Forest Guardians
Forest Guardians is leading the fight to protect and restore the forests, rivers, grasslands and wilderness of the
Southwest. Years of grassroots efforts to map forests, riparian zones, wildlife
habitat, and vegetation communities in the Southwest, have resulted in
an extensive collection
of both hardcopy and digital layers at various scales.
This information has been extremely valuable to activists and organizations working to stop
destructive practices and develop a vision of land management that is both
long range and science-based. Much of this map information will be available
either as an on-line resource or through Forest Guardians, for a reasonable fee.
A century of unregulated mining, logging, grazing, dam construction
- and economic development focused solely on growth, corporate profits
and urbanization - are depleting our life support system.
GIS Capacity: Forest Guardians has obtained full GIS (Geographic
Information System) capability, due to the generosity of ESRI Inc., Hewlett-Packard
and the Conservation Technology Support program. We are presently using
both ArcView and ArcInfo on the workstation and PC platforms to support
appeals and litigation, as well as guide our proactive conservation planning
work.
Years of grassroots efforts to map forests, riparian zones, wildlife
habitat, and vegetation communities in the Southwest, have resulted in
an extensive collection of both hardcopy and digital layers at various
scales. This information has been extremely valuable to activists and organizations
working to stop destructive practices and develop a vision of land management
that is both long range and science-based.
Much of this map information will be available either as an on-line resource
or through Forest Guardians, for a reasonable fee.
This site lists many of our electronic and hard copy maps, including
information on purchasing and using these map products.
SOUTHWESTERN WILDLANDS INITIATIVE:
Forest Guardians is coordinating an alliance of over 25 scientific, community
and environmental organizations, working in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New
Mexico and Northern Mexico. The goal of this alliance is to develop map-based
wildlands recovery strategies for each of the Southwest's ecological provinces.
The SWI has been created to harmonize existing grassroots efforts to protect
forests, rivers, deserts and grasslands, within a scientific framework.
We apply principles of conservation biology and ecosystem management that have
been ignored for too long by natural resource agencies. As our understanding of
the ecological impacts of livestock grazing in the arid west has evolved, a
compromise that once seemed expedient is, today, an anachronism.
In addition, even though the environmental community compromised on wilderness
ranching, we have gained nothing in return. Today, the ranching community
is leading the fight to dismantle the Endangered Species Act and opposes
all additions to the National Wilderness System. ..."Impacts of long
term overgrazing has deteriorated the ecosystems such that biodiversity
and productivity in both riparian and uplands are 20% of potential."
— U.S. Forest Service, Southwestern Region. Wilderness Report 1995.
Cleaning Dirty Waters: The Rio Grande, Pecos, San Juan, San Francisco
and Gila watersheds - as well as a dozen streams that supply drinking water
to towns and cities - are targeted for clean up as a result of a Forest
Guardians lawsuit. Within the next decade, a detailed water quality restoration
plan and pollution limits for each of these critical watersheds will be
in place. Setting pollution standards for each of these rivers will help
protect drinking water supplies and imperiled aquatic species.
Streams are the arteries of life in the arid Southwest. Today these
once biologically rich areas are in the "worst shape in history,"
according to the EPA, the result of being clogged with cattle for a century
or more. The cottonwood/willow gallery forest has declined by an estimated
95% from pre-settlement times.
River forests provide clean water and critical wildlife habitat despite making
up only 1% of the arid southwest. They help prevent floods, filter sediments,
and meter out water in times of drought. Healthy streamside woodlands are
highly valued by recreationists, who are attracted to the cool shade, clean
water, diverse wildlife, and scenery.
Streamside areas are also centers of biodiversity. Seventy-five percent of all our endangered
wildlife depend upon healthy streams and remnant river forests. The Gila
and Apache trout, the Southwest willow flycatcher and the Meadow jumping
mouse are just a few of the southwest's endangered wildlife dependent upon
healthy streams and stream side forests.
Text and graphics: Forest Guardians
January 2, 1997
Forest Guardians
1413 Second St., Suite 1
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Tel: (505) 988-9126
Email: swwild@fguardians.org
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