Jaguars versus the border fenceby Hugh Holub on Jun. 29, 2011, under endangered species act, politics
The goal is apparently to eliminate any barriers to jaguar migration between Mexico and Arizona, and to introduce jaguars into southern and eastern Arizona.
This is all based on one jaguar wandering over onto a ranch on the Arizona – Sonora border and claims other jaguars used to live in the region.
Those claims are dubious as evidence was submitted to US Fish and Wildlife that other jaguars reported in the state were planted here by hunting guides.
Nevertheless, the jaguar is yet another poster critter to try and create a fantasy world of wildlife in the area and impose huge restrictions on human activity in the region.
What is especially interesting is the goal of not letting fencing the border interfere with jaguar migration.
I’m sure the drug cartels love this idea, predators that they are.
Here is an example of the clamor to put the jaguar ahead of border security in the region:
Early in 2010, the US Fish & Wildlife Service announced that it will prepare a recovery plan for the jaguar. We support this decision and call for a conservation program led by the Service to restore the jaguar within its historic range in the United States.
The jaguar has inhabited North America for over 500,000 years. In historic times, it lived in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, with some reports from Louisiana and elsewhere. Jaguars were decimated by hunting and by efforts to exterminate wild predators. Recent reports of the great cat have been limited to southern Arizona and New Mexico.
We strongly urge the Service to undertake a jaguar recovery program that includes the following essential actions:
1. Protect habitat linkages . As a large, mobile animal, the jaguar needs areas of relatively open country that connect its primary range, such as mountains, canyons, and other remote terrain. These “habitat linkages” are threatened by land development, urban sprawl, highways without wildlife crossings, and other factors that radically change the natural character of the land. The Service should begin a comprehensive effort with counties, highway departments, public land managers, private landowners, conservation organizations, and others to ensure that “travel corridors” for the jaguar are protected.
2. Conserve our wild lands. The United States has large blocks of wildlife habitat that can provide the jaguar adequate food, water, areas for seclusion and security, and sites for breeding and rearing of offspring. These areas typically encompass our national forests and other public lands. Many of these lands are being degraded or destroyed by mining, road construction, energy development, off-road vehicles, overgrazing, and other factors. The Service should lead a concerted effort to protect the integrity of “core habitat areas” for the jaguar. Wild land areas as well as habitat linkages needed for jaguar recovery in the U.S. should receive special conservation attention by the Service as “critical habitat.”
3. Ensure that jaguars can roam freely between the US and Mexico . The construction of fencing and other activities along the international border with Mexico have resulted in a barrier to jaguar movement between the two countries. The Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior should engage the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in recovery planning to limit barrier fencing and avoid construction sites and high intensity activities in areas that may be traversed by jaguars.
4. Pursue joint recovery efforts with Mexico . The conservation and expansion of a small jaguar population in Sonora, Mexico (located about 130 miles south of the border) is very important to the recovery of the jaguar in the U.S. The Service should work closely with Mexico on how best to conserve contiguous jaguar habitat and protect jaguars from poachers in the border region. We encourage the Service to propose an international conservation area for the borderlands that would protect the jaguar and other wildlife while enhancing relations and security between our two countries.
5. Develop the option to rebuild jaguar numbers and range through reintroduction. Reintroduction of endangered species in order to rebuild depleted or extinguished populations is a common practice in wildlife conservation today. The Service should fully consider reintroduction if natural migration of jaguars from Mexico, particularly females, appears unlikely in the foreseeable future.
6. Act now . We call upon the Service to provide extraordinary leadership and move with utmost urgency in developing and implementing a jaguar recovery program. The jaguar was officially recognized as an endangered species 13 years ago. A recovery program with habitat protection for the jaguar is long overdue.
Prepared by Dr. Tony Povilitis email: email@example.com
And this from the WildLands Network:
Cross-Border Corridor Protection
Wildlands Network has been a leader in the effort to raise awareness of wildlife corridors fragmentation resulting from the construction of security infrastructure along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and New Mexico. Wildlands Network and its partners have organized and convened several Border Ecological Symposiums that have brought together a broad range of stakeholders. Together, we have also acted as a founding sponsor of the Without Walls coalition, developed detailed recommendations yes”> for placement of security infrastructure, identified cross-border wildlife corridors, and promoted legislation to halt federal exemptions to environmental laws that have allowed wall construction to proceed without public input or review under the National Environmental Policy Act.