, among others.Border Patrol’s compliance with these laws is criticalbecause the agency has shifted major operations ontosome of our nation’s most spectacular and fragilelands, lands inhabited by rare and endangeredwildlife. Regrettably, adequate compliance is not thenorm but the exception, and the agency’scommitment to upholding environmental laws hasbeen overwhelmingly lacking.

For example, under the ESA, federal agencies arerequired to “consult” with the US Fish and WildlifeService (FWS) when they undertake, approve or fundany action that may affect a listed species or itshabitat. However, since the inception of theSouthwest Border Strategy in 1994, the BorderPatrol’s Tucson Sector has never completed aconsultation with FWS analyzing the overall effects ofits actions. This, despite the fact that the sector coverstwo-thirds of the state’s border, and includes habitat

A vast Sonoran grassland, the sweeping landscapeof the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge lieswithin Altar Valley, a quiet and picturesque valleydotted with historic ranches and surrounded byrugged Sky Island mountains. The refuge sits in theshadow of the landmark Baboquivari peak, amountain sacred to the Tohono O’Odham people,whose nation borders the refuge to the west. Createdin 1985 to benefit the endangered Masked bob-whitequail, the 118,000-acre refuge is important for manyendangered species, including the Chiricahua leopardfrog, southwestern willow flycatcher, lesser long-nosed bat, and the elusive jaguar, spotted in theBaboquivari Mountains as recently as 1996.

This refuge is especially important to mepersonally because it is where I started my career inconservation almost 10 years ago, as the volunteercoordinator for a habitat restoration group. We spentalmost every weekend on Buenos Aires, buildinggabions in eroded washes, planting native grasses,and camping under the stars. It was an eye-openingexperience, one that helped me realize my passion forconservation work.

I recently went back to the Buenos Aires Refuge,and many things have changed in the last 10 years.Adjacent to the Mexico border, these and otherfederally-protected lands are now caught in thecrossfire of the battle over illegal immigration, andthe damage being inflicted on these lands isstaggering. From the helicopters buzzing overhead, tothe piles of trash and illegal foot trails, to theconstant, overwhelming presence of Border Patrolboth on- and off-road, it was a far cry from theexperiences I used to have here. This place does notfeel like a wildlife refuge; it feels like a war zone, andit is getting ripped to shreds under our currentborder policy.

Known for its quiet and rugged isolation,Arizona’s border region is largely comprised ofprotected federal lands like the Buenos Aires Refuge.In fact, more than 85% of the land along the borderand 62% of the land area within 100 miles of theborder is federally owned or is held in trust forseveral tribal nations, including the TohonoO’Odham, Pascua Yaqui, Cocopah and others. Theborderlands include national monuments, wildliferefuges, national forests, and designated wilderness

10 Summer 2006

By Jenny Neeley, Southwest Representative, Defenders of Wildlife

ABOVE Welcome to BANWR — a group ofundocumented migrants detained at the turnoff tothe Buenos Aires Refuge visitors’ center. Photo byJenny Neeley/Defenders of Wildlife

for the endangered jaguar, cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl, and SonoranPronghorn, among many other imperiled species.

To add insult to injury, in 2005 President Bush signed into law theReal ID Act, which allows the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) to exempt itself from all laws, environmental or otherwise, whenbuilding infrastructure along both US borders. This far-reachingexemption has already been used once, to complete a three-mile stretchof triple-fencing in San Diego that experts say will irreparably harm aprotected estuary. At the time he signed the exemption, DHS SecretaryMichael Chertoff also reserved the “authority to make further waiversfrom time to time,” under the authority of the Real ID Act.

Despite more than a decade of intensified efforts, the currentstrategy of building walls and shifting migrants into remote anddangerous areas has not stopped — or even slowed — illegalimmigration into the United States. Undocumented migration levelsacross the southern US border have only risen, with decreased levels inlocalized urban areas being more than offset by increased levels in moreremote parts of the border. This failed policy has caused massiveenvironmental damage to be sure, but it has also resulted in another,far more tragic consequence: record numbers of migrants dying in theborderland deserts every year. Close to 4,000 men, women and childrenhave died attempting to cross the border since the current policy wasimplemented — possibly many more, because it is likely that manybodies are never found. A record 282 migrants died last year inArizona’s deserts, and this year that record is expected to be broken.

Illegal immigration is not a problem that can be solved at theborder, because the issue is so much larger than what is happeninghere. However, immediate measures must be taken to prevent furtherenvironmental damage to our borderlands, including federal legislationto increase funding for environmental protection, better environmentaltraining for Border Patrol agents, and a greater commitment to existingenvironmental laws.

In the long term however, a comprehensive solution must bedeveloped that is anchored in the realities causing illegal immigration,one that eliminates the current underground immigrant economy andthe flow of undocumented migrants across the US-Mexico border, andestablishes an orderly and legal framework for immigration. Only thenwill this issue be meaningfully addressed, and our cherished desertwildlands like Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge be truly protected.

Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the samething over and over, and expecting a different result. Despite its tragicconsequences, the Southwest Border Strategy continues to getimplemented. Recently, both the US House of Representatives and theUS Senate passed bills calling for more of the same, with littleacknowledgement of the policy’s profound consequences andoverwhelming history of failure. Those who advocate perpetuating thispolicy routinely say that it has something to do with national security,and that we need walls to protect ourselves. But at some point we aregoing to have to ask ourselves what kind of security we are reallygetting out of this policy, and what it is costing us.

For more information on the ecological impacts of illegal immigration andborder security efforts, please see Defenders report, “On the Line: TheImpacts of Immigration Policy on Wildlife and Habitat in the ArizonaBorderlands.” You can find the report and other border-relatedinformation online at www.defenders.org/border

Sky Island Alliance 11

Welcome to the Border continued

UPPER LEFT Getting buzzed by a Black Hawk on Buenos Aires Refuge. UPPER RIGHT An illegal foottrail cuts through the grasslands of Buenos Aires Refuge. LOWER RIGHT Discarded belongingsand trash lie scattered along a road created by illegal and law enforcement traffic on BuenosAires National Wildlife Refuge. Photos by Jenny Neeley/Defenders of Wildlife

The US/Mexico Borderlands have been home toimported European livestock for more than threecenturies. Dotted with sky island mountain rangesthat give way to oak woodlands, semi-arid desertgrasslands, and green ribbons of riparian vegetation,the border landscape includes a tantalizingabundance of stacked ecological zones, each with adistinct response to grazing. Two historic ranches, theSan Bernardino and the complex of ranchesassembled by William C. Greene on the San PedroRiver, provide a remarkable history of the ways inwhich the land tenure systems, grazing regulations,and traditional agricultural customs of Spain (1680s-1821), Mexico (1821-1854), and the United Statesinfluenced livestock management and ecologicalconditions along this delicate portion of the border.Despite three centuries of grazing, portions of thehistoric ranches are now recognized for theirexceptional ecological values and are protected byU.S. government agencies and private owners.

Cattle first appeared on this portion of NewSpain’s northern frontier in the late 17th century.Although the Jesuit missionary/explorer FatherEusebio Kino is widely credited as the earliestBorderland rancher, it is likely that local NativeAmericans (O’odham and Apaches) brought livestockwith them on return trips from settled Spanish areasin central Sonora. Useful for food and travel, cattleand horses quickly became part of native economies.Some groups – like the Apaches –incorporated themso effectively they altered the balance power to theirfavor.

