Richard Henderson owns 37 acres in Hot Springs Canyon, which contains a San Pedro River tributary.

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I-10 bypass plan stirs concerns on San Pedro

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The Arizona Department of Transportation will shortly begin studying the feasibility of an Interstate 10 bypass route that would connect to I-10 near Willcox, run north through the San Pedro River Valley, and reconnect to I-10 north of Tucson and west of Phoenix.

According to an article in the Star by Andrea Kelly on Feb. 7, that route has been proposed by S.L. Schorr, a specialist in real estate law who now represents Pima County on the state Transportation Board.

Schorr claims this construction would ease traffic congestion in Tucson without imposing further commuting burdens on citizens of the city who might otherwise vote against alternatives, such as widening bridges across the Santa Cruz River.

As a resident of Tucson but also of the San Pedro River Valley, I argue that very heavy burdens would be placed upon a much wider population — of people, but also of animals and plants — not only in some rural counties, but more broadly statewide and beyond.

Most Tucson readers know that a part of the San Pedro Valley south of Benson has been designated the San Pedro National Riparian Conservation Area, and have read reports on its internationally recognized biodiversity.

According to The Nature Conservancy, the San Pedro provides habitat for more than 80 species of mammals, more than 100 species of breeding birds, and, seasonally, more than 250 species of migratory birds. Remaining native fish species include the Gila chub, which is proposed for federal listing as endangered, and the longfin dace, desert sucker, roundtail chub, Sonora sucker and speckled dace.

Such glowing descriptions also apply to major portions of the river valley north of Benson, all the way to its confluence with the Gila River. Parts of the river that lie northward are in a number of ways even more pristine and richer in wildlife, largely because a considerable portion of Cascabel Road remains unpaved and therefore undeveloped.

Low in human population, and therefore presumably more vulnerable to the political-economic decisions made by the powerful among us, this place is high in both wildlife species numbers and diversity. The mesquite bosque and cottonwood/willow habitat in the vicinity of Cascabel are two of the rarest types of forest vegetation in North America, and the Galiuro Mountains are the wildest in Southeastern Arizona.

Essentially, the whole area is a crisscross of wildlife corridors — routes by which plant and animal species may move from one "sky island" mountain range and its foothills to another, thus maintaining numbers and genetic diversity. A number of washes contain springs or permanent streams in their upper reaches, which include populations of fish. Bears purposefully walk down some of these washes, following pools of water on their way to the river and beyond. Population pressures in one area may stimulate species recoveries in another.

An interstate bypass through this area might well benefit some who have real estate interests there, but blasting this kind of massive gash through these biologically rich areas would both destroy such corridors and impose huge expenses on the people of our state.

Some corridors form deep and jagged canyons. Large bridgeworks would be required in many places; the washes flood massively on occasion. Freeway maintenance would be a nightmare. Scenic, archaeological, and other less tangible values would be damaged.