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Supes set to audit county staffers' correspondence
Environmentalists fear attack on Santa Cruz River's "navigable" status - Tucson Citizen - 7/19/08 - The Pima County Board of Supervisors on Friday ordered an internal audit of staff activities that critics said could lead to softening of federal restrictions on development near the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries. "I ask that immediate action be taken by our elected officials to ensure that the public may trust our county leadership to represent our interests in the protection of our water resources, watershed integrity and dedication to ecological stewardship," Matt Skroch, executive director of the Sky Island Alliance, told the supervisors.
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Board deems river navigable, calls for Public Works review
Arizona Daily Star - 7/19/08 - The Pima County Board of Supervisors agreed unanimously Friday to support full federal protection and regulation of the Santa Cruz River and many of its tributaries under the Clean Water Act. Environmentalist Matt Skroch, director of the Sky Island Alliance, said he is concerned because Huckelberry has already said how he believes the county audit will likely turn out.
"I think the most important thing about initiating a review such as this is that you go into it without assumptions or preconceptions about what the conclusion will be," said Skroch. "You follow the facts." - > Read full article
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Pima County Board Members In Uproar Over Internal Staff Memos On Santa Cruz
- By Jim Becker, KOLD News 13 Reporter - 7/18/08 - "In no correspondence have I seen a substantial or even minor concern on Pima County's behalf regarding the protection of streams and washes, clean water and the integrity of our community's watersheds," said Matt Skroch of the Sky Island Alliance, during a special board meeting.
- Skroch calls on supervisors to make changes in staff leadership "that will reflect an environmentally-minded concern for the actions and positions the county takes."
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Tohono O’odham Demand Halt to Construction of Border Wall
- intercontinentalcry.org - 7/18/08 - On Thursday, July 10, the O’odham Solidarity Project issued the following call to mobilize against the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, which will cut through the heart of the Tohono O’odham’s traditional territory.
- With the April 1st announcement by the Department of Homeland Security to suspend thirty six federal laws to finish the border wall by the end of 2008, the border threatens to destroy the O’odham way of life, their traditions, religious practices, sacred sites, and pilgrimage routes, notes the Washington times, USA Today. There are a host of environmental concerns as well.
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County's memos counter its conservation plan
- AZ Daily Star - 7/13/08 - Pima County officials boast about their efforts to save open space and curb private development of sensitive lands through their Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. But at the same time, they've quietly opposed a measure that would bring tough federal environmental regulations of their own riverside road and flood-control projects, public records show.
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Decision may pose threat to Santa Cruz
- AZ Daily Star - 7/10/08 - Regulation of the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries has been thrown up in the air less than two months after it appeared the U.S. government had permanently agreed to protect them from the effects of new homes, roads and mines.
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Public should accept more frequent, but less destructive, forest fires
- AZ Daily Star - 7/6/08 - (By Matt Skroch and Tom Swetnam) It is fire season, and our forests will burn this summer. There are choices to be made about our communities' relationships with fire. Old habits must be broken and we will benefit from increasing our tolerance for more fire and smoke — not less. We would like to propose why.
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Words vs. Deeds: McCain's Legislative History Clashes With Support for River He Calls a 'National Treasure'
- Washington Independent - 6/26/08 - SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. — Sen. John McCain’s environmental legacy in Arizona may be inexorably linked with the fate of a narrow ribbon of Fremont cottonwoods and willows lining the diminutive San Pedro River, the last free-flowing, wild river in the desert Southwest.
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Proposed Rosemont mine continues to draw ire
Vail Sun - 6/24/08 - ...Trevor Hare, of the Sky Island Alliance spoke about the animals and plant life that will be impacted if the mine is fully operational. ... - > Read full article
Board OKs transit projects that rely on 1-cent sales tax
AZ Daily Star - 6/20/2008 - Regarding I-10 bypass through San Pedro or Aravaipa: "Janice Przybyl, who spoke on behalf of the Sky Island Alliance, said she wanted assurance the money that could pay for the long-term project plans would not be used for other projects, such as the bypass."- > Read full article
Poll: Most New Mexicans, Arizonans back wolf recovery
Associated Press - 6/16/2008 - A program to release Mexican gray wolves in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona has more support in Arizona than in New Mexico, according to a poll commissioned by wildlife groups and environmentalists.- > Read full article
On the Prowl
- Smithsonian magazine - 11/2007 - Rare jaguar sightings have sparked a debate about how to ensure the cats' survival in the American West.
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Tumacacori wilderness sought: Grijalva's bill would protect Highlands area
- Tucson Citizen - 8/5/2007 - The debate over a proposed Tumacacori Highlands wilderness area swings into high gear now that U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva has introduced a bill to protect 83,400 acres of national forest from Tubac south to the Mexican border.
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Our Opinion: Congress should enact Tumacacori Highlands bill
- Arizona Daily Star - 8/4/2007 -Godspeed to legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva this week to protect and preserve about 84,000 pristine acres in the Tumacacori Highlands.
This swath of southern Arizona is extraordinary.
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Group presses for critical habitat in U.S. for jaguars
- Sierra Vista Herald - 8/6/2007 - The elusive jaguar could disappear forever in the U.S. wilderness unless critical habitat is designated for the large cats, according to the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.
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Hotter, Drier Climate Moves Up Sky Islands' Slopes
- Weekend Edition Saturday - 7/21/2007 -If you look at a topographic map of North America, you'll see two huge spines in the West: the Rocky Mountains which stretch from Canada to the desert in the Southwest, and the Sierre Madre of Mexico.
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Richardson calls for moratorium on wolf killing
- Associated Press – 07/07/07 -ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Gov. Bill Richardson is calling for the suspension of a policy that requires federal wildlife officials to trap or shoot to death any endangered Mexican gray wolf that kills three head of livestock in a year. The governor's request for a moratorium comes a day after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shot and killed a female wolf that had been released April 25 in Catron County.
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News Analysis: Augusta says it’s moving forward
- Green Valley News- 07/14/2007 -Jamie Sturgess, the face of the oft-vilified Canadian mining concern Augusta Resource Corp., asserted last week that his company’s commitment to building a potentially very lucrative open-pit mine in the Santa Rita Mountains has not waned, despite the inhospitality of the county supervisors, residents near and far, and the clamorous environmental community.
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Guest Opinion: San Pedro recovery doesn't stand a chance
- Tucson, Arizona - 07/9/2007 -A recent article described the formation of an advisory group to recommend measures to keep the San Pedro River flowing. The creation of this group is the latest in a series of ineffective steps to preserve the flows of the San Pedro in the Sierra Vista subbasin.
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Buscan proteger la Sierra Tumacacori
- La Estrella de Tucson -- Apoya Grijalva una propuesta legislativa - Por casi 30 años, David Courtland, sus hijos y amigos, han realizado sus caminatas y excursiones familiares en la Sie-rra Tumacacori.
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Rosemont Rising
- The Tucson Weekly - 3/8/2007 - Can this mine fight turn a national tide? In February, Grijalva held a congressional hearing in Tucson to consider the Rosemont mine proposal. But he also tapped that pulpit to pitch a far broader agenda, which includes prohibition of new mining on public land in Pima County.
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The wilderness is next to godliness
- The Arizona Republic - 12/19/2006 - As pastor of a congregation in Tempe, I am naturally interested in the spiritual lives of our church members. I sometimes ask, "When have you felt closest to God?" They don't say: "During your sermons." For many, the most intense experience of the holy has been on a mountaintop, or by a stream, or next to the ocean.
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