FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 12, 2024
Contacts:
Allyson Siwik, Gila Conservation Coalition, allysonsiwik@gmail.com, 575-590-7619
Todd Schulke, Center for Biological Diversity, tschulke@biologicaldiversity.org, 575-574-5962
Patrice Mutchnick, Heart of the Gila, heartofthegila@gmail.com, 575-574-8342
Bjorn Fredrickson, New Mexico Wild, bjorn@nmwild.org, 206-372-5608
Kim Vacariu, Peaceful Chiricahua Skies, kimvac@vtc.net, 520-390-3969
Dave Becker, Bird Alliance of Southwestern New Mexico, dhebecker@yahoo.com, 971-207-7216
Thirty-nine organizations in New Mexico and Arizona submitted comments to the Air Force today expressing their serious concerns with its proposal to authorize low-elevation fighter jet maneuvers as low as 100 feet above ground level (AGL) and supersonic flights as low as 5,000 feet AGL in southern Arizona and southwest New Mexico. The deadline for comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) was extended to today, November 12, 2024.
More than 6,100 individuals and over 115 businesses in New Mexico and Arizona also submitted comments in opposition to the Air Force proposal.
“The Air Force’s proposal will cause extreme noise and sonic booms above rural communities and tribal and public lands, including some of the Southwest’s most fragile sky-island ecosystems, and beloved wilderness areas and national monuments. The Air Force has not justified why it can’t continue to conduct this high-risk training at the Barry M. Goldwater Range,” said Allyson Siwik, executive director of the Gila Conservation Coalition and partner in Peaceful Gila Skies.
Organizations told the Air Force that expanding military combat training over rural communities and tribal and public lands is not acceptable. The Air Force should restrict its lower elevation and supersonic flights, and other combat training, such as dropping chaff and flares, to the Barry M. Goldwater Range where it’s already happening. The Air Force must not shift the burden of risk to rural and tribal communities in southern AZ and SWNM.
“This is one of the most shoddy and legally vulnerable analyses we’ve seen in a long time,” said Todd Schulke, co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity and partner in Peaceful Gila Skies. “The Air Force needs to pick back up the dropped alternative that evaluates low elevation and supersonic combat training at Barry M. Goldwater Range where they are set up for the risk.”
“The communities in our corner of Southwest New Mexico depend on public lands for the foundation of our outdoor economy. Protecting these places from expanded military training protects our livelihoods and our culture. We oppose this plan because it threatens our way of life and our ability to preserve these wild places for all Americans,” said Patrice Mutchnick, executive director of Heart of the Gila and partner in Peaceful Gila Skies.
“Only about 2 percent of the land in New Mexico has been designated as wilderness. And it’s within these areas that we find our last remaining, irreplaceable bastions of true quietude,” said Bjorn Fredrickson, Conservation Director with New Mexico Wild and partner in Peaceful Gila Skies. “What’s more, wilderness designation is the most robust protection available for federal lands, and the legal framework that protects wilderness and associated biological, cultural, and social values is plainly incompatible with these proposed training exercises.. It is unthinkable that the US Air Force thinks that the airspace above the wilderness and other wildlands is an appropriate place to expand military combat training, especially considering that the Barry M. Goldwater Range—a designated military training zone—is already available.”
The process surrounding this DEIS is suspect,” says Kim Vacariu of Peaceful Chiricahua Skies, a coalition informing the public about this proposal. “The Air Force refused to hold public hearings in the rural and tribal locations most affected by the proposal. They have declined to share information, like public comments and partnering agency input, that is normally publicly available. They have declined to respond to FOIAs. We wonder what they are trying to hide.”
“Over 500 birds depend on the habitat below the Air Force’s combat training zones, and tens of thousands of people visit these areas every year to observe or photograph birds because of their quiet, natural noisescapes,” said Dave Becker of the Bird Alliance of Southwestern New Mexico. “Yet the Air Force’s analysis ignored the harm to birds and birders that the proposed louder, more frequent, and lower-elevation noise from military jets will cause. Intensifying combat training, often at supersonic speeds, will disturb the natural lives of the birds in the Chiricahua, Gila, and other affected areas. Doubling the number of flights over the Chiricahua Mountains will forever damage the area’s attraction as an important area for birds and birders, and lowering the supersonic flight floor over the Gila also will harm birds and the opportunities birders enjoy for quiet, natural recreation, with secondary harm to the local economies.”
The groups’ DEIS comments can be accessed here.
*Peaceful Gila Skies is a coalition of business owners, community leaders, sportsmen, veterans, concerned citizens, and conservation groups — Center for Biological Diversity, Gila Conservation Coalition, Gila Resources Information Project, Heart of the Gila, and New Mexico Wild. — united in our opposition to the expansion of military training over the Gila region.