The Spanish government used livestock as aninstrument of conquest and frontier settlement,issuing land grants to prominent citizens who hadthe financial capacity to develop and stock them. Thegoal was to make vacant lands productive and securethe frontier. Grants for ganado mayor (cattle, horsesor mules) were for four sitios, or square leagues,equivalent to about 17,000 acres. Land grantapplications went to the King in Spain, taking yearsto complete, but the applicants did not wait for theKing’s signature to stock their estancias. On theunfenced ranges, herds expanded so rapidly that bythe mid-18th century, cattle glutted the Sonoran

market and prices devalued. Some grants in centralSonora had as many as 20,000 to 40,000 head ofcattle and up to 100,000 sheep. Spanish land grantapplicants always selected the most fertile, well-watered land for their grants, land that consequentlyhad significant biological values.

Mexico, independent after 1821 but financiallystrapped, followed the Spanish system for issuingland grants, but funding for frontier militaryprotection disappeared. By the 1830s Apache raidingmade life on the grants so dangerous that owners andvaqueros fled to safer locations, visiting occasionallyto brand and gather cattle under armed guard.Abandoned livestock increased to such a degree thatby the late 1840s American visitors described vastherds of wild cattle and horses, some still bearingbrands. During the Mexican War (1846-48), whenmembers of the Mormon Battalion attempted toshoot the thick-hided wild cattle for food, woundedbulls retaliated, upending wagons and injuringsoldiers. Forty-niners on their way to California’sGold Rush on the Southern Overland Trail described(and likely exaggerated) the largest cattle herds nearthe San Bernardino cienega and along the San PedroRiver. Bands of wild horses were more frequentlysighted at higher elevations in the Canelo Hills andon the slopes of the Huachuca Mountains.

In 1854, when the United States officially acquiredMexican territory between the Gila River and thepresent border, the Gadsden Purchase created anarbitrary boundary line, unrelated to regionalgeography, but convenient for the construction of asouthern trans-continental railroad. The illogicalboundary severed both the San Bernardino and theSan Pedro land grants. The Gadsden Purchaseagreement provided for recognition ofSpanish/Mexican land grants north of the border, ifclaimants could prove titles had been recorded. Thecomplicated process for authenticating grants wasfirst managed by the territorial surveyor general, whomade recommendations to the secretary of interior,for final validation by Congress. But in 1891,Congress created the Court of Private Land Claims,with a district office in Tucson, to streamline theadjudication of Arizona’s 17 land grant claims.

Land grants at the San Bernardino andalong the San Pedro River were approved.Over time, the ranches in these areassuffered from drought and overgrazing.Severe droughts, described in Spanishdocuments and registered in tree ringdata, took place during the 1670s, the late1730s, late 1740s, and the mid-1770s.Although drought during the Mexicanperiod is less documented, it undoubtedlyoccurred. Under United States control,droughts devastated border rangelands in1885, 1892-94, 1902-04, 1933-34, with themost protracted drought occurring fromthe late 1940s through 1956, and the mostsevere from the mid-1990s to the present.On the Arizona side of the border,overgrazing reached its extreme during the1890s, while in Sonora the 1950s were theyears of heaviest widespread stocking. Yetportions of both ranches retained speciesrichness and many ecological values.

Rancho San Bernardino (Slaughter Ranch)

Valued as a significant water source,Spanish documents and 19th centuryAmerican visitors described the San

Bernardino cienega as a series of small lakes,surrounded by extensive sacaton flats. The watersbubbled up from below the ground, supporting avariety of fish, flocks of migratory waterfowl, andherds of deer and javelina. An occasional grizzlyvisited the adobe ruins, and a jaguar was sighted innearby Guadalupe Canyon.

The San Bernardino appears on 18th centurySpanish maps as a rancho, although no record of itsowner has been found. From 1775 to 1780, while thesite was a presidio (military garrison), soldiersconstructed an extensive fortified adobe complex justsouth of the present boundary. The location provedindefensible and the army retreated to a saferlocation. In 1820, Lieutenant Ignacio Pérez,commander of the companía volante (flyingcompany) of Nueva Vizcaya applied for a land grantin the “unpopulated place” of San Bernardino.Twenty soldiers were needed to protect the surveyorsfrom hostile Chiricahua Apaches. By the time thesurvey was completed and the application submitted,Mexico had become an independent nation. Pérez,whose family owned the mines at Cananea, stockedhis new ranch with 4,000 head of cattle purchasedfrom the missionary at Tumacacori. When he failedto pay for the livestock, relatives of his wife in theprominent Elías family made good on the debt.

Following the Gadsden Purchase, Sheriff JohnSlaughter of Cochise County purchased the USportion of the grant and leased the Mexican land.Slaughter ran up to 20,000 head of cattle on bothsides of the unfenced boundary, often crossing cattlewithout the formality of inspection. In the 1890s,Slaughter used the Texas tick fever quarantine as anexcuse to construct “drift” fences, actually intendingto prevent his neighbors’ cattle from “drifting” ontorangeland he claimed. After much controversy, thecourts determined Slaughter’s fences were illegallyplaced on the public domain and he was required toremove them. Slaughter drilled the first artesian wellsin the San Bernardino Valley, developing extensiveforage and truck farms to supply the new towns ofBisbee and Douglas. Following Slaughter’s death,

12 Summer 2006

ABOVE Cattle in the San Pedro River, 1950s. Notedowncut banks. Photo by Arturo Rodriguez (PrivateCollection).

Historic Ranches & the Persistence of Biodiversityby Diana Hadley, Office of Ethnohistorical Research, Arizona State Museum, Tucson AZ

several owners continued to ranch and farm the USportion of the ranch, stocking it with fewer cattle.

The Sonoran portion of the ranch returned tomembers of the Elías family who purchasedadditional properties, eventually creating a singleranch that extended 30 miles south from the border.The size of the ranch violated Mexican agrarianreform laws, established after the Mexican Revolutionto prevent the reestablishment of latifundia (vastprivate land monopolies). During the 1970s, theMexican government nationalized portions of theSan Bernardino, selecting arable tracts along creeks tocreate ejidos, communal farms. The governmentdistributed house lots, small parcels of farmland, andcommunal grazing rights to ejiditarios (members ofthe ejidos), some of whom were brought fromSinaloa and other more southerly Mexican states toinstruct the Sonorans in superior farming techniques.This plan proved to be a social disaster, creatingresentment against the newcomers and resulting indecreased productivity. Heavy stocking, neglect,mismanagement, and lack of finances for suppliesand improvements (seed, farm implements, watertanks, wells) forced ejiditarios to rely on the sale offirewood, cut from the ranch’s riparian areas.

