Aldo Leopold
"Sand County Almanac"

The Board of Directors of the National Audubon Society on June 10th adopted a livestock grazing resolution pertaining to those public lands, which belong to all the people of the United States.  Some 23 of the 29 state-listed threatened birds in Arizona have grazing listed as one of the causes of their imperilment by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.  By comparison only three are listed as having logging impacts.  Hence, one quickly realizes how significant government management of cattle grazing is upon bird survival throughout the western U.S.

There are about 260 million acres of BLM and USFS land in the U.S.  This is the equivalent of 14 eastern seaboard states plus Missouri.   Roughly 90% of BLM land and 70% of western USFS land is grazed.  53% of Arizona is public land (42% is federal and 13% state land). The low rainfall of most western states makes grazing a marginal enterprise.  But grazing is an ecologically devastating factor in desertification, riparian and watershed destruction, soil erosion, and exotic plant invasion.

This resolution should not be seen as an issue to most U.S. beef and livestock producers. 97% of U.S. beef is raised on private lands and only 3% on public lands. For example, Iowa, on private land, produces more pounds of beef than all the cattle produced on all the western states' public (BLM and USFS) lands. The Audubon resolution will be a helpful policy guideline for husbandry of those public lands, which belong to all the citizens of this nation.

Our Arizona Audubon chapters and our Arizona Audubon Council are particularly grateful to our regional intermountain states representative on the Audubon National Board, John Bellmon, of Salt Lake City, who ably assisted in bringing this resolution to fruition.  Here is the resolution:

National Audubon Society
Policy on Livestock Grazing 
State & Federal Lands

Policy Overview

The guiding principle governing the administration of public lands where grazing is permitted should be the conservation, restoration and maintenance of their natural biological diversity.  Any policy relating to livestock grazing on public lands must be consistent with this objective.  Audubon recognizes that there may be alternative strategies for addressing the impact of grazing on public lands.  We support effective strategies consistent with the principles and guidelines outlined in this document.

Pinciples

The public lands are our nation's greatest remaining repository of natural wildlife and wild places.

All users of public lands have the potential to cause significant disturbance to natural ecosystems and habitats.  Land managers have a particular responsibility for this stewardship.  All users of these public lands have a responsibility to act as stewards of these lands.  Most uses of these public lands are privileges, not legal rights, and must be recognized as such.

Some uses of public lands for commodity resources are granted at below-market economic costs.  This practice discourages environmental sustainability and should be reformed.

A sustainable ecosystem approach to public land management affords the best prospect of assuring the economic viability and stability of these lands.

The National Audubon Society ("Audubon") believes that the restoration and conservation of natural biological diversity on public land ecosystems must become a fundamental principle guiding all multiple uses of public lands. All public land management must be designed to restore and maintain healthy, functioning ecosystems in balance with human uses.  Any policy relating to grazing on public lands must embrace this perspective.

Specifically, public agencies should seek to recover and maintain:

a)         Natural richness and abundance of native plant and animal species;

b)         Natural structure, dynamics and resilience of communities of native plant and animal species;

c)         Natural retention of rainfall in soils, riparian and wetlands ecosystems and aquifers;

d)         Natural conditions of soil stability, depth, composition and chemistry;

e)         Natural conditions of water flow and stream channel structure in rivers and riparian ecosystems;

f)          Uncontaminated surface and subsurface waters;

g)         Undisturbed historic and archeological sites; and,

h)         Natural aesthetic and scenic conditions.

IMPLEMENTING GUIDELINES

1.         Livestock grazing on public lands is a privilege to be integrated with other uses and to assure

(continued on page 13)

ARIZONA SPECIAL SPECIES:  EARED TROGON

By Jim Burns

Eared Trogon, a rare and local endemic in the mountains of northwest Mexico, was not recorded in the states until 1977.  It is instructive that this first record was for October in Cave Creek Canyon of Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains.  Since that time there have been about two dozen confirmed sightings north of the border, all in Arizona, well over half in the months of August, September, and October, most of them in our state's "Mexican Mountains," the Chiricahuas, the Huachucas, and the Santa Ritas.

Because Eared Trogon is notorious as a late summer-early fall nester, if you don't have a life now is the time to search.  This species utilizes cavities in large trees, typically high on canyon slopes in pine/oak forest.  The only confirmed Arizona nest was found in Hamburg Meadow in October of '91.  The failure of that nest was attributed to a combination of intrusive birder activity and an early cold front which brought rain and hail to the area.  If you find an Eared Trogon, call the hotline.  If you find an Eared Trogon nest, leave quietly, rejoice privately, and do not call the hotline.

This species' common name derives from its inconspicuous postocular (extending behind the eye) plumes.  Though similar in color and shape to the highly sought and much more common Elegant Trogon of Arizona's southern mountains, Eared Trogon belongs to a different genus and is more closely related to the quetzals of Central and South America.  Indeed, in Mexico this bird is called Eared Quetzal.  Like the Elegant Trogon, Eareds subsist primarily on fruits and insects.  They are known to flycatch from exposed perches and hoverpluck berries from fruiting trees.

Eared Trogons have a variety of vocalizations, none of them anything like the coarse, almost raven-like two syllable "Kwah" of Elegants.  Several sightings of Eareds have occurred because birders have heard the strange calls first and gone hunting the source.  The most common of these calls is the "squeal-chuk" which sounds like a grackle with hiccups.  Another is one reminiscent of Northern Pygmy-Owl, though louder and more ringing, with a faster cadence.

Anyone who has spent a morning following the voice of an Elegant Trogon through creekside sycamores without glimpsing the bird will be well prepared for the frustrations of looking for Eared Trogon.  Eareds are much more skittish than Elegants and they are more likely to hop over a ridge and disappear than to follow a drainage.  They tend to forage at mid to upper story and they often vocalize in flight as they leave an area.

Since 1977, Arizona sightings of Eared Trogon have come every two to three years.  The two most recent, the Haunted Canyon bird in the eastern Superstition Mountains in the winter of '96 and the Cave Creek Canyon bird at Thanksgiving of '99, rather atypically continued in a relatively small area for several weeks and several days respectively.  Is this a trend?  Probably not.  It seems the only pattern for Eared Trogon in Arizona is that there is no pattern.  But, it's about time again.  Wait until the monsoon is officially over.  Then go to the Chiricahuas and hike upper Cave Creek above the turnstile or go to the Huachucas and hike down from Ramsey Vista in upper Carr to Hamburg Meadow.  If you don't see Eared Trogon you'll see some beautiful country.

The accompanying photograph was taken at Stewart Campground along the South Fork of Cave Creek, November 27, 1999.  I wasn't able to photograph the Hamburg Meadow bird in '91.  The three doctors thought their ten second look so special they started whooping and high-fiving.  The trogon hopped the ridge and never came back.  The doctors are lucky to be alive.  Because of their insensitive behavior that morning, several people missed seeing the bird.

Photo by Jim Burns