Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM
Serving The Communities Of Portal and Rodeo (www.portal-rodeo.com)
Chiricahua Regional Council
Happy new year! Over the last month, we have been celebrating our work in 2022 and planning for 2023 and wanted to share some of that with you.
Our Stewardship Program has been one of our greatest successes. We value our collaborations in this area, including those with Wild Arizona, Friends of Cave Creek Canyon, and the US Forest Service. In 2022, we were honored to receive a certificate of appreciation for our work in the Chiricahuas.
As we head into 2023, the Stewardship Program continues to work in several areas: identifying trails for future projects by gathering community input, organizing volunteer events, maintaining working relationships with its existing partners, and developing strategies to continue the work.
In terms of trails, volunteers in the Portal area have committed to monthly trail maintenance days. The first was held January 12, and the next will be February 9 on the Herb Martyr Trail. Email us if you’d like more information on participating in this. After winter conditions slowed the progress of Wild Arizona's crew this past December, the South Fork Trail renovation will be completed this spring. Slated for April is a week-long Chiricahua Wilderness Trail Crew visit that will work from Rustler Park. In May, there will be a Sierra Club service trip based at Cima cabin.
Ongoing efforts to improve the signage in the forest continue. Partnering with the Douglas Ranger District, new wilderness portal signs are going in, as are some new trailhead and trail junction signs. CRC is also studying the feasibility of developing a wheelchair-accessible trail at Sunny Flat.
Building on the tangible results of the last couple of years of organizing, we look forward to the new field season. It's been gratifying work. We at CRC thank our supporters for making it possible.
CRC has also been planning for the next steps on opposing the US Air Force proposal to increase military training in the area. We have continued to support the work of Peaceful Chiricahua Skies, as they have been doing outreach to elected officials, government agencies, and the general public. Currently, the draft Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared by the USAF, and it is expected to be released in the fall of 2023. At that time, another round of public comments will be requested.
On February 19-22, 2023, a group in Tucson will be hosting a Peaceful Sky Benefit, featuring local and touring musicians and other artists at various venues including Hotel Congress. A CRC information table will be part of this event.
WHAT WE DO
The CRC works on issues affecting the Chiricahua and Peloncillo region and focuses on maintaining healthy, intact habitats. We disseminate information about potential threats to the region, as those threats arise. We advocate careful land stewardship and seek to educate the public, as needed, on any aspect of natural history, conservation and land use, including sound grazing practices. Diverse interests from the community––from biologists to ranchers––are represented on our Board of Directors.
PRESIDENT: Wynne Brown
Vice President: Noel Snyder
Secretary: Michele Lanan
Treasurer: Eskild Petersen
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Josiah Austin
Narca Moore-Craig
David Hodges
Helen Snyder
Dirk Sigleer
Curt Bradley
Philip Hendrick
MEMBERSHIP
A 2-year membership costs $20. When issues arise affecting the Chiricahua-Peloncillo-Dragoon region, we inform our membership of the problem and recommend actions to remedy the situation. These notices come at irregular (and, thankfully, infrequent) intervals––however, when action has been needed, our members have risen to the challenge, and have been very effective at protecting the local biological and cultural values.
CONTACT US
For information, email us at chiricahuaregionalcouncil@gmail.com.
Chiricahua Regional Council
PO Box 16480
Portal AZ 85632
CRC is also welcoming two new board members: Curt Bradley and Philip Hedrick. Both have made strong contributions to CRC through our Advisory Council, and we are pleased to have them join our board. In the upcoming year, we are seeking to add new members to our Advisory Council and to increase the diversity of our governance and volunteers. Stay tuned for more information on this, and contact us if you would like to share your ideas.
Lastly, we have new t-shirts and water bottles available to help spread the word about CRC’s mission. You can buy yours here.
As always, we welcome hearing your questions, comments, and suggestions. Please feel free to forward this update on our activities to friends and colleagues. We are continuing to work on increasing our membership, and anything you can do to help is appreciated. We value your support!
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Chiricahua Regional Council
PO Box 16480
Portal, AZ 85632
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WHO WE ARE
The Council is a citizens’ watchdog group that monitors public agency actions and other issues affecting the Chiricahua, Peloncillo and Dragoon Mountains and nearby areas of southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and adjacent northern Mexico.