On both sides of the border, alfalfa fields replacedthe sacaton flats and periodic floods entrenched SanBernardino Creek, ripping cottonwoods and willowsfrom the banks. Over-pumping diminished water andconsequently wildlife. Yet, despite harsh treatment,the San Bernardino retained considerablebiodiversity. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, whichacquired the Arizona portion of the cienega duringthe 1980s for management as a wildlife reserve, hasremoved non-native fish and is restoring the cienega.On the Sonoran side of the border, despite flooddevastation and down-cutting, beaver survived. Inthe 1990s, American conservation rancherspurchased the San Bernardino, reduced stockingrates, constructed check dams, reseeded nativegrasses, replanted and encouraged riparianvegetation, protected native fish, and initiated agradual restoration of the land. The need for waterfor Agua Prieta’s burgeoning maquiladora industry isthe major threat to the San Bernardino on both sidesof the border.

The San Pedro Land Grants and the Greene Cattle Ranches

The San Pedro River rises on the plains ofCananea in Sonora and flows northward across thepresent international boundary to the Gila River. Adozen or more prominent Mexican families receivedland grants near Cananea, the richest of the bordergrasslands and the site of mines that produced (withNacozari) ninety percent of all Mexican copper. Inthe 1820s, members of the Elías Gonzalez familyapplied for three grants downstream on the river andone on Babocomari Creek. Most were issued duringthe 1830s, a time when Apaches raided into centralSonora, using the trail along the east bank of the SanPedro that later became known as the “Great StealingRoad of the Apaches.” After only a decade thegrantees abandoned their ranches.

In the 1890s, William C. Greene, an ambitiousTombstone miner and rancher, began buying ranchproperties. He started with a small farm on the SanPedro in Arizona Territory but soon acquiredranchland upstream near Cananea, where he enticedAmerican “capitalists” into copper investments,

created the legendaryCananea Copper Companyand the largest ranch inSonora. Using mining profits,Greene purchased most ofthe land grants surroundingCananea, the San Pedro grantthat straddled the border, theSan Rafael del Valle grantnorth of the boundary, andthe San Rafael de la Zanjagrant in the San Rafael Valleyin the Santa Cruz watershed.By the early 20th century, his Ranchos de Cananeaholdings extended some 68 miles along theinternational boundary and approximately 48 milessouthward, with two ranches north of the border.Considered a model rancher for the time, Greenestocked the vast properties with up to 40,000 head ofhigh-grade cattle, integrating management of the USand Mexican ranch divisions, importing his Mexicancattle through Naco or the San Pedro crossing, andholding them for shipment on the San Pedro delValle grant, where he constructed a shipping stationand pens at Hereford, with connections to theSouthern Pacific Railroad. During droughts, herented pasture in California or areas with adequaterainfall for his prized stock.

The Mexican ranches remained in the Greenefamily until the late 1950s, when the governmentnationalized them, converting the seven ranchdivisions into seven large ejidos, the Ejidos deCananea. Although the new ejidos suffered from lackof experienced management, as long as the BancoEjidal, the economic arm of the Agrarian Reform,continued to manage and invest in them, theyprovided some profit for the members. Ranchingremained the main economic activity on the sevenejidos, while dairy farming, fruit horticulture, andcottage industries were added. Although not strictlyenforced, stocking rates in the large communallymanaged pastures were regulated and the grasslandsretained some fertility.

In 1992, management of the ejidos changedradically. The Mexican Congress abrogated Article 27of the constitution, ending protection under theAgrarian Reform and allowing the dissolution ofejidos and the sale of individual ejido properties orgrazing rights. Many members of the Ejidos deCananea chose to sell their derechos, often findingbuyers among the wealthier members of the ejidos.After 1992, sales of ejidal land broke up the largecommunal pastures, creating a multitude ofexcessively small heavily stocked fenced lots thatprevent wildlife movement. Without economicresources to develop water sources or allow pasturesto rest, the new owners allowed cattle to denude thefamous Cananea grasslands. The subdividing and saleof ejido pastures continues today. A significantadvantage resulting from the dissolution of theAgrarian Reform is that formerly restricted ejidoproperty and land adjacent to the US border can nowbe purchased by international conservation buyers.Unfortunately, few conservation buyers have steppedup. To date the major conservation acquisition on theborder is the purchase of Rancho Los Fresnos, aprivate ranch, by The Nature Conservancy andNaturalia.

On the US side of the border, two of Greene’s SanPedro land grant ranches were became part of theBoquillas Land and Cattle Company, a corporate

ranch company that owned the San Juan de lasBoquillas y Nogales grant north of Greene’s ranches.The company was a subsidiary of California’s KernCounty Land and Cattle Company, created by threeof America’s wealthiest 19th century “capitalists” –Lloyd Tevis, founder of Wells Fargo, James Ben AliHaggin, California’s second largest landowner andinitiator of the Central Valley’s irrigation districts,and George Hearst, developer of the Butte and SilverCity copper mines. All three were California residentsand Gold Rush successes. Initially management wasprogressive on the vast ranch that extended nearly 45miles along the San Pedro River from the border tosouth of Saint David. During the 1960s, after Tennecopurchased the property, carrying capacity andproductivity decreased, and portions of thegrasslands near Sierra Vista were sold for subdivision.In 1988, Congress acquired the land along the river,establishing the San Pedro Riparian NationalConservation Area (SPRNCA) to protect the last free-flowing river in the Southwest, and with it, habitat for389 bird species, 84 mammal species, and 47 speciesof reptiles and amphibians. Like the San Bernardino,SPRNCA is currently threatened by waterwithdrawals, in this case for Sierra Vista’s sprawlinggrowth.

Ironically, in part we owe the remaining borderbiodiversity to the very undemocratic Spanish landgrant system which rewarded New Spain’s elites withlarge contiguous grants of fertile land, unlike thedemocratic American homestead system that favoredthe smallholder with parcels only slightly larger thanthe Jeffersonian ideal of the 40-acre farm, units thatproved to be uneconomic and essentially unusable inthe arid Southwest. Thus, the first border ranches tobe stocked with cattle and the ranches that have beengrazed the longest (and in some cases the hardest)were the Spanish land grants. In the cases where thegrants remained in tact, the possibility exists tosecure the properties for ecological restoration.Where they have been broken up -- either into 40-acre Sierra Vista ranchettes subject to even furtherwildcat subdivision, or into tiny privatized formerejido parcels, preservation is no longer an option.Hopefully, some energetic conservation buyers will bewillling to go through the legalistic bureaucraticquagmire required to purchase ejido property inMexico and will be able to restore the legendarygrasslands of Cananea - once so beautiful that thefirst Spaniards to see them named them for Canaan,the promised land.

Sky Island Alliance 13

Historic Ranches & the Persistence of Biodiversity continued

Cattle on the border belonging to the Ejidos deCananea, looking northwest toward the HuachucaMountains, during the drought of the 1950s. Photoby Arturo Rodriguez.

