devil's canyon, riparian masterpiece, threatened by a mine

The following info is reprinted with permission from the Maricopa Audubon Society.


The NEPA-exempt proposed Resolution Copper Co. land swap threatens to dewater the Devil’s Canyon’s many mile riparian treasure of Fremont Cottonwood, Goodding Willow, Arizona Black Walnut, Arizona Ash, Arizona White Oak, Arizona Alder, Arizona Sycamore, Coyote Willow, and Arizona Cypress,- studded with Black and Zone-tailed Hawk nests. That legislation would vitiate Endangered Species Act and NHPA laws protecting endangered species and Native American historic and cultural sites. Fall photo: Charles Babbitt.


Devil’s Canyon: Under siege by the proposed Resolution Copper mine land swap, is a riparian masterpiece of springs, wetlands, limpid pools and breathtaking waterfalls. Some 80-90% of Arizona’s riparian wetlands, critical to the survival of Sonoran Desert birds and wildlife, have been destroyed by dams, stream diversions, mining, groundwater pumping, and grazing. Winter photo: Lisa Fitzner

January 11, 2009 heralded a courtroom victory for protecting Arizona’s vanishing Sonoran Desert streams and wetlands from destruction by mining companies, and from keeping toxic mine pollution out of the drinking water supplies of Phoenix. The joyous news was that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case which upheld a lawsuit brought by environmental groups (including the Maricopa Audubon Society).

The Carlota Mine, found culpable by the federal courts, besides polluting Pinto Creek, would dry up the Haunted Canyon riparian gem. Noteworthy birds seen there include the Eared Quetzal (not to be confused with Elegant Trogon). Birdwatchers from afar came to view that rare and exquisitely beautiful Mexican species. It is found in similar canyon habitats in northern Mexico. Carlota is now dewatering and destroying that canyon’s riparian vegetation.

The mine also dewaters and pollutes Pinto Creek and its unique and threatened Sonoran Desert riparian species including the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Carlota is only a few miles east of the proposed ecologically destructive, Resolution Copper Company (RCC) mine. RCC’s proposed congressional land swap would privatize and obliterate much of some 3000 acres of USFS land. It would destroy miles of one of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert riparian jewels, namely, Devil’s Canyon. RCC’s land swap would remove National Environmental Policy Act protections, and vitiate Endangered Species Act and National Historic Preservation Act protections to a treasure-trove of endangered species, riparian habitats, and Native American historic, sacred and cultural sites.

Witness the extraordinary diversity of broad-leaved tree species listed in the attached Devil’s Canyon photo captions. Tragically, the RCC’s proposed swap lands consist of mostly overgrazed, abused USFS/BLM inholdings. RCC’s swap proffers a mesquite forest monoculture adjacent to a dried up, non-flowing, sand-and-desert reach of the San Pedro River. The water table there is too deep for surface stream flow or for broad-leaved deciduous trees, the signature vegetation which makes the San Pedro unique for its birdlife and ecologic diversity.