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← Mission 04 · Peloncillo FireScape
MTJP CORPS · MORE THAN JUST PARKS ·04
Mission 04 · Coronado National Forest, AZ

Peloncillo FireScape

Coronado National Forest

Timing

The agency stopped taking comments on September 8. What you find still counts: it backs the formal objections from people who did comment, it goes to the lawyers on the fight, and it is the story.

The sentence we think is wrong

“The NMRNR is typically found in steep, rocky canyons with intermittent streams or on talus slopes at elevations from approximately 5,400 to 8,500 feet”

The agency wrote that in its own document, under New Mexico Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake. Nobody has been out to check it. A dated photograph either backs it up or ends it.

How you settle it

Hike into the canyons in the Peloncillo Mountains that the project maps as top rattlesnake ground and photograph what the land actually looks like: rock, talus, canyon walls, stream channels. Wide photos from inside those mapped canyons showing either steep rock and talus with a stream channel, or open gentle ground instead.

The decision

The Coronado National Forest's Douglas Ranger District has finalized an environmental assessment for the Peloncillo FireScape project, which proposes a large-scale ecosystem restoration effort across roughly 85,000 acres in the Peloncillo Mountains. The project includes prescribed fire, mechanical thinning, herbicide use, and watershed improvements. It's now in the 36 CFR 218 pre-decisional object

Read the whole thing, and write to the agency about it

How to record it so it counts

  1. 01Photograph any sign: tracks, scat, feathers, rubs, nests, dens, burrows, carcasses. Put something for scale beside it (a coin, a pole tip, your boot).
  2. 02Photograph the surroundings so the habitat shows.
  3. 03Note the time of day and the weather.
  4. 04Keep your distance from any animal. Never approach a nest or a den.
  5. 05Write down what you think it is and why. If you’re not sure, say so; a photo of unidentified sign is still sign.
What would count
  • Presence, not absence. Sign proves something is there; a quiet walk proves nothing.
  • Scale, time and habitat in the same set.
All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide
Are you going?

Say yes or no. It tells the next person whether anyone has this ground covered, and it is the only way we know a request was answered rather than just read. You can change your mind any time, and nobody follows up.

Join, then say you’re going

Nobody has answered yet

Before you go
  1. Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
  2. Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
  3. Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
  4. Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
  5. If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.