In 2003, Arizona State Park Board provided staffwith a shift in emphasis to science-informed decisionmanagement vision. State Parks Board stressed theneed to expand staff and consultants ecologicalknowledge base. In 2004, Director Travousannounced the new vision and direction to staff:“ to be recognized locally and nationally as anoutstanding resource management organization”

One opportunity for State Parks to move towardsthis vision is through the Arizona State Parks StateNatural Areas Program. State Parks administersHeritage Fund monies for the acquisition andmanagement of State Natural Areas. The Fundprovides the State Parks Board with $10 million eachyear and of that amount seventeen percent is for theacquisition of natural areas and four percent formaintenance, operation and management of naturalareas (A.R.S. § 41-503). The primary purpose ofestablishing State Natural Areas: “…is the protectionand/or preservation of a site’s natural resources”

There are currently three stated Natural Areas,two of which are found in southern Arizona. TheSonoita Creek and San Rafael State Natural Areas arelocated in Santa Cruz County while the Verde RiverGreenway State Natural Area is located in centralArizona in Yavapai County. Through multi-resourcemanagement and interpretive education programs,the primary goals to conserve, protect and enhancethe natural and cultural resources of State NaturalAreas are realized while providing recreationalopportunities to the public that are compatible withthe conservation goals. Sonoita Creek and San RafaelState Natural Areas are currently closed to the publicwith limited access through guided tours and forresearch and baseline data collection. The Verde RiverGreenway Natural Area can be accessed throughDead Horse Ranch State Park.

The Verde River is nearly 180-mile long VerdeRiver is one of the Arizona desert’s last free-flowingrivers, sustaining a large regional wildlife populationand a lush riparian community. The most significantnatural resource in the park, besides the year-roundflowing river, is the dense forest of riparian trees and

shrubs along its riverbank. This FremontCottonwood/Gooding Willow riparian gallery forestis one of five remaining stands in Arizona and one oftwenty such stands in the world.

A six-mile reach of the river, purchased in 1988,known as the Verde River Greenway State NaturalArea, supports nearly twenty threatened, endangered,and sensitive species including river otter,southwestern bald eagle, southwestern willowflycatcher, and lowland leopard frog. Bird speciessuch as great blue heron, osprey, black hawk, yellow-billed cuckoo, Gambel’s quail as well as numerousmigratory bird species are known for this area.Mammals include beaver, raccoon, ringtail, muledeer, javelina, bobcat and coyote. In 2004, AudubonSociety announced State Parks as one of three landmanagers for the Tuzigoot-Tavasci Marsh-Verde RiverGreenway Important Bird Area.

Established in 1994, the Sonoita Creek StateNatural Area is a riparian and upland area of 7,912acres (as of 2005, including the 2,628-acre Coal MineSpring addition purchased by Arizona Game and FishDepartment), managed by the Arizona State Parks forthe protection of natural resource values. Noted asthe first major State Natural Area in Arizona, SonoitaCreek State Natural Area includes approximatelyseven miles of Sonoita Creek and its associated

riparian vegetation below PatagoniaLake State Park. With over one-hundred pre-summer and mid-summer avian species recorded, theNatural Area is an importantmigratory route for many neo-tropical migrants including thefederally listed candidate speciesyellow-billed cuckoo as well asbeing home to the endangerednative Gila topminnow fish.

In 1999, the San Rafael Short-grass Prairie Preserve waspurchased from The NatureConservancy. The San Rafael Short-grass Prairie Preserve is located in

the San Rafael Valley, along the U.S.-Mexico borderin Santa Cruz County. The San Rafael Valleyecosystem is noted for its uniqueness and high plantspecies richness. The 172 square mile San RafaelValley lies between the Patagonia and HuachucaMountains and is bisected by the headwaters of theSanta Cruz River that flows south into Mexico andthen loops north and re-enters the U.S. near Nogales.The preserve is composed of the San Rafael StateNatural Area and the adjoining conservationeasement, privately owned property. Arizona StateParks manages and monitors the San Rafael StateNatural Area for the protection and enhancement ofecosystem resources, processes and functions,including riparian and grassland communities,wildlife, open space and cultural values whileallowing for compatible levels of use. The propertyhas long been identified as a significant natural area.Protected species such as the Huachuca water umbel,Sonora tiger salamander, and Gila topminnow occurwithin the Preserve.

Assisting State Parks and our cooperators, in thischarge, is a Technical Advisory Committee that iscomposed of seven voting citizen members and onenon-voting ex-officio member. Members representscientific expertise in the fields of botany, ecology,geology, hydrology, zoology, wildlife biology, preservemanagement and are actively involved in theconservation, scientific, or preservation fields. TheCommittee assists State Parks staff by holding publicmeetings and workshops, identifying potential StateNatural Areas, reviewing site-specific managementplans, and providing recommendations to theArizona State Parks Board. If you are interested inparticipating in this committee please visit theArizona State Parks website for more informationwww.pr.state.az.us.

The 33rd annual Natural Areas conference,“Stewards of the Old and New West,” will be on themountain campus of Northern Arizona University inbeautiful Flagstaff, Arizona, September 20 throughSeptember 23. For more information seewww.cpcesu.nau.edu/NAC2006 andwww.cpcesu.nau.edu/NAC2006 to register.

State Natural Areason the BorderBy Joanne M. Roberts, Resource Ecologist,Natural Areas Program AdvisoryCommittee Coordinator

Rolling grasslands at the San Rafael Short-grass Prairie Preserve. Photo courtesy Joanne Roberts.

14 Summer 2006

Riparian habitat for the Huachuca water umbel located within the SanRafael preserve. Photo courtesy Joanne Roberts.

Sky Island Alliance 15

1973 My dad hadn’t let on at all about what heknew or what he was about to do. He must have beengiddy though, the way he turned on us. We wereapproaching the border crossing and we were verynervous, we had fireworks and switchblades wellhidden, but we were only 10 and 11. When westopped and the customs agent asked if we hadanything to declare, my father turned around lookedright at us and replied loudly “no but I think my boysdo.” We were shocked, appalled and crestfallen. Wecouldn’t believe that our father would turn on us likethat; we really couldn’t believe that he knew aboutour stash. We thought we were going to jail, to dohard time, but when we handed the goods over wegot a kindly lecture, a stern look and we were out ofthere.

1990 Man I was pissed, she was flaunting herauthority, making us, with a little kid, wait like that.We had waited in the border crossing line for overtwo hours, idling in a cloud of exhaust and cheapcrap, then as we waited at the white line, next to beasked that stupid question “your nationality?” shehad the temerity to leisurely take her time to call usup and I gunned it and screeched to a stop andglared. Didn’t do me any good. We were soon underthe big lights with a year’s worth of living in Mexicospread out around our little Subaru. I didn’t knowwhat they were looking for but it was apparentlymeat, as one of the officers kept asking the two-yearold Cassidy “tiene carne?” “tiene carne?”

1995 Again I was pissed, did he think we werestupid? Does he ask every group of biologists headingnorth? “Do you have any pot?” I said it, I couldn’thelp myself, “do we look stupid?” It didn’t help.

1996 Is this the border? Map and compass out,yes it is. No going back, north held way too muchsand and not enough purchase. South it was, but firstthe shovel and the sand. And the fence. As we dugour way across the border we really didn’t think toomuch about how far on Highway 2 we had to travelto get to a border crossing or the real possibility thatwe would be seen traveling south from the borderfence. A lizard biologist always carries a kill box.Inside the box are items that kill lizards and othersoon-to-be specimens. Mexican law frowns upon thepossession of such items. It was a slow realization butwe all knew we would be going to jail in Mexico. Asthe town of San Luis approached we began to feelbetter and as we crossed the border and approachedcustoms we were almost giddy. I don’t know what thecustoms officer thought of this giddiness, the ranksmell from our ten days in the desert, the UA Chevysuburban with sand lodged everywhere, but hisquestion was the funniest we had ever heard: “Do youhave more than 10,000 dollars in cash?”

