Game and Fish is Harsh in Rosemont Opposition
By Tony Davis, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
Jul. 21–Hello, Rosemont Mine, goodbye wildlife in the northern Santa Rita Mountains.
That’s the conclusion of an unusually harsh letter from the state’s wildlife agency to the U.S. Forest Service on the proposed 4,400-acre mine.
No matter what the federal government and Augusta Resources do to compensate for the copper mine’s effects, the project would bring significant damage to wildlife, habitat and wildlife recreation, said the letter from the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
"We believe that the project will render the northern portion of the Santa Rita Mountains virtually worthless as wildlife habitat and as a functioning ecosystem, and thus also worthless for wildlife recreation," said the letter, written earlier this month by Joan Scott, habitat program manager for the department’s Tucson office. "Furthermore, the project has great potential to impact wildlife and habitat off the forest."
The letter took strong issue with the company’s mining plan of operations, which predicted "disruption to wildlife habitat and use will be minimal" and that the mine would not significantly reduce hunting in the area.
"The amount of land disturbance, traffic, noise, light and general mining activities will completely disrupt wildlife in the area," the letter said.
The letter was one of 3,000 to 4,000 public comments the Forest Service has received on the proposed mine as it prepared to start work on its environmental review of Rosemont. Officially, the public-comment period that is part of the service’s "scoping" process for the mine closed a week ago. The review will be finished when the agency publishes an environmental-impact statement on the mine at an unknown time.
The service and Augusta officials declined to respond in detail to Scott’s letter because it is the start of the environmental review process.
U.S. to respond in document
The federal agency recently invited Game and Fish to take part as one of several cooperating government agencies in producing the environmental study. The Forest Service will respond to this letter as part of its environmental document.
Augusta is pleased that Game and Fish took the time to review the mine project and express its concerns, the company said in a written statement.
"Now it is up to the Forest Service to analyze the comments as part of the Environmental Impact Statement process," Augusta said. "It is nice to see that scoping is working."
In an interview, Scott predicted that once the mine is built, many existing deer, mountain lions and other wildlife will be driven away and will eventually die because there won’t be enough food and water for them.
"A deer won’t be killed on the site when they build a mine, but it will obviously move into adjacent habitat," Scott said. "If there’s too many deer, some will die. . . . If you move more deer into a place with the same amount of food, only the same amount of deer will survive."
Wildlife forced out
One reason the entire area will be rendered worthless for wildlife, Scott contended, is that after pulling out the private-mining land and Forest Service land that would be affected by mining, truck noise, explosions and other disruptions, "there’s not much left there" in the way of Forest Service land.
She is concerned that the Forest Service will not want to keep that as part of the forest anymore and will end up trading it all off, since it won’t be able to manage the remaining land as an ecosystem, Scott said.
"Human population and urban and rural development are growing at such a rate that there will soon be a time when the only land left for the public to use for recreation, and the only land left for wildlife, will be the public land," Scott’s letter said. "Because the Arizona Game and Fish Department is charged with the management and protection of Arizona’s wildlife, we cannot support any action that will mean the loss of a significant piece of wildlife habitat on public land."
The tone of Scott’s letter is unusual for a state agency that often doesn’t take positions on major land-use disputes. But it matches the opposition that has come to Rosemont from the Tucson area’s two U.S. House members, all state legislators representing the area, the Tucson City Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
In addition, Gov. Janet Napolitano has written a letter in support of proposed federal legislation that would withdraw from mining activity the forest lands planned for the mine — thus killing the project.
"While mining will always be a vital part of Arizona’s economy, there are certain places (such as Rosemont) where mining is simply not appropriate," Napolitano wrote to U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, the Tucson Democrat who wrote that proposed federal legislation. "While there is a clear need to maintain a vital mining industry in Arizona, we must balance that with environmental concerns — we cannot return to mining practices of the past and leave our communities in an economic and environmental crisis," the governor wrote.
500 jobs
Supporters of the project have pointed to the 500 jobs it would directly create, along with hundreds more spinoff jobs, such as mine supplies, that would be indirectly generated. They’ve also noted that Rosemont would produce more than 5 percent of the United States’ total copper supply and would be one of only 25 copper mines in this country.
"Opponents of the project compare the impacts of the project based on mining operations designed and built 30 to 50 years ago, ignoring the advances in reclamation technology, environmental regulations and pollution-prevention alternatives available today," said a petition in support of the mine, whose nearly 900 signatures were gathered by AMIGOS, an Arizona group representing mining industry suppliers.
"Supporters of the project realize to maintain our way of life in a competitive world, we will need to develop domestic mineral resources, use sustainable technologies, and provide employment opportunities for our growing populations to come."
Reclamation found ineffective
But Scott’s letter said Game and Fish officials have never seen successful, full-scale reclamation of mining land in Arizona’s dry habitats. In deserts and other dry areas, the plant life destroyed by the mine had developed over hundreds of years, and it is virtually impossible to re-establish that same vegetation quickly, Scott wrote.
"There is always a legitimate reason for the lack of reclamation, e.g., the mine is staying open to extract ore in the future, or the original company declared bankruptcy and is no longer responsible," Scott wrote. "When this happens, the wildlife and the public who enjoy that wildlife are always the losers."
If the mine is approved, the Forest Service should acquire a block of contiguous natural land next to the Coronado National Forest equal in size and wildlife value to all the forest land north of Box Canyon in the Santa Ritas that the mine would affect, Scott wrote.
"Since we cannot imagine where that piece of land could be found and purchased, we do not believe it is in the public interest to permit this mine," she concluded.
The Rosemont copper mine
–Would be located on 4,415 acres near the northern Santa Rita Mountains, including 995 acres of private land, 3,330 acres of national forest land, 15 acres of Bureau of Land Management land and 75 acres of state land.
–About 75,000 tons of copper ore and 195,000 to 267,000 tons of waste rock would be removed daily over a 20-year period from a 1.2-square-mile open pit for the project.
Northern Santa Rita Mountains wildlife and habitat
–Mule and white-tailed deer, javelinas, mountain lions, black bears, coyotes, rabbits and quail all live in the area where the mine is planned, and most of them are legally hunted.
–The area is a blend of oak woodland, mainly north of Mount Wrightson — the Santa Ritas’ signature, 9,400-foot-high peak — and native grasslands. In the oak woodland, oaks, shrubs and native grasses mix with agaves, prickly pears, and rainbow and hedgehog cacti.
–The semidesert grasslands include such native bunchgrasses as Arizona cottontop and side oats grama, mesquite and agaves, along with desert willow and hackberry trees in washes and other drainage areas.
–Davidson Canyon, which is fed by a tributary from the mine area, is home to the lowland leopard frog and longfin dace, considered sensitive species by various government agencies. It is also likely home to such other sensitive species as the yellow-billed cuckoo, the endangered lesser long-nosed bat and the Bell’s vireo.
–Cienega Creek, of which Davidson is a tributary, plays host to the endangered Gila topminnow and Gila chub fish, the Mexican garter snake– now under consideration as a possible federally protected species — and the yellow-billed cuckoo, a candidate for federal protection. It also contains the dace, the leopard frog and five other sensitive species.
–Contact reporter Tony Davis at 806-7746 or tdavis@azstarnet.com.
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