Comments of Draft V of the Pima County MSCP
March 9, 2009
Ms. Neva Connolly
Pima County, Office of Conservation Science and Environmental Policy
3500 W. River Road
Tucson, AZ 85741
RE: Pima County Multi-species Habitat Conservation Plan, Draft V
Dear Ms. Connolly:
Throughout the past decade, the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection has consistently and vigilantly worked with Pima County and community stakeholders on developing the Pima County’s Multi-species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSCP) and its supporting reports and documents. We commend the County for undertaking such a bold and comprehensive conservation effort and look forward to providing even more input as the MSCP continues through its final stages.
The Coalition appreciates the County’s commitment to the strategies included in the current MSCP draft. However, in general we feel that the Final MSCP that will be submitted to the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service should include more details and many of our comments are a reflection of this sentiment. Our attached comments address the following topics:
• MSCP development
• Species loss and threat analysis
• Wildlife linkages
• Conservation easements
• Monitoring
• Leased State Lands and Grazing
• Climate Change
• Funding
• Specific species concerns
• Off-site mitigation
We are currently finalizing more comprehensive comments on the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl and its
treatment in the MSCP and will be submitting these as an addendum in the near future. We hope you find our comments useful as you prepare a Final MSCP to submit to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We would welcome an opportunity to sit down and discuss these comments in person with County staff. If you have any questions and/or would like to set up a meeting to discuss our comments further, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Campbell
Executive Director
Download the full comments here (522 KB PDF)
Page last modified: February 08, 2010 at 12:19 PM