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Last roundup for Anderson Mesa?
By ANNE MINARD and ROB BREEDING, Arizona Daily Sun
07/17/2001
Pronghorn antelope are loath to jump fences, but the Arizona Wildlife Federation still hopes the beleaguered Anderson Mesa herd can make the leap from the brink of extinction back to its former abundance -- even if that means restricting cattle operations in ways that reduce or eliminate the economic viability of grazing.
The federation's challenge to Forest Service cattle grazing allotments on the mesa brought various parties in the debate to a meeting at Sinagua High School Sunday and Monday.
AWF has already appealed the grazing plan for the Young's Canyon allotment at the northern end of the mesa, and it promises similar appeals for allotments grazed by the Hopi Tribe near Ashurst Lake, and further south on the summer range of the Diablo Trust. Antelope use the mesa to fawn in the spring and as summer feeding range.
"We're in it for the long haul," said Jack Simon, legislative liaison for the Arizona Wildlife Federation.
And AWF is clear in its end game. If the group doesn't see the kinds of restrictions on grazing practices it believes are necessary to save Anderson Mesa pronghorn, it is prepared to go to court.
"If we can't work it out, I guess we'll see the Forest Service in court and settle it that way," Simon said.
Anderson Mesa stretches from Walnut Canyon south to Happy Jack. It rises to nearly 7,000 feet and its western escarpment parallels Lake Mary Road to Mormon Lake. To the east it overlooks the sagebrush plains that stretch to Winslow and Highway 87.
Pronghorn on the mesa and the grasslands to the east once numbered in the thousands. But after a decade of lower-than-average rainfall, the population has
plummeted to just a few hundred.
Where Game and Fish counted 1,034 pronghorn in 1990, just 205 were found in 2000. While agency biologists point out the surveys are not an actual census of the unit's pronghorn, they accurately reflect the population trend.
Even more alarming is the precipitous decline in fawn/doe ratios. John Goodwin, game specialist for Game and Fish in Flagstaff, says the herd needs to produce 30 to 40 fawns per 100 does just to maintain itself. In Unit 5B, that number dropped to just one fawn in 1996, and Unit 5B averaged 11.5 fawns in the 1990s.
The snows of last winter preceded more encouraging numbers in the just-completed survey for 2001. The number of pronghorn climbed to 301, and there were 31 fawns counted for every 100 does. Goodwin is pleased to see the increase, but he wants to see another year or two of increasing numbers before he's ready to call it a trend. Before this year's uptick, the consensus was that pronghorn on Anderson Mesa had five, maybe 10 years before the herd vanished.
Accounts vary on just how plentiful antelope were on Anderson Mesa in decades past. Surveys counted from 1,300 to 1,800 pronghorn on Unit 5B, which covers most of the range, in the late 1940s and early '50s. Surveys counted about a thousand antelope on 5B until the winter of 1967, when severe storms killed 85 percent of the herd and just 115 pronghorn remained. Survey numbers crawled back over 1,000 pronghorn in the 1980s.
Fawn-to-doe ratios were also much higher in decades past. Game and Fish surveys frequently produced counts of 60 to 90 fawns per 100 does since the mid-1940s. There have been previous poor fawn survival years, but the decline in the 1990s was unprecedented on Anderson Mesa.
Earlier this year, Don Farmer, past president of AWF and now a member of the organization's antelope committee, spelled out the management changes AWF says are needed to reverse the pronghorn decline.
- Fire needs to be reintroduced to the Anderson Mesa ecosystem so fire-dependent plant species that pronghorn eat can thrive. Fire would also slow the pace of encroaching pinyon and juniper trees, which crowd out the grasses and other plants pronghorn eat.
- Critical pronghorn fawning areas need to be identified, and cattle should be excluded from those areas so sufficient grass cover is available for fawns to hide from predators.
- Fencing on the mesa must be modified to meet antelope-friendly standards. Though physically capable, pronghorn rarely jump fences, preferring to crawl under. But most barbed-wire fencing is too low. An antelope-friendly fence needs a smooth-wire bottom strand no less than 18 inches off the ground.
Simon remains unconvinced the mesa's antelope can coexist with an economically viable cattle operation. The changes sought by AWF may make cattle a losing proposition on the mesa.
