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>From (unusually, considering a US site is involved) UKBirdnet.

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>
>ACTION ALERT
>PUBLIC COMMENT NEEDED TO SAVE THE SAN PEDRO RIVER
>WORLDS FIRST "GLOBALLY IMPORTANT BIRDING AREA"
>
>1) NEWS BRIEF
>2) POINTS TO INCLUDE IN YOUR COMMENTS
>3) BACKGROUNDER "The San Pedro River to be NAFTA Test Case"
>
>*****
>1) NEWS BRIEF
>
>On 6-15-98, NAFTA's Commission for Environmental Cooperation released
>a public review draft of its long awaited scientific assessment of
>water depletion in the upper San Pedro River. Entitled "Sustaining and
>Enhancing Riparian Migratory Bird Habitat on the Upper San Pedro
>River," the report concludes that the river will dry up, destroying
>the nation's first Riparian National Conservation area if serious
>efforts are not taken to curtail urban sprawl, superfluous
>agriculture, and excessive water pumping.
>
>This is the first time the NAFTA panel has reviewed an environmental
>problem in the United States. It did so in response to a petition
>under Article 13 by the Southwest Center represented by EarthLaw.
>Public comments on the draft are being accepted until August 14, 1998.
>
>YOUR COMMENTS ARE NEEDED! The CEC is only soliciting comments from
>within the river basin itself, which is dominated by developers and
>the military, thereby attempting to stack the weight of comments
>against major policy reforms. You can read the report and submit
>comments from the Southwest Center's web page
>http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/sanpedro.html
>
>*****
>2) POINTS TO INCLUDE IN YOUR COMMENTS:
>
>After a sound scientific study of water problem on the San Pedro the
>draft report, "Sustaining and Enhancing the Riparian Migratory Bird
>Habitat on the Upper San Pedro River" goes on to make some rather
>unsound recommendations. While we encourage everyone to read the draft
>report and come up with their own comments we also have identified
>what we think are the most important points regarding the CEC report.
>
>Please include the following in your comments:
>
> BALANCE THE WATER BUDGET! Uncontrolled growth is sucking all the
>water. Fort Huachuca is a main source of uncontrolled growth in Sierra
>Vista it must balance the water budget. If the Fort can't operate
>without a water deficit, it must be closed.
>
> CREATE AN "ACTIVE MANAGEMENT AREA" in the San Pedro basin. Sierra
>Vista is one of the only metro areas in Arizona that doesn't have an
>AMA. Most AMAs state that you can not drill a well or build a
>development unless you can demonstrate you have an 'assured water
>supply' that will not negatively effect the aquifer. Until an AMA is
>established there will be no way to keep developers from pushing
>unsustainable growth.
>
> DON'T MOVE THE CONSERVATION AREA TO ALLOW THE RIVER TO DIE. One
>suggestion is to "shift" the riparian conservation area southward,
>away from the portion of river most immediately threatened by over
>pumping. This is supposed to allow the continued destruction of the
>river, while "saving" the conservation area. Such thinking is
>narrow-minded in the extreme. A better solution is to expand to SPRNCA
>to include more of the river, including the area that crosses the
>international boundary. This will provide an incentive to control
>water depletion in the entire upper river basin and provide better,
>more secure wildlife habitat and open space.
>
> NO IMPORTED WATER! Importing water from the Tombstone pipeline, the
>Douglas Basin, or CAP is a temporary "solution" that will only cause
>water problems in other areas and fuel unsustainable growth.
>
> RETIRE AGRICULTURE WITHIN THE BASIN. Irrigated agriculture makes up
>a very small part of the local economy. The Bureau of Land Management
>and the Nature Conservancy have already retired some agricultural
>lands, it's time to retire the rest.
>
>*****
>3) BACKGROUNDER
>(feel free to reproduce this article - please notify us if you do -
>Thank you.)
>
>The San Pedro River to be NAFTA Test Case
>by Al Anderson, Huachuca Audubon Society, and Naomi Mudge, Southwest
>Center for Biological Diversity
>
>The San Pedro River is a 140-mile-long green "ribbon of life" running
>through a semi-arid desert. Host to mesquite bosque and the
>Southwest's largest remaining stand of cottonwood/willow
>riparian-forest, this river is a virtual highway for animals. This
>wildlife corridor supports more than 400 bird species, 100 butterfly
>species, 83 mammal species and 47 amphibian and reptile species,
>including the second highest land-mammal diversity in the world,
>second only to the montane forests of Costa Rica. It is the principal
>recovery area for many endangered species including the jaguar,
>Southwestern willow flycatcher, as well as endangered native fish and
>plants. Riparian areas (where water is near or at the surface) are
>virtual oases of life in the desert and more than one-half of all bird
>species found in the United States frequent the San Pedro River. With
>headwaters in Cananea, Mexico, the San Pedro has international
>significance.
>
>Because of the biological importance of the San Pedro, in particular
>its importance to migratory birds, the U.S. Congress created the San
>Pedro National Riparian Conservation Area in 1988. Since then it has
>been named as the first "Globally Important Bird Area" in North
>America (American Bird Conservancy).
>
>The San Pedro River receives much of its water from the Sierra Vista
>sub-watershed regional aquifer. Sierra Vista, a growing southwestern
>city, also uses this aquifer as does nearby Fort Huachuca. The area's
>inhabitants ground pump water before it reaches the river. Decreased
>flows of the San Pedro have led to an increase in dry sections of the
>stream bed. Hydrologists predict dire consequences for the river's
>survival if the trend continues; the base-flows have decreased 75% in
>the last 50 years. Growth from the U.S. Army's Fort Huachuca remains
>the greatest short-term threat to the river. Uncontrolled growth
>remains the greatest long-term threat.
>
>Because both the San Pedro and the wildlife that depend on it cross
>the U.S./Mexico border, threats to the river have international
>implications. The Montreal-based Commission for Environmental
>Cooperation (CEC) has been established as part of an environmental
>side-accord to the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA). For the
>first time the CEC has examined an environmental issue originating in
>the U.S., the threat to the San Pedro. Their draft report, titled:
>"Sustaining and Enhancing Riparian Migratory Bird Habitat on the Upper
>San Pedro River," was released June 15 and they are now in the process
>of collecting public comment on the report. Ultimately the report is
>intended to promote cooperative efforts to recognize and protect
>habitats of special continental importance; to catalyze and call
>attention to existing efforts to protect such resources and to educate
>a broader public of North Americans about the importance of the
>sustainable management of valued trans-boundary resources.
>
>Comments on the San Pedro report will be taken until August 15. Please
>write in and tell them why the river is important. To read and comment
>on the report you can visit the Southwest Center for Biological
>Diversity page at:
>
>http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/sanpedro.html
>
>or you can write to Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy,
>University of Arizona, 803/811 E. First Street, Tucson, AZ 85719,
>(520)621-7189 fax: (520) 621-9234, email moote at u.arizona.edu
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