PrimalNature.org: Big Wilderness
Jaguars and the Sky Islands
The Wildlands Project, Naturalia, A.C., and the Northern Jaguar Project announced in February 2008 that they have acquired 35,000 acres of critical jaguar habitat in Northern Mexico. The purchase is the last step in a multi-year project to create a seventy-square-mile Northern Jaguar Preserve. The preserve protects a core population of more than one hundred jaguars, plus cougars, otters, bald eagles, military macaws, and other species.
The Jaguar Preserve is located in the Sky Islands region of southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico, where four ecoregions meet: the temperate Rocky Mountains on the north, the subtropical Sierra Madre Occidental to the south, the lower-elevation Sonoran Desert to the west, and the higher-elevation Chihuahuan Desert to the east. The variations in elevation, temperature, and humidity make possible a wide range of habitats, which support a rich wildlife. In the words of the Wildlands Project, "The region is home to 4000 plant species, more than half of all the breeding birds in North America, and one of the world's most diverse populations of reptiles and mammals."
Nevertheless, over the last hundred years, the region has undergone loss of species, fragmentation due to construction of roads and buildings, and degradation of watersheds. The Wildlands Project and its regional partners are working to reverse this process. They have created a Sky Islands Wildlands Network Conservation Plan, which envisions the connection of core wildlands areas by means of wildlife corridors to build a network that allows for the return of species. A network of organizations and individuals of varied backgrounds is now working to implement the Network Conservation Plan. The Northern Jaguar Preserve is one of the fruits of their work.
The network hopes to restore jaguars to their original range. However, U.S. plans to construct seven miles of border wall across a known jaguar corridor near Sasabe, Arizona, will, if realized, put an end to this plan. The corridor links the Baboquivari Mountain complex/Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in the United States with the northernmost jaguar breeding grounds in Sonora, Mexico, some 120 miles to the southeast. Jaguars once resided in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana. Around the turn of the century hunters exterminated them from the United States. Now the jaguars are gradually repopulating their former range in this country. Construction of the border wall will block their movement.
In 2007 the U.S. Border Patrol announced that a final Environmental Assessment for construction of the seven miles had found "no significant impact" on the ecology of the region. The assessment was carried out without a chance for public comment and did not consider replacing the proposed wall with virtual technologies. Legislation that would make possible protection of the jaguars is pending in the U.S. Congress.
Sadly, the U.S. Supreme Court refused in June, 2008, to consider a petition filed by Defenders of Wildlfe and the Sierra Club contending that waivers invoked by Homeland Security Michael Chertoff under the REAL ID Act of 2005 to allow him to complete the fence by December 31 give "unbounded authority" to the executive branch and are thus unconstitutional.
What you can do: Call your member in the U.S. House of Representatives (Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121) and ask him or her to
Support HR 2593, the "Borderlands Conservation and Security Act," which would, if passed, require full environmental assessment of all border security activities and protect critical international wildlife corridors. The Real I.D. Act exempted the Department of Homeland Security from the necessity of following all federal environmental regulations when building barriers; HR 2593 would end this exemption.
Oppose HR 4987, the "Fence by Date Certain Act," which would, if passed, require the full, double-fencing of 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border no later than June 2009.
As of July 1, 2008, both bills are in committee.
--updated July 1, 2008