"If people can run a cattle operation out there in a manner that doesn't degrade the habitat, that would be fine," Simon said. He just doesn't think that's possible.
Predator control is another possible remedy, Farmer said. Coyotes appear to have taken a big toll on pronghorn fawns, which are helpless in the first few weeks of life and hide in tall grass until they are strong enough to outrun predators.
Aerial gunning of Anderson Mesa coyotes occurred in the early 1980s with some success. A similar program began in 1998, but Game and Fish stopped it after one year when the Flying M Ranch, a Diablo Trust partner, decided not to participate because it was considering signing a predator-friendly beef contract. Norm Wallen, a representative of the Diablo Trust, said the group wanted a more comprehensive solution to predation problems on the pronghorn herd.
Farmer sees the aerial gunning as a Band-Aid that may be needed to keep the animals from disappearing from the mesa. The long-term solution will require a different management philosophy.
"You need to get into some sort of ecosystem management and not be managing pronghorn or mule deer from livestock allotment to livestock allotment, Farmer said. "We need to be looking at Anderson Mesa as a whole and managing pronghorn on a regionwide basis," Farmer said.
Wallen came away from the meeting encouraged at the progress made. At the next meeting on Aug. 19, steps may be taken to start fixing the problem.
"The purpose of the next meeting is specific action plans to be carried out on the ground to improve the situation, particularly with regard to antelope," Wallen said. "There's reason to think that we may get there."
But the AWF's Simon fears action plans will prevent the group from taking on the sacred cow: grazing. AWF views grazing as the common theme in all of the factors implicated in the pronghorn decline. Cattle eat the grass pronghorn fawns need to hide from coyotes. Cattle reduce grass cover, and without fine fuels fire will not burn, resulting in pinyon-juniper encroachment and the decline in fire dependent plant species. And the mesa is criss-crossed by fences for the benefit of cattle.
"Anytime somebody mentioned the subject, then you had groups that got very upset," Simon said. "They don't want to talk about grazing, they don't want to talk about what's causing the changes in the habitat out there."
Rob Breeding can be reached at 556-2263, or by e-mail at rbreeding@azdailysun.com. Anne Minard can be reached at 556-2253 or by e-mail at aminard@azdailysun.com.
By ANNE MINARD and ROB BREEDING, Arizona Daily Sun
07/17/2001
Pronghorn antelope are loath to jump fences, but the Arizona Wildlife Federation still hopes the beleaguered Anderson Mesa herd can make the leap from the brink of extinction back to its former abundance -- even if that means restricting cattle operations in ways that reduce or eliminate the economic viability of grazing.
The federation's challenge to Forest Service cattle grazing allotments on the mesa brought various parties in the debate to a meeting at Sinagua High School Sunday and Monday.
AWF has already appealed the grazing plan for the Young's Canyon allotment at the northern end of the mesa, and it promises similar appeals for allotments grazed by the Hopi Tribe near Ashurst Lake, and further south on the summer range of the Diablo Trust. Antelope use the mesa to fawn in the spring and as summer feeding range.
"We're in it for the long haul," said Jack Simon, legislative liaison for the Arizona Wildlife Federation.
And AWF is clear in its end game. If the group doesn't see the kinds of restrictions on grazing practices it believes are necessary to save Anderson Mesa pronghorn, it is prepared to go to court.
"If we can't work it out, I guess we'll see the Forest Service in court and settle it that way," Simon said.
Anderson Mesa stretches from Walnut Canyon south to Happy Jack. It rises to nearly 7,000 feet and its western escarpment parallels Lake Mary Road to Mormon Lake. To the east it overlooks the sagebrush plains that stretch to Winslow and Highway 87.
Pronghorn on the mesa and the grasslands to the east once numbered in the thousands. But after a decade of lower-than-average rainfall, the population has
plummeted to just a few hundred.
Where Game and Fish counted 1,034 pronghorn in 1990, just 205 were found in 2000. While agency biologists point out the surveys are not an actual census of the unit's pronghorn, they accurately reflect the population trend.
Even more alarming is the precipitous decline in fawn/doe ratios. John Goodwin, game specialist for Game and Fish in Flagstaff, says the herd needs to produce 30 to 40 fawns per 100 does just to maintain itself. In Unit 5B, that number dropped to just one fawn in 1996, and Unit 5B averaged 11.5 fawns in the 1990s.