We protect valuable, intact habitats and champion the region’s natural and cultural integrity. Dark skies, open space, outstanding species diversity, corridors that link habitats, our ranching heritage––all of these values make our region what it is. Together, these treasures draw tens of thousands of visitors annually, all contributing to nature tourism, which underpins our regional economy.
The CRC promotes responsible land use and wise, science-informed stewardship of our unique natural heritage. Our broad constituency includes scientists, ranchers, birders, naturalists, astronomers, artists, residents, visitors, and many others, who value our region’s spectacular qualities.
A major strength of the organization lies in its broad constituency. Our membership includes biologists, ranchers, birders, residents, visitors, and other segments of the general public with a strong interest in the region’s well-being.
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2010
Coronado Forest Plan Under Major Criticism
by Noel Snyder
Every national forest operates under a forest plan that presents goals and actions to achieve goals. These plans are periodically revised. In March, the U.S. Forest Service released for public comment a Draft Forest Plan for future management of the Coronado National Forest. This is a plan to replace the existing plan of 1986 and is expected to guide policies for the next 20 years. Unfortunately, the new plan is limited largely to broad “feel-good” goals. And because specific actions and their associated costs are mostly not presented, it isn’t possible to evaluate whether the goals are achievable, whether appropriate means will be employed to achieve goals, and how the Forest Service will resolve conflicts among goals. In view of the major budgetary cuts the Forest Service has already experienced and can anticipate, it seems highly unlikely that adequate resources will exist to achieve many of the goals mentioned. If adequate resources are not available which goals will be sacrificed? In essence, the Forest Service seems to be asking the public to endorse its future actions without letting the public know what those actions may be.
For those familiar with the detail of the 1986 Coronado plan, the newly released plan is astonishingly vague and leaves many matters only minimally addressed or simply unaddressed. For example, missing from the plan is any discussion of border problems or how the the Forest Service is planning to address problems anticipated from climate change. Areas of the Coronado close to the border have been under siege from illegal immigrants, who have trampled “highways” across the terrain, left mountains of trash, and repeatedly started major fires that have cost the taxpayer many millions of dollars. Many of the trails on the Coronado are now effectively “owned” by well-armed drug smugglers, at least at night. Yet the new plan says nothing about these problems and how they will be corrected. If left uncorrected, these problems will undermine many other aspects of the plan.
Nevertheless, the aspect of the new plan that is by far the most troubling is the absence of any clear recognition of the overriding importance of what many observers maintain is the defining attribute of the Coronado – its tremendously high level of biodiversity. This biodiversity is unmatched by any other national forest and has been honored nationally and internationally. Protecting biodiversity is an overall national priority, and it is the Coronado’s outstanding biodiversity that supports a thriving ecotourism economy for many local communities. Biodiversity is in fact the economic life blood of the region. This value should be featured in the plan as a central focus around which other goals need to be harmonized. It is not.
Concerns over the Coronado’s biodiversity came into national focus in the 1990s when the Coronado Forest released a proposal to convert several of the Sky Island Units it administers into a National Recreation Area (NRA). This was a proposal resulting not from public demand but from its potential to increase the Coronado’s budget. However, an NRA can only come to pass with public support and Congressional action. In public meetings the proposal was blown away by vigorous and nearly unanimous opposition from people across the social and economic spectrum, who viewed conversion of the forest into a playground for mass recreation as a very bad idea. What emerged instead was overwhelming public endorsement of low-impact quiet recreation on the forest consistent with maintaining the biological riches of the forest. The NRA proposal was quietly dropped, but one wonders if anyone on the current planning staff of the Coronado remembers this embarrassing affair. In the current draft plan, recreation development is mentioned 226 times while biodiversity is mentioned only 6 times.
To be fair, the Forest Service has belatedly announced it will be including a new Cave Creek Zoological and Botanical Area (ZBA) in its revisions to the draft plan, an area protecting a canyon with by far the highest density and diversity of nesting raptors known anywhere in the U.S. But as welcome as the new ZBA is, the increased motorized recreation emphasis across the forest that is allowed in the new plan works directly against maintaining biodiversity values. Under the existing forest plan, the Coronado already has far more roads than are permissible. Biodiversity is not yet receiving the overall recognition and priority it deserves in the new plan.
In February the Forest Service expects to release a revised forest plan and a Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the plan. It will be crucial for the public to respond with comments on these documents.
