BISBEE — How do you
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community and economic
development with the
need to preserve habitat for
threatened and endangered
species as mandated by federal
law under the Endangered
Species Act?
This is a problem that the
county faces as a number of
species are being proposed
for up-listing under the Endangered
Species Act. From
2-inch minnows, which no
longer live in their historic
home territory in the San Pedro
River, to a rare jaguar recently
sighted in an undisclosed
location within
Cochise County, the county
Board of Supervisors has to
balance what’s good for the
residents with what’s good
for the preservation of declining
species. With each
species listed by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service,
critical habitat is established
which can impede agriculture,
ranching, development
and recreation in the county.
Recently, the supervisors
joined with Sierra Vista and
the Arizona-New Mexico
Counties Coalition to fight a
few of the proposed designations.
They agreed to share
the $4,880 cost of hiring
Darling Environmental &
Surveying, Ltd., to produce
an analysis of data gathered
by FWS on the spikedace
and loach minnow to provide
the basis for excluding
Cochise County sites.
Recently, FWS suggested
setting aside certain areas as
critical habitats for the fishes,
which were historically
abundant in the San Pedro
River on the Arizona side of
the border. Afew areas along
the river and its tributaries
could be protected. Both
fishes were listed as threatened
in 1986, but wildlife
groups are proposing the
fishes be upgraded to “endangered.”
About 796 miles of
streams and rivers are being
proposed for critical habitat
designation in Apache,
Cochise, Gila, Graham,
Greenlee, Navajo, Pima,
Pinal, and Yavapai counties,
and western New Mexico.
If FWS requires the San
Pedro River be designated as
critical habitat, it would include
the river plus 300 feet
on either side of the banks.
Much of the San Pedro is
already protected as a riparian
area and if the designation were approved, it may not
mean there will be additional
habitat set aside. The U.S.
Bureau of Land Management
states on the website:
“The San Pedro Riparian National
Conservation Area
contains nearly 57,000 acres
of public land in Cochise
County between the international
border and St. David.”
It includes 40 miles of the upper
San Pedro River that is
home to 84 species of mammals,
14 species of fish, 41
species of reptiles and amphibians,
and 100 species of
breeding birds. It also provides
habitat for 250 species
of migrant and wintering
birds.
The main concern is that
the San Pedro River is an intermittent
stream and during
the monsoon carries silt and
sediment that may not be
beneficial to the loach minnow
and spikedace, which
require gravel and rubble
bottoms and prefer a strong
flowing stream. So, there is a
question whether the San Pedro
will actually provide the
habitat necessary for the fishes’
survival.
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