The last chapter closed with Jeanine Derby, the Coronado National Forest Supervisor, issueing a memo indicating that the Coronado National Forest will honor the agreements with climbers regarding the closures in Cochise Stronghold. This would mean that Rockfellow dome and Cochise dome would be closed from March 1 to June 30 (not February 15 to June 30). The Square-tops are open to climbing as well as the Waterfall Dome. Although I do not have any information to indicate otherwise, I do not believe the official closure order for the stronghold has been changed.
Another season begins. Rick Gerhart has replaced Larry Jones as the Wildlife, Fish and Rare Plants Staff Officer for the Coronado National Forest. I have had very little contact with Rick, so this may end up being a short chapter. I am not aware of any other personnel changes within the Coronado National Forest.
As with the previous chapters, the documentation in this web page is mainly the e-mail exchange between myself the Forest Service.
My e-mail to Rick Gerhart (Forest Service):
Richard,
My name is Robert Hutchins. I run a small, local climbing website called climbaz.com. As I understand it, you are the Manager for the Wildlife, Fish, and Rare Plants program - replacing Larry Jones.
I am writing to inquire about the status of climbing area closures within the Coronado National Forest for 2010. Are there any changes for 2010 versus 2009?
Any information would be appreciated,
Thanks, Bob
The e-mail received from Rick:
Bob
Apologies for the delayed response. At this time I don't anticipate any changes for 2010.
Rick
My return e-mail to Rick:
Rick,
Thanks for your reply.
I had a question... In early 2008, I was invited to attend a meeting on the Peregrine Falcon by Tom Skinner. There were several representatives from the forest service (Tom, Josh Taiz, Glenn Klingler), Tim Snow of the Az. Game and Fish, and Robert Mesta of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Is it possible to set up a similar meeting either later this year or early in 2010? In 2008, I was fairly new to the Peregrine Falcon issue and I have become much more familiar with the issues since then.
Some of the issues that I am struggling with are:
1. The mis-match between the official closure orders and the message that I receive from the Forest Service about the closures - specifically regarding the Rockfellow group in Cochise Stronghold. He is a link describing the problem:
http://www.climbaz.com/features/closures/stronghold_2009.html
2. I am especially interested in hearing the status of the Peregrine Falcon population in Arizona and in the U.S. In 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service should have monitored the status nationally. I have not seen a copy of the report (note that the 2003 monitoring results were posted on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service website in 2006). Also, in 2009, the Peregrine Falcon population should have been surveyed again. Did this happen?
3. I do not understand the legality of the closure orders and I do not appreciate the difficulty in changing them. I would like to get a better feeling on the work involved in changing the closure orders.
4. I do not understand the closures on Barnum Rock. From what I heard from Josh in 2008, the Barnum rock closures were for both the Mexican Spotted Owl and the Peregrine falcon. Since the closure is much longer on Barnum rock than for the other areas, I assume that the extra length of the closure is due to the Mexican Spotted Owl. This doesn't make much sense to me since I do not believe the Mexican Spotted owl nests or lives on rock formations. Perhaps I am wrong and one of the biologists could explain the rationale to me.
I would be glad to set up a conference room at the Arizona Science and Technology park if we could get the interested parties to attend - yourself, Josh, Glenn, Tim Snow and Robert Mesta. It would also be O.K. to meet at Sabino Canyon like we did in 2008. I think Tom Skinner used the meeting to say that he had reviewed the climbing closures with the climbing community.
Anyway, hopefully we can meet soon,
- Bob
...and that's the status as of November 20, 2009... No response from Rick yet.