2004 The guy about scared the devil out of me,sneaking around in the dark like that. It was raininglike hell in August and mi amigo nuevo was lost, wetand cold. Deep in a border mountain range is nogood place to be during a chubasco grande. Lightningwas everywhere; the rain was thick and smelled liketoads. He was an illegal immigrant from Phoenix,coming back from visiting his abuelita in Sonora. Weshowed him the map, showed him where his pickuppoint was, offered him food and water and el fue.

This border is a strange place. Whenever I amnear I am drawn to it, from Antelope Wells to theSummit Byway, I am always jumping across it, Ialways have to pee across it (usually north), I gestureobscenely at invisible surveillance technologies andflaunt my disdain and derision at efforts to control it,I always have to smuggle something little across it. Ilike the border because jaguars and vine snakes crossit heading north, I like the border because tequilaalso crosses north, I like the border because mi amigoMariposa has crossed it twice yearly for decades.

But really I hate the border because it is not real,it’s a stupid bright line on a map, it has no relevanceto my life or the life of the Sky Islands and theSonoran Desert. For thousands of years, humans,bison, cats, snakes, tortoises and wolves have crossedthe imaginary line daily, monthly, yearly. With thefailings of politicians, corporate greed, and ignoranceand bigotry, the stupid bright line has beentransforming into an ugly scar. Current humaninfrastructure already impedes animal movement andalters behavior and genetic dynamics. A wall couldkeep jags out of the US, it could keep pronghorn andbison from crossing; but it won’t keep a human fromcrossing.

So what to we do? If you have read my rattling’sbefore you know the answer! Go out there and work!We work on protecting and restoring our borderwildlands and we won’t stop. We will march out andwork to heal wounds, educate ourselves and ourcommunities, and advocate for wild critters and land!Recently we have visited many of our borderwildlands on both side of the line. The Sierra ElPinito was en fuego when we visited, and we had agreat time and were graciously hosted by the locallandowner. The Burro Mountains across the NewMexico border was the site of a riparian restorationand fencing project that had a fantastic SIA turnout!And on the southern flank of the HuachucaMountains we surveyed riparian areas from the pine-oak woodlands down into the grasslands and acrossthe border into Mexico. All summer we will be in theoak savannas of the eastern Santa Rita Mountainsrestoring roadbeds and drainage patterns and in thePeloncillo Mountains surveying and restoringriparian areas.

Five Haikusin 3-5-3 formfrom Trevor…

Take me outLeave me out there till

I can see

How much woodDoes a woodchuck chuck

If wood chucks

ATVsDon’t stop when they should

Destruction

Sustain themThey will repay you

Sooner than

What the f—Is going on here now

Stop it man

RattlingsBy Trevor Hare, Field Coordinator

I have crossed this border many times, some times illegally, most of the time legally.The physical act of crossing is simple, lift your leg, swing it forward and step down; stepon the gas; sleep through it up in the air. Individual, social and ecological crossingshave varying effects and impacts on the people and critters, the communities andinstitutions, and the ecologies of the Sky Island region. Individual and ecologicalcrossings have limited impacts but great effects, sometimes negative but mostly positive.Social crossings — human and drug smuggling, security infrastructure, industrial, havehad large, long-lasting impacts with some positive but mostly negative effects. Mycrossing history is long and varied but most have concluded with positive effects.

See page 19 for Trevor’sSummer Field Schedule

& Wishlist.

ABOVE: Border Posts.Photos courtesy Ed LaGrande.

16 Summer 2006

This is an excerpt of the account of my trip withSky Island Alliance to explore and experience a partof El Pinito (“little pine”) mountain range, southeastof the Arizona/Sonora border town of Nogales(“walnut trees”). It’s on this trip that the same loveand appreciation I have for herpetology expanded tothe rest of the biological and anthropologic picture.Aside from feeding the appeal of mystique that I havefor Mexican natural history and anthropology, itmade me more proud of my Mexican heritage andgave me a new perspective on my mother’s side of thefamily — an oak-covered hillside took on newsignificance when I remembered my grandmothertelling me of a time when she and her cousins werecaught in a summer downpour and lightning stormwhile picking bellotas (“acorns”) on the outskirts ofthe small (at the time) mining town of Cananea.

I left penniless of live snakes (the initial goal ofmy attendance), but *richer in love, appreciation, andunderstanding of everything else wild, and mycultural heritage, pride, sense of being andunderstanding.

I. Awe and Discovery in El PinitoAfter picking up food in Nogales, we drove east to

the immediate sky islands known as El Pinito (“littlepine”). As we drove along the Santa Cruz River wepassed quaint little houses and gargantuan alamotrees (Arizona Cottonwood, Populus fremontii) withbright green canopies that shimmered in the sun. TheSanta Cruz River flows south into Mexico where ithooks like a backwards J back into Arizona. Therewas intermittent water in her and I felt honored to beamongst such old and giant living things thatreminded us of a time when steam ferries floateddown the river and otters, beaver and native fishteemed her waters.

We were late to meet Raul, the gracious rancherto host us for the weekend. However, he was in goodspirit when I introduced the group and myself to himat our meeting spot. Cory, the brilliant Global

Information System (GIS) whiz had already showedme on the map where he would like Raul to take usto camp — a beautiful mesa called Mesa de los Yaquis(Yaqui mesa). Unfortunately the ranch hand wholived in the stone house behind the gate that wouldgrant us access to the mesa was away in Nogales. Wethen decided for the bottom of La Escondida(“hidden canyon”). After barely catching up withRaul and his beat up Chevy pick-up on the mostrugged canyon road you can imagine, we arrived atthe bottom of La Escondida. Arizona Walnut (Juglansmajor), Ash (Fraxinus velutina) and ArizonaSycamores (Platanus wrightii) marked the presence oftrickling water. I was at home! The silence and smellof wet canyon bottom was making me giddy inside,but I had to keep my cool walking between the worldof tough Mexican rancher and crazy gringos. We wereclad in shorts and jeans; tshirts and unbuttonedshirts; and sneakers, flip flops and sandals. Not tomention we also had a beautiful gringa amongst usall. Raul was a quiet but tough rancher. Clad in boots,jeans, and a Mexican cowboy hat, his complexion andstature was indicative of his Yaqui roots, hot sun andrugged lifestyle. Despite all this, I was slightlysurprised by his gentle handshake and quietdisposition.

I asked him of tigre (jaguar, Panthera onca), andhe mentioned that he had four of his livestock takenand a horse injured by tigre. Finally, the hard realityof the relationship between big cat and rancher hithome and I told him we were sorry to hear about his

livestock. He then proceeded to invite us to bettercamp at his house about a mile and a half up thecanyon and we obliged. It was twilight when wearrived. He asked us about our plans and we told himthat we’d like to see Mesa de los Yaquis. It was Fridayand he would have to go for his ranch hand inNogales so we decided right then to stay in thecanyon and surrounding areas. He told us of a nearbycanyon called Los Ahogados (“the drowned”), wherehis grandfather died fighting Mexican presidentAlfredo de la Huerta. Raul obviously inherited thisranch, and his house is but feet from an erodedcorner of an adobe house; all that is left of hisgrandfather’s house.

