Arizona: Land Board Okays Bulldozing Roads in Wilderness Areas
12/18/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: LAND BOARD OK'S BULLDOZING ROADS IN ARIZONA WILDERNESS
AREA!
Source: Joe Feller via SWAN http://www.superiorwild.org
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 18, 1999
Byline: Joe Feller, joe.feller@law.asu.edu
In two decisions issued on November 24 and November 30, 1999, the
Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) affirmed decisions by the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to authorize a hobby rancher to use a
bulldozer to reconstruct long-abandoned jeep roads in and around
Peeples Canyon in the Arrastra Mountain Wilderness in western
Arizona. One of the abandoned roads that will be reconstructed leads
to a private inholding at the bottom of Peeples Canyon. The others
lead to abandoned livestock water developments on three sides of
Peeples Canyon. The decisions also authorize the rancher to use a
backhoe within the Wilderness to reconstruct all of these water
developments, some of which were abandoned so long ago that no traces
of them are currently visible.
Peeples Canyon is the centerpiece of the Arrastra Mountain Wilderness
and arguably the single most famous feature in any Arizona BLM
Wilderness. Arizona Highways magazine has described Peeples Canyon as
"one of the wonders of public land in Arizona." BLM environmental
impact statements have described Peeples Canyon as a "rare and lush
riparian habitat in the midst of a rugged desert," as having
"exceptional wilderness values," and as an example of "the rarest and
most productive wildlife habitat" in western Arizona. A BLM booklet
describes Peeples Canyon as "uniquely pristine." The state of Arizona
has classified the stream in Peeples Canyon as a "Unique Water," a
designation reserved for water bodies that are of "exceptional
recreational or ecological significance because of [their] unique
attributes."
The BLM decisions affirmed by the IBLA will have a devastating impact
on the wilderness qualities of Peeples Canyon and the Arrastra
Mountain Wilderness. According to the BLM's own environmental
assessment, reconstruction of the abandoned road in Peeples Canyon
will require "major" and "extensive" earthmoving work on a steep
slope within the canyon.
According to the same environmental assessment, this work and the
subsequent motor vehicle use will create a motor vehicle route within
Peeples Canyon that "would look maintained and appear to casual
observers as a road receiving regular and continuous use," will
create "long-term" and "permanent" visual impacts in Peeples Canyon
that will violate the BLM's management standards for Wilderness, and
may cause the raptors for which Peeples Canyon is famous, including
peregrine falcons, to be "forced off their nests during nesting
season by the presence and disturbance of humans and vehicles" and to
"abandon the area as a nesting site for tracts less exposed to human
activity."
In affirming the two BLM decisions, the IBLA rejected appeals by a
coalition of conservation organizations comprising the National
Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, the Maricopa Audubon
Society, the Yuma Audubon Society, and the Palo Verde and Rincon
Groups of the Sierra Club. These appellants had argued that the
bulldozing of roads within a congressionally-designated Wilderness
would be contrary to the Wilderness Act's prohibition of roads and
contrary to the Act's command that the BLM "preserve the wilderness
character" of the area. They also argued that the BLM had violated
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to consider
several alternatives that would have avoided bulldozing roads within
the Wilderness. The IBLA summarily rejected all of these arguments.
Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt has the authority to review
decisions of the IBLA. The appellants are considering petitioning
Secretary Babbitt to overturn these decisions.