"The Arizona Daily Star"
Friday, March 8, 2002

"Rid Cabeza refuge of destructive off-roaders"

The pristine Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in western Pima County is being wrecked by off-roaders.
Therefore, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service closes it in the name of recovering the endangered Sonoran pronghorn ("Pronghorn protection promts vast desert closure," March 4).
Except it ignores the main harm: the destructive off-roaders of the U.S. Border Patrol and Joint Task Force Six.
Perhaps Fish and Wildlife does not want people to see the ongoing damage of border militarization?
When will its weak managers stand up to the Border Patrol bullies and protect our natural heritage from the destructive excesses of its border wars?
The real problem is failed border policy that pushes migrants away from towns and into the remote desert, harming the environment and killing people.
This year, crossings are way down, but Attorney General John Ashcroft and other zealots still push seal the border policies that destroy nature and don't work.
Government agents (who drive like Baja 1,000 racers across the fragile desert) are a top stressor for the Pronghorn in Southwestern Arizona.
Closing the Cabeza may help recovery of the elegant pronghorn, but only if the Border Patrol and Joint Task Force Six are kicked out just like the rest of us.

:mad3: Daniel R. Patterson :mad3:
Desert ecologist (Center for Biological Diversity) and conservation chairman, Sierra Club, Ricon Group, Tucson

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If you care to rebut this bonehead "desert ecologist" you can send a letter to the editor of the Arizona Daily Star at:
letters@azstarnet.com

Crowdog
www.crowley-offroad.com