The snows of last winter preceded more encouraging numbers in the just-completed survey for 2001. The number of pronghorn climbed to 301, and there were 31 fawns counted for every 100 does. Goodwin is pleased to see the increase, but he wants to see another year or two of increasing numbers before he's ready to call it a trend. Before this year's uptick, the consensus was that pronghorn on Anderson Mesa had five, maybe 10 years before the herd vanished.
Accounts vary on just how plentiful antelope were on Anderson Mesa in decades past. Surveys counted from 1,300 to 1,800 pronghorn on Unit 5B, which covers most of the range, in the late 1940s and early '50s. Surveys counted about a thousand antelope on 5B until the winter of 1967, when severe storms killed 85 percent of the herd and just 115 pronghorn remained. Survey numbers crawled back over 1,000 pronghorn in the 1980s.
Fawn-to-doe ratios were also much higher in decades past. Game and Fish surveys frequently produced counts of 60 to 90 fawns per 100 does since the mid-1940s. There have been previous poor fawn survival years, but the decline in the 1990s was unprecedented on Anderson Mesa.
Earlier this year, Don Farmer, past president of AWF and now a member of the organization's antelope committee, spelled out the management changes AWF says are needed to reverse the pronghorn decline.
- Fire needs to be reintroduced to the Anderson Mesa ecosystem so fire-dependent plant species that pronghorn eat can thrive. Fire would also slow the pace of encroaching pinyon and juniper trees, which crowd out the grasses and other plants pronghorn eat.
- Critical pronghorn fawning areas need to be identified, and cattle should be excluded from those areas so sufficient grass cover is available for fawns to hide from predators.
- Fencing on the mesa must be modified to meet antelope-friendly standards. Though physically capable, pronghorn rarely jump fences, preferring to crawl under. But most barbed-wire fencing is too low. An antelope-friendly fence needs a smooth-wire bottom strand no less than 18 inches off the ground.
Simon remains unconvinced the mesa's antelope can coexist with an economically viable cattle operation. The changes sought by AWF may make cattle a losing proposition on the mesa.
"If people can run a cattle operation out there in a manner that doesn't degrade the habitat, that would be fine," Simon said. He just doesn't think that's possible.
Predator control is another possible remedy, Farmer said. Coyotes appear to have taken a big toll on pronghorn fawns, which are helpless in the first few weeks of life and hide in tall grass until they are strong enough to outrun predators.
Aerial gunning of Anderson Mesa coyotes occurred in the early 1980s with some success. A similar program began in 1998, but Game and Fish stopped it after one year when the Flying M Ranch, a Diablo Trust partner, decided not to participate because it was considering signing a predator-friendly beef contract. Norm Wallen, a representative of the Diablo Trust, said the group wanted a more comprehensive solution to predation problems on the pronghorn herd.
Farmer sees the aerial gunning as a Band-Aid that may be needed to keep the animals from disappearing from the mesa. The long-term solution will require a different management philosophy.
"You need to get into some sort of ecosystem management and not be managing pronghorn or mule deer from livestock allotment to livestock allotment, Farmer said. "We need to be looking at Anderson Mesa as a whole and managing pronghorn on a regionwide basis," Farmer said.
Wallen came away from the meeting encouraged at the progress made. At the next meeting on Aug. 19, steps may be taken to start fixing the problem.
"The purpose of the next meeting is specific action plans to be carried out on the ground to improve the situation, particularly with regard to antelope," Wallen said. "There's reason to think that we may get there."
But the AWF's Simon fears action plans will prevent the group from taking on the sacred cow: grazing. AWF views grazing as the common theme in all of the factors implicated in the pronghorn decline. Cattle eat the grass pronghorn fawns need to hide from coyotes. Cattle reduce grass cover, and without fine fuels fire will not burn, resulting in pinyon-juniper encroachment and the decline in fire dependent plant species. And the mesa is criss-crossed by fences for the benefit of cattle.
"Anytime somebody mentioned the subject, then you had groups that got very upset," Simon said. "They don't want to talk about grazing, they don't want to talk about what's causing the changes in the habitat out there."
Rob Breeding can be reached at 556-2263, or by e-mail at rbreeding@azdailysun.com. Anne Minard can be reached at 556-2253 or by e-mail at aminard@azdailysun.com.
