Pygmy Owls

"It's a big game for these folks," says Lewis Tenney, an owner of Precision Pulp and Timber Company in Herber, Arizona. "They get up in the morning and try to figure out how to make people's lives miserable." Not so, say the activists trying to save the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl. But whether the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity is trying to save species or make developers and loggers miserable, they are succeeding at both.

The last of the seven-inch-tall, two-ounce cactus pygmy owls live in desert washes and high-elevation areas with lush vegetation in and around Tucson, Arizona. Government surveys in 1997 found only 12 of the tiny, red-tinged birds, down from 19 the year before. Once, it was common to see them in large numbers near streamside thickets, mesquite cottonwood woodlands and thorn scrub. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) says the owls' historic habitat extended along 650 miles of Southwestern streams-290 miles of which run through Arizona.

Because of the precipitous decline of the owl, it was proposed for listing as an endangered species in December 1994. It was finally listed as endangered in March 1997. In the tried and true tradition of the USFWS, however, critical habitat has not been designated. The Southwest Center is currently engaged in litigation to force habitat designation.

While the federal wheels of justice were grinding, however, local authorities decided to take matters into their own hands. In late November 1997, the Pima County Board of Supervisors placed a two-week freeze on new permits in a 16-square-mile area, home to eight of the last pygmy owls. The northwest side of Tucson covered by the freeze is the city's fastest-growing area, cluttered with real estate signs for future developments. Local authorities have been forced between a rock and a hard place by the federal government, which has failed to designate habitat but has also warned the county that local agencies could be sued for allowing the development of habitat vital to the owl's survival. Two federal judges have ruled in separate cases that local and state officials can be held liable for issuing permits to developers who damage endangered species habitat. Supervisor Sharon Bronson lashed out at the USFWS for its inaction saying "If the Fish and Wildlife Service would just come forward and do something definitive, that would help. We can't do their job for them."

Unfortunately, on December 17, when the USFWS issued guidelines for property owners proposing to build on potential habitat, their actions were less than definitive. The USFWS directive requires that owl surveys be conducted by all landowners who want to clear vegetation within northwest Tucson. But, federal officials failed to set the boundaries of the area in which surveys will be required, though much of Tucson meets the criteria for areas that should be surveyed. Landowners who do find owls within 160 acres of a proposed development will be asked to develop a habitat conservation plan. Landowners who fail to do so will be "referred" to the USFWS' law enforcement division. Peter Galvin of the Southwest Center says the guidelines don't go far enough, citing surveys which show similar species range over 279 acres and require buffers larger than 160 acres. In addition, he points out that only a few of the 12 known pygmy owls are in pairs, and the regulations would keep owls away from each other, threatening their survival. "Pygmy owls don't have dating services," he joked, "They need land... to survive. You can't just draw circles around them."

On December 19, in response to the weak voluntary guidelines suggested by the USFWS, Defenders of Wildlife, the Southwest Center and Desert Watch filed suit against the Army Corps of Engineers to block further developments that threaten the endangered owl. The Corps is in charge of permitting developments which require a land owner to alter streams, rivers or washes cutting through their properties. The suit alleges that the Corps routinely approves development permits without holding public hearings, conducting environmental impact studies or searching for more suitable development sites, violating numerous environmental laws. It also alleges that the Corps has repeatedly failed to consult with the USFWS on the cumulative effects of developments like a 9,000-home complex. "We are trying to push the Corps toward a more systematic approach of protecting valuable riparian habitat," said Bill Snape of Defenders of Wildlife. "The owl is an early indicator of a severe problem."

Conversely, the Society for Environmental Truth, a pro-industry group in Tucson that has taken stands on behalf of ranchers and coal utilities, plans to sue the government for inappropriately listing the owl under the Endangered Species Act. The Society claims that the USFWS had insufficient scientific evidence to determine that the owl should be put on the endangered species list and that the owl has never been abundant in Arizona.

The actions of the Southwest Center have clearly unnerved most locals, as even a proposed new high school is affected by the USFWS guidelines. US Representative Jim Kolbe, for example, said during a news conference in response to the guidelines, "This is very far-reaching. We are only beginning to understand this could have an enormous impact for all of Tucson." Likewise, Alan Lurie, executive director of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, said the USFWS doesn't "know the cost of this in terms of what two-legged animals have to endure."

In response to the confusion and outcry provoked by the USFWS' plan, the Southwest Center has put forth its own proposal, saying that if it is adopted, it could forestall many future suits against landowners, developers and the local and federal governments. "We can have between zero and dozens of lawsuits, depending on whether we can come up with some kind of meaningful planning process," said Galvin. The proposal calls for establishment of a long-term community conservation plan to determine and protect the best owl habitat in the Tucson area. For three years, until the plan is complete, a moratorium would be placed on large-scale rezonings and on new construction of already approved projects in owl habitat.

Predictably, all of the interested parties weren't appeased by the Southwest Center's proposal. "It seems they are not only trying to stop growth, but to reverse growth," said Lurie of the Home Builders Association. "It is a lifestyle issue. They want to go back to the days when you don't hear a voice, don't hear an automobile."

Though the Southwest Center's Kieran Suckling says, "circumstances led us to this collision course" with Tucson developers, Lurie's remarks may not be too far off the mark. "We see 700,000 people who, due to sprawl into the desert, have air pollution, traffic congestion and crime," says Suckling, "We see 700,000 potential revolutionaries."

For more information about the fight to protect the pygmy owl, contact the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity at POB 710, Tucson, AZ 85702-0710; (520) 623-5252; fax (520) 623-9797.