We were sharing the area with a fire crew that wasattempting to put out a fire a canyon away. They wereexhausted, walking four hours over 16 miles to fightit! Raul told us that they had killed some rattlesnakesfor food (which led us to realize the differencebetween US and Mexican firefighters). Paul and Icrossed the stream to greet them and they showed ustwo Northern black-tailed rattlesnakes (Crotalusmolossus molossus) that were gutted, skinned anddrying — with the tails and rattles left on, they werea quick ID. Another firefighter proceeded to tell us hehad killed a small brown rattlesnake that was flushedfrom the fire. This really piqued my interest. The onlysmall brown rattlesnake that could exist at thiselevation would have to be the Ridge-nosed

Exploring El Pinitoby Robert Villa, herpsandviolin@aol.com

I often joke that we need to rename our organization to Arizona Anti-Non-Native Invasive Plant Society as issues relating to invasive non-nativeplant species consume most of our energies, at least in the Southern ArizonaChapter Conservation Committee.

What a treat it was to attend this tri-national (Mexico, the United States,and Canada) conference focusing on invasive plant species held in Hermosillo,Sonora, Mexico, over Memorial Day weekend. This ambitious meeting wasorganized largely by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (ASDM), and theprimary financial sponsors were the Federal Highway Administration (FHA)and the Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious andExotic Weeds (FICMNEW).

Over seventy oral and poster presentations were made regarding the statusof invasive plant species throughout North America, current research,education and outreach campaigns, prevention, best management practices,and control. Presentations and printed materials were bilingual and there wasa true spirit of unity and cooperation amongst all involved. An all-day fieldexcursion started at Cañón La Pintada, the site of over 2,000 pictographs,some of which are 2,000 years old. At the ranch house, we had an in-depthdiscussion about buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) ranching in Sonora. On the

way to San Carlos, we witnessed roadside buffel-fires (both in flame andcharred remains of fires past) and stopped to see an impressive roadside groveof athel tamarisk (Tamarix aphylla) trees that has established from seed in thepast 15 years. Those sightings prompted a great many of us to consumeseveral margaritas on a sunset cruise in the Sea of Cortez off San Carlos.

I attended this conference on behalf of the Arizona Native Plant SocietySouthern Chapter Conservation Committee (along with Marilyn Hanson,Nancy Zierenberg, and Dana Backer). Marilyn Hanson was completelyenthused to have a captive audience to bombard with the success of theSonoran Desert Weedwackers in defending Tucson Mountain Park againstbuffelgrass (and we co-authored a poster on the topic). We also really enjoyedgetting a chance to connect with the Sonora Native Plant Society (Asociatiónpara las Plantas Nativas de Sonora A.C., www.apnsac.org) — they had a reallyincredible native plant display at the Fiesta del Pitic in downtown Hermosillo.

We extend our thanks to ASDM for providing our transportation to themeeting, and look forward to participating in the next Weeds Across Bordersconference, scheduled for 2008 in Canada! If you would like to get involvedwith local non-native invasive species issues, please contact me atconservation@aznps.org.

Weeds Across Borders III Pulling Together Continues: The View from the Southby Carianne Funicelli, Arizona Native Plant Society (Southern Chapter) Conservation Chair

El Pinito rising above the grasslands. Photo courtesy Cory Jones.

continued next page

Sky Island Alliance 17

rattlesnake (Crotalus willardi), however, this species isn’tknown from anywhere west of the Santa Cruz River thisfar north in Sonora (yet). I have yet to fully investigateour finding, and I have yet to research known rattlesnakesand herps (amphibians and reptiles) from this range.

We ate dinner and then talked, storied, away all nightbefore we stumbled to our tents only to wake at 7:30 thenext morning for a day of hiking. That night Coryinformed me that recently, ranchers have been referring tomountain lions as tigres as well as jaguars.

II. Fuego en El PinitoI arose at 7:30pm, cold but forcing myself to put my

jeans, shoes, tshirt and long sleeve shirt on, to start thecoffee. The firemen had already been long gone to fightthe flames. The night had concealed a massive rock facethat now towered over camp. The coffee was good and werelished it with eggs, potatoes, flour tortillas and greenchiles. While we ate breakfast, we noticed ravens (Corvuscorax) roosting at the rock face. I read the historicalaccounts of oso grande (Mexican grizzly bear, Ursus arctosnelsoni) and other majestic, odd and unfortunately extinctor almost extinct Mexican mammals and birds from AldoStarker Leopold’s (son of Aldo) The Wildlife of Mexico(University of California Press, 1959). Approaching thespring-fed creek by camp, I startled two tortugas del agua(Sonoran mud yurtles, Kinosternon sonoriense) andschools of charalitos alteta larga (Longfin face, Agosiachrysogaster).

The night before, we were told not to go near the fireso we decided to go farther up La Escondida to see whatwe could see, not knowing this was the access to the fire.The day was begun nicely when a male Painted Redstart(Myioborus pictus) on migration curiously flew within afew feet of our heads. Cory was jokingly assuming thatthe birds he couldn’t identify were new species. Paul and Iwere on the lookout for snakes, and the trail passed slidesof loose rock close to the canyon bottom — ideal habitatfor Banded rock rattlesnakes (Crotalus lepidus klauberi),which also are not known this far west — however theweather was too dry and hot in the middle of the day tosee any rattlesnakes. I did see the radiant crimson flowersof a claret cup (Echinocereus triglochidiatus) on the edgeof the talus. Farther up we came upon a Mexican firemanjacket hung in a juniper (Juniperus sp.) and we took thisas a sign to stay back. Being crazy gringos, we decided tocontinue “for a little ways.” Then we came to a massiveboulder to our left and we climbed it to eat lunch, nap inthe sun, and view the fire with our binoculars. Muchwater, Gatorade, and snacks were consumed as wewatched unidentifiable hawks and what were most likelyTurkey vultures (Cathartes aura) scavenge the smallcreatures that were being flushed from the fire. Weenjoyed our view of the fire since in the US we would bebreaking the law getting so close to the flames (about 3/4mile up a canyon intersecting ours). After going even alittle farther up the canyon we decided to head backdown. I collected some nice wood pieces, bones, rock andwhat appears to be some sort of Native American rocktool. Just before reaching camp, I lost what appeared to bea shiny blue-tailed skink (Eumeces sp.) in the leaf litter.After a while we encountered Raul and his grandsonOmar, on horseback to take lunch to the firemen fightingthe flames.

Near camp there was a brick pile and scattering oflivestock bones that we decided to investigate. Instead ofreturning to the main path we left camp from, we decidedto pass through what seemed like a simple corral to camp.However, the heat certainly changes one’s reasoning skills,and that coupled with the general mentality of the humanmale and general psyche of the male herpetologist, madeus test the proximity in distance from man and massivebull that could be civilly attained from each other in what

then seemed like a maze of corral after wediscovered the leviathan bovine (“bullhood” andall.) This made the refreshments all the better afterwe arrived at camp.

