Other articles by Tony Davis:

Panel: AZ lags badly on funds for growth Land county would buy holds plentiful wildlife Climate change could increase diseases here Murky haze spawns air- quality alert Development hits solid wall in Santa Cruz voteVoters dent plans for 2 huge projects near Tubac McCainiacs in Tucson thrilled to back Arizonan St. Mary's, UA differ on Tumamoc levee Acid spill from mine halted near Clifton Grijalva: Bush policies bad for federal public lands

Health Care
SOUTHERN ARIZONA ENDODONTICS I
NSURANCE PROCESSOR Dental
Apache Dental
Porcelain Techs General
Prestige Maintenance USA
Area Manager Technical
Yavapai College
Analyst Banner Programmer Health Care
Freedom Manor
Caregivers Education
Yavapai College
Teachers Retail
TOTAL WINE & MORE
WINE TEAM MEMBERS, CASHIER & STOCK MEMEBERS

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva is pushing a bill that would prod the federal government to find alternatives to building a 700-mile border fence across major public land preserves.

The bill, introduced last week by the Tucson Democrat, would force the U.S. Border Patrol to take steps to protect those preserves not just from illegal border traffic, but from the patrol's trucks and other border security measures.

It would also set up a $5 million annual Borderlands Conservation Fund to finance projects to restore wildlife habitat along the border, improve management of borderland species and compensate for environmental damage there.

Generally, the bill targets damage both from illegal border-crossers, who leave behind huge amounts of trash and carve illegal roads in the desert, and the Border Patrol and other security efforts, whose trucks also scar public lands, whose helicopters swoop over sensitive species such as pronghorns, and whose lights disturb wildlife.

But the bill's individual provisions are tilted more toward protecting borderland national forests and wildlife refuges from security efforts than from illegal entrants.

"Current policy has driven crossing activity to remote isolated areas along the border, which in Southern Arizona, represent significant public and tribal lands," Grijalva said in a written statement.

"Many of these lands have suffered extensive environmental degradation as a result of unauthorized activity and border security efforts. This bill is the first step in preserving our unique natural heritage while we protect our borders."

The bill drew support from the Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Its language closely matches recommendations that came out last week in a report from 35 conservation groups, state and federal agencies, other nonprofit groups and universities, including the University of Arizona.

The report identified four key border wildlife corridors in Arizona for the jaguar and other species, and said border security efforts trample vegetation, fragment habitat, introduce exotic species and displace wildlife.

But groups representing current and retired Border Patrol agents said Grijalva's bill would tie the border agency's hands.

"Mr. Grijalva is not a friend of the Border Patrol. He never has been. We'd have to study the bill pretty extensively, but anything that can help us do our jobs we are in favor of," said Mike Albon, a spokesman for Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing patrol employees. "Anything that would restrict us in doing our jobs, we don't like that."

Arizona Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain, both Republicans, couldn't be reached for comment on Grijalva's bill. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Tucson Democrat like Grijalva, said she is studying the bill and will have a position soon.

"I share Congressman Grijalva's desire to protect our environment and wildlife," Giffords said in a written statement. "It is important to evaluate this objective in the context of the most effective strategy for ending the flow of illegal immigrants and contraband through Southern Arizona."

Several provisions would counteract two border-related bills passed in the last two years: The Secure Fence Act, which required a new border fence, and the Real ID Act, which allowed exemptions from environmental laws to build the fence.

These laws promote a "one fence fits all" solution and hamper the ability of local experts to implement security measures that would be more effective in the border environment, said Grijalva's news release on the bill.

"Constructing a fence along the border would be completely impractical over the rugged terrain of the mountains and deserts and would be disastrous to the fragile border ecosystem," the release said.

The bill and the new report from the 35 agencies and organizations supported "virtual fencing" as an alternative. That includes unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles, motion sensors, laser barriers and infrared cameras.

But many of those techniques are in use already, said Albon of the border patrol council, which has nearly 3,000 members working in the patrol's Tucson Sector, which covers much of Arizona.

When management comes up with a better fencing scheme, "We don't have to run that by environmental people," Albon said. "If it is good for the agency, I don't think local people would be in favor of having to run it by environmental people.

"If it's possibly environmentally friendly with animals being able to cross, it is not going to be conducive to keeping aliens out of the country," he said. "If animals can cross, people can cross."

Environmentalist Jenny Neeley, however, said Albon's concern about the ineffectiveness of virtual fencing isn't shared by the Homeland Security agency, which recently awarded the Boeing Co. a $30 million contract to build a pilot project under the SBInet program that uses technology and hardware to supplement conventional fencing. The SBInet program uses ground-based and tower-mounted sensors, cameras and radars, fixed and mobile tele- communications, and ground-penetrating detection systems.

Grijalva's bill also gives the Department of Homeland Security the flexibility to work with land managers, agencies and communities to decide what border infrastructure works best, said Neeley, Defenders of Wildlife's Southwest associate.

"Why would DHS spend millions of taxpayer money on this technology and trumpet it so loudly in the media if they didn't think it would work?" she asked.

But Dave Stoddard, a retired Border Patrol agent living in Hereford, a Cochise County community near the border, said the bill would cripple the Border Patrol's efforts to protect the public, and would turn the Border Patrol from an enforcement agency into an agency concentrated on environmental concerns. Stoddard is a founding member of a national association of former Border Patrol agents and a member of its board of directors.

"If Mr. Grijalva were truly environmentally conscious, he would try to clean up the hundreds of tons of garbage strewn along the border, and into the interior, by illegal immigrants and drug smugglers," Stoddard said. "That garbage and debris does more to harm the environment than an army of Border Patrol officers and miles of much-needed fence ever could do."