Greens Wage Long Fight Against Copper Mine in Arizona Mountains [View all]

[douglas9]

TUCSON (CN) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service illegally green-lighted destruction of thousands of acres of habitat for one of the last wild jaguars in the United States for an Arizona copper mine, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a federal lawsuit Monday.

The open pit mine, planned for more than a decade on the eastern flank of the Santa Rita Mountains about 40 miles from the Mexican border, would obliterate about 3,600 acres of designated critical habitat for the jaguar. It would also reverse the groundwater flow under part of Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, which is home to endangered Gila chub and Gila topminnows, said Marc Fink, a senior attorney for the center.

It also would hurt the endangered ocelot, northern Mexican gartersnake, Chiricahua leopard frog, southwestern willow flycatcher, and western yellow-billed cuckoo, all in violation of the Endangered Species Act, according to the complaint.

“All of these species are listed as endangered for a reason,” Fink said.

The mountainous area north of Sonoita, Arizona and southeast of Tucson is in a transitional zone between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan desert.

https://www.courthousenews.com/greens-wage-long-fight-copper-mine-arizona-mountains/