After some relaxation, I explored the spring-fedstream next to camp, looking for snakes such as aGartersnake (Thamnophis sp.) and Brownvinesnake (Oxybelis aeneus). Seepwillows(Baccharis salicifolia) grew in the dry portions ofstreambed, and along with bedrock, it was a goodnatural form of erosion control. Nacapule(Strangler figs, Ficus sp.) were in abundance andclinging to the trees. It was the first time I noticedthem this far north and Trevor told me a group ofSIA volunteers had seen one or two in theHuachuca Mountains in Arizona. I had no suchluck with snakes…

I had brought a bag of reference books whichwe discussed in relation to our findings that day,we discussed the Ridge-nosed Rattlesnakespecimen with a map and our knowledge of itsknown range, Cory talked about his work withorangutans in Borneo, and about everything elseunder the sun as it set. I noticed golondrinas(“swallows”)overhead. The bats began theirnocturnal rounds to feed on the pesky mosquitoesand other insects that would be attracted by ouractivity and campfire. That night as the burningAlligator juniper’s (Juniperus deppeae) lovelyfragrance filled the canyon, amorous Screech-owls(Otus sp.) began their flirting and I read aloud thissection of “The Green Lagoons,” a chapter in AldoLeopold’s A Sand County Almanac (1949):

“We saw nither hide nor hair of him, but hispersonality pervaded the wilderness; no living beastforgot his potential presence, for the price ofunwariness was death. No deer rounded a bush, orstopped to nibble pods under a mesquite tree, withouta premonitory sniff for el tigre. No campfire diedwithout talk of him. No dog curled for the night, saveat his master’s feet; he needed no telling that the kingof cats still ruled the night; that those massive pawscould fell an ox, those jaws sheer bone like aguillotine.”

I wish that Sergio had come along to sound atigre call afterwards! After the last of libation, we“slept the sleep of the sleepy” as we dreamed of thebiological wonders of Mexico. The firemen, sleptwith what they had in the field.

AfterwardAfter further researching, the presence of the

Arizona Ridge-nosed rattlesnake in El Pinito is notso far-fetched. A dry portion of Santa Cruz Rivercould make a corridor from the Patagonias acrossthe way to El Pinito. They are also known from afew mountain ranges south that all connect to eachother and El Pinito via the right habitat for thesesnakes (Madrean Evergreen Woodland: see Brown,1994). I have yet to thoroughly look into museumamphibian and reptile specimens from El Pinito orany other names it may have, but I suspect that thespecimens we encountered are of few known fromthe range. El Pinito is the northernmost range ofthe Tarahumara Salamander (Ambystomarosaceum) according to Dr. Cecil Schwalbe (pers.comm.).

The American West by Michael E. Quigley

He's driving a dirty, old, white pickup truckShe sits right next to him on the bench seatThere's a Coke can on the dashboardAnd the cable from the CB whip antenna snakes into the cab through the open window.He one-hands the wheelHis other hand on her knee--

reassuring, protecting, hoping, expectingHer hair's tied back, held by a ribbon.His grey t-shirt; her denim jacket.There is dirt and hay in the bed, and bits of tie-down twine still around the bumper.They're young; in love. He brakes as we enter town.

Her shiny new black Jetta has LEDs for taillights and a vanity tag.She sits alone in a contoured bucket seat. Her air is conditioned.One hand on her cellphone, one hand between wheel and stickGold bangles tie her wrists.

Her hair's wild, eyes lined, top sleeveless, skin tanned,There's a dreamcatcher and a cross hanging from her rearview mirror.She steps on it as we leave town.

I'm alone,Steadily speeding.I have a long way to go.The windshield's cracked and bug-splattered.The CD volume high to get over the hum of the road and the wind.Both hands on the wheel, I'm thinking of heroes, history, the road, the land.Far from frontiers, and 20 miles north, the road is closed at the Border Patrol checkpoint.A young man in a pressed uniform, not from here, stands in the roadOne hand on his gun, the other motioning me to stop.He looks in my back seat, makes a judgment, tells me to drive safely.

A mockingbird lands on a strand of barbed wire.Black-and-white triangle tail balancing above a stand of white-green prickly poppy.

I go. Accelerating into the night on a long, straight stretch of road.The sun sets in the West.Mountains silhouetted on a pink-purple-indigo sky.Clouds beyond.

We're in a drought.There's a storm coming.

Exploring El Pinito continued

It is hot and you have just returned from a hike in Tucson Mountain Park, and asusual, you’re looking for something new. This time it was a plant you’ve never seenbefore, Janusia gracilis, a sweet little desert vine. And Krameria grayi (white ratany),which is so beautiful it’s hard to believe it’s parasitic on other plants, stealing waterand nutrients from their roots.

But this hike has left you famished, Janusia is inedible and a Luna bar just doesn’t getit when you haven’t yet had breakfast. What to do? Why not take a Coyote Pause!

That’s right…. take a break and pull in at “Coyote Pause.” This breakfast and lunchstop is a delicious re-make of Todd’s Place on Kinney Road. But if you were familiarwith Todd’s Place you won’t recognize the new “Coyote Pause.” The spacious, yetwarm and comfy interior is casual and friendly. The new owners are Joe and MollyBianculli. Before deciding to go into business again for themselves, Joe ran theWestern National Parks Association Visitor Center and educational programs. He’salso an excellent plant nerd. Molly previously worked for Native Seeds/SEARCH andalso for SIA! They treat you right and feed you nothing but the best!

Though we haven’t tried everything on the menu yet, I’ve tried enough to know thatthe food is tasty, healthy, not expensive and the chocolate cake is at the top of thecharts (chocolate is good for you too, you just can’t have it every time!). If you lovethe real thing when it comes to espresso, this is the place! You’ll taste the Italian in thebrew. Joe does come from a long line of Sicilians… Have it with a homemade sconeor muffin, as there is a bakery with daily specials too. You simply can’t go wrong withbreakfast, lunch or a quick coffee and scone.

Soon there will be seating on the patio as well so you can gaze out on the native plantgarden as you munch. Open Tuesday through Saturday (Wednesday through Sundayin the summer) from 8am to 2pm, the menu accommodates veggies and meat eaters,and they have ice cream to cool you off on these wonderful summer days. And if, inyour haste to hike, you forgot the wife’s birthday or the kid’s graduation, they havean Indian Arts Gallery and gift shop in the back as well… geez, what don’t they do?Take the scenic route to 2740 South Kinney Road (just south of Tucson MountainPark’s south entry) and find out. It will be worth the drive. Or bicycle!

18 Summer 2006

Protect Arizona’s Roadless Areas…...they are our last wild treasures.

Act now and you can help GovernorNapolitano protect these special

places for all of us. Now is the time to tell the Arizona Game & Fish Department that you

want 100% of Arizona’s roadless national forest lands fully protected. Yourparticipation at public meetings and comment letters will assist GovernorJanet Napolitano and the Arizona Game & Fish Department in developingArizona’s petition to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect all 1.2million acres of inventoried roadless areas in six national forests in Arizona.

These lands are crucial to wildlife and their habitat, recreationalopportunities like hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping, protecting our forestwatersheds, and guarding against dangerous wildlfires.

Visit www.arizonaroadless.org to learn more about roadless areasand how you can help! Tell your friends. Spread the word!

Written comments will be accepted until Aug. 31st.Email comments to: roadless@azgfd.gov

Mail comments to: Arizona Game and Fish Department-WMHBAttn: Roadless Area Comment

2221 W. Greenway Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85023

Mark Your Calendars to Be at These Open Houses:A series of open house meetings will be held around the state in July

and August to provide the public with more information on roadless areasand the state’s petition process.

Attending the open house meetings is perhaps the most important way youcan support the Governor in this effort. We need lots of people to turn upand voice their support for protecting roadless lands and their value to you,your family, and your passion for the outdoors. Oral comments will not betaken at the meetings, so make sure you write your comments.

All open houses will be held from 6 to 9 pm:

Wednesday, July 5: Safford (Coronado/Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests),Graham County General Service Bldg. 921 Thatcher Blvd., Safford.

Thursday, July 6: Tucson (Coronado National Forest), Arizona Game andFish Department Tucson regional office, 555 N. Greasewood Road, Tucson.

Monday, July 10: Phoenix (all National Forests), Arizona State FairgroundsWildlife Building, 19th Ave. and McDowell Road, Phoenix.

Tuesday, July 11: Mesa (Tonto National Forest), Arizona Game and FishDepartment Mesa regional office, 7200 East University Dr., Mesa.

Wednesday, July 12: Payson (Tonto/Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests),Payson Inn Conference Room, 801 N. Beeline Highway, Payson.

Thursday, July 13: Globe (Tonto National Forest), Gila CountyFairgrounds, 3 miles north of Globe on Highway 60, Globe.

Tuesday, July 18: Kingman (Prescott National Forest): Arizona Game andFish Department Kingman regional office, 5325 N. Stockton Hill Road,Kingman.

Thursday, July 20: Prescott (Prescott National Forest), Yavapai CountyBoard of Supervisors Office, 1015 Fair St., Prescott.

Tuesday, July 25: Springerville-Eagar (Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests),Eagar Town Council Chambers, 174 S. Main St., Eagar.

Wednesday, July 26: Pinetop (Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests), ArizonaGame and Fish Department Pinetop regional office; 2878 E. WhiteMountain Blvd., Pinetop.

Tuesday, Aug. 8: Flagstaff (Coconino/Kaibab National Forests), RadissonWoodlands Hotel, 1175 West Route 66, Flagstaff.

Wednesday, Aug. 9: Fredonia (Kaibab National Forest), FredoniaCourthouse Building, 110 North Main St., Fredonia.

Visit www.arizonaroadless.org to learn more and TAKE ACTION!

Restaurant Review: Coyote PauseReviewed by Nancy Zierenberg and Rod Mondt

WANTED: YOUR PHOTOSAnnouncing: The SIA Photo Contest!We invite you to submit your landscape photographs of the Sky Islandsinto our 2007 calendar photo contest. We are looking for photos of SkyIsland landscapes representing the concept of Sky Islands, their beauty,uniqueness, natural resources, etc. No photographs of people or species,please. Landscapes, open spaces, mountain ranges, seasonality only. Wewill be selecting 12 photos to be printed in our 2007 calendar. Contestwinners and Legacy Club members will receive a free copy of thecalendar.

Submissions must be received by September 29, 2006. We will announcethe winners at our Annual Volunteer Appreciation Party. Please sendsubmissions to: Sky Island Alliance, Attn: Nicole, PO Box 41165, Tucson,AZ 85717 or email digital files to nicole@skyislandalliance.org. If the filesize is bigger than 3 MB, please contact us before electronically sendingyour photograph. Please include name of photographer, contactinformation, and location of photograph. You may be asked to verifythat you are the photographer of submitted photos. Unfortunately, wecannot return submitted photos.

Please contact Nicole at 520.624.7080 x209 ornicole@skyislandalliance.org with any questions.

Join us!Join or renew here OR through our

website: www.skyislandalliance.org

If you received this newsletter and it’s time to renew your membership, please send in yourcheck! If you are reading a friend’s newsletter, consider joining us. We rely on members forour basic operations. Contributions are tax-deductible; we are a 501(c)(3) organization.

Basic membership is only $35, but if you add a little to that, here’s a sampling of what yourdollars can do:

$50 will help us survey 30 miles of roads.$75 will sponsor volunteer training workshops

$100 will close one mile of road.

Fill this out, or donate online. It’s quick, easy and safe!

Name: ______________________________________________________________

Address: ____________________________________________________________

City, State & Zip: _____________________________________________________

Phone & Email: ______________________________________________________

❏ $35 ❏ $50 ❏ $75 ❏ $100 ❏ Other $_____ (any amount helps and is appreciated!)

❏ My check is enclosed❏ Please bill $_________ to my: ❏ MasterCard ❏ Visa ❏ American Express

Card No.: _____________________________________ Exp. Date: __________Security Code: ______ (usually the last 3-4 digits on the back of the card by the signature panel)

Card billing zip code if different: ___________

Sky Island Alliance PO Box 41165, Tucson, AZ 85717

14-16 July. Huachuca Mountains Riparian Inventory. Join us in the beautifulHuachuca Mountains! Home of the Mountain Tree Frog! Ramsey Canyon LeopardFrog! Trogons! Turkeys! Bears and Lions! 2.0 hours from Tucson.

4-6 August. Peloncillo Mountains Riparian Inventory. Visit the beautiful andremote Peloncillos in a project to assess restoration potential of historic ciénegasand degraded streams. 3.5 hours from Tucson.

18-20 August. Sucker Gulch Road Restoration. Come out and get your handsdirty installing vertical mulch and erecting barricades, and play a direct role inimproving the ecological health of your public lands! 1.5 hours from Tucson.

1-4 September. Labor Day in the Chiricahua Mountains. Join the Sky IslandAlliance as we revisit a favorite haunt! We will be looking at the boundaries of theexisting Chiricahua Wilderness. Trogons! Ridge-nose rattlers! Coatis! 2.5 hoursfrom Tucson.

8-9 September. Los Posos Road Restoration. Come out and get your hands dirtyinstalling vertical mulch and erecting barricades, and play a direct role inimproving the ecological health of your public lands! 1.5 hours from Tucson.

29 September - 1 October. Ophir Gulch Road Restoration. Come out and getyour hands dirty installing vertical mulch and erecting barricades, and play adirect role in improving the ecological health of your public lands! 1.5 hours fromTucson.

For more information contact Trevor at trevor@skyislandalliance.org or at520.624.7080 x204

A late model truck or SUV, good running and good on gas! Steelposts for road closures!… Contact Trevor!

Field Schedule: Summer into Fall 2006

Sky Island Alliance 19

What is the Legacy Club?Comprised of our monthly and quarterly donors,this program is an easy way to donate to SIA and helps us tremendously!

By donating just $10 a month, you can turn your yearly $35 membershipcontribution into $120. Or, by donating $50 every quarter, your yearlycontribution would total $200! There are many different donation optionsthrough this program.

If you are interested, please call Acasia at 520.624.7080 x207 or click onthe Donate Now button at www.skyislandalliance.org. Wishlist:

Common raven by Sky Jacobs

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDTucson AZ

Permit #1156

Mountain Lions: Oh the Places They’ll Go…

One mountain lion’s journey from November 2005 to January 2006. Satellite collars collected GPS coordinates every four hours, which were uploaded by research staff in bi-weeklyflights. To keep the connect-the-dots simple, this map represents a sub-sample from nine months of data, showing the lion’s movements every 24 hours. GPS data provided by KerryNicholson, map created by Cory Jones. See article page 6.