Hidden wildlife, uncommon law, and the Stillsuit Edition

In this issue…

_{Cochise Civics}
Election results
_{Land News}
Welcome to the Sky Islands…
Spotting the spotted
Quieter than F-35s
Subalpine xeroriparian dwellers
Buzzier than Bisbee
_{Water News}
Cochise water news roundup
Arizona water news roundup
_{— Ground Party Pulse —
Fake Classifieds
Marketplace Picks}

Cochise Civics

Election Results

Ok, let’s get this out of the way and then get to the fun stuff. After more than a week of delays, Cochise County finally finished counting ballots and the results are in.

District 1:
Tom Crosby retained his county supervisor seat, but it remains to be seen if his felony indictments for election interference will allow him to keep that seat.

District 2:
In a close race, Douglas native Kathleen Gomez beat out Bisbee native Joni Giacomino for the county supervisor seat, 8,620 votes to 7,952.

District 3:
Frank Antenori got just shy of half the votes in a four-way race for supervisor.

And let’s give a warm welcome-back to our LD19 representatives who both won their reelections: Gail Griffin, champion of corporate agriculture, and Lupe Diaz, enemy of rural opt-out building.

 
Welcome to the Sky Islands…

It’s been an active year for wildlife in Arizona’s Sky Island region. I previously reported on the new tarantula species identified in the Chiricahuas and the obstacles and opportunities faced by wild cats in the Arizona-Mexico borderlands. Here’s a few more stories you might have missed in 2024…

Spotting the spotted: Last month the Center for Biological Diversity spotted a rare ocelot on one of their trail cams in the Sky Islands, but they’re keeping the location under wraps for now. Earlier this year, Sky Island Alliance’s wildlife specialist Meagan Bethel discovered images of a new jaguar from their trail cams in the Whetstone mountains, an area where only El Jefe has been seen in recent history. They’re hoping to catch an image of the cat’s other side so they can create a strong ID of its spot patterns.

Quieter than F-35s: F-1828 and M-2774 are the aliases for two endangered Mexican gray wolves that were released in the Peloncillo mountains north of San Simon earlier this year. Called Llave and Wonder by their fans, the wolves are a mated pair and Llave was confirmed as pregnant upon release into the wild. She was brought into captivity in 2023 shortly after her previous mate had died in an area without other wolves for her to pair with.

Subalpine xeroriparian dwellers: Yellow-billed cuckoos used to range all the way up to Canada before their populations declined up to 95%. Their remaining habitat is being closely studied and, last month, the USGS found that the Western Sky Islands are one of their preferred haunts, where they perch among the local oak, mesquite, hackberry, juniper, ash, and acacia.

Buzzier than Bisbee: Down at the corner of Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico is Cochise County’s very own San Bernardino Basin, home of the San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge. Unlike the neighboring basins, it’s overflowing with water, using only a fraction of the annual natural recharge. That’s good news for the local ranchers and the incredible biodiversity in the area, Shar Porier reports for the Herald/Review. The area boasts 335 bird species, 67 mammals, 43 reptiles, 13 amphibians, eight fish, and roughly 500 species of bees — the highest bee diversity in the world.

If you’ve captured some of your own wildlife images in Cochise County or Arizona, I’d love to see what you’ve got and maybe even publish them in a special holiday issue of the Ground Party Papers. Just respond to this email with whatever you’ve got, and let me know if you want to be credited or remain anonymous.

 
 Cochise water news roundup

More supply, less demand: Governor Hobbs recently visited to the San Pedro River to celebrate $1.5 million in funding for a riparian recharge project at Coyote Wash, expected to deliver 150 acrefeet to the river annually. She’s also begun cracking down on “wildcat” subdivisions where developers exploit legal loopholes to sell houses to unassuming buyers without an assured water supply for their future.

Yeah, but so what…: The Center for Biological Diversity isn’t so impressed with Hobbs’ recent PR trip to the San Pedro. CBD’s Robin Silver said the recharge project will be "like spitting on the ocean.” I reported earlier this year on the non-profit’s lawsuits with ADWR and Hobbs over groundwater management in the Upper San Pedro Basin, including a challenge to the groundwater permits ADWR issued for commercial housing developments in the area. That lawsuit recently led to a settlement, with ADWR agreeing to review the issued permit for one of those 35 developments, Pueblo Del Sol, which would have required at least 2,000 acrefeet of water annually for its 7,000 planned homes.

You can’t spell WATER without A-R-T: The groundwater mural on the Douglas Public Library was successfully completed with assistance from local volunteers and made entirely with recycled paints. The project was the brainchild of Dr. Krista L. Lawless, a recent PhD grad in Water Resources at ASU, and artist Nicole Poppell. Poppell’s design captured the many roles that water plays in supporting life, agriculture, and the natural environment. “It was such an interesting case to examine the water regulations and how the community is aware its a precious resource,” Lawless told the Herald/Review.

 
The nitty gritty of groundwater management: Local Douglas Basin farmers Aaron Cardona and Bryan Fontes shared some of their thoughts about the upcoming Douglas AMA Management Plan with Arizona Republic reporter Clara Migoya. Fontes is waiting on the ADWR to approve his claims on 65 acres of land he bought and improved just before the AMA designation in 2022. His cousin, Cardona, is hoping that AMA management can ensure that lower-water-use crop growers like himself will not be subject to the same cutbacks as water-intensive crop growers.

What about Willcox?: This past Friday saw the public hearing for the proposed Willcox AMA. Attendees report at least 300 people were at the Willcox Community Center for the hearing, with another 100 attending online. As everyone anticipated, it was a spirited affair with the majority of public comments being in opposition after voters rejected the citizen initiative for an AMA designation in 2022. We’ll find out in December whether the ADWR will move forward with the AMA or abandon it.

 
Uncommon law: Attorney General Kris Mayes has hinted she’ll soon be filing her previously announced “nuisance” lawsuits against out-of-state industrial agricultural operations like Saudi Arabia’s Fondomonte and Minnesota’s Riverview Dairy in the Willcox Basin. Nuisance claims are at the heart of what’s called “common law,” the legal basis for citizens to defend their health, safety, and the value and enjoyment of their private property. But it’s uncertain how the lawsuits will land in court given Arizona’s long and complex judicial history of groundwater disputes and the lack of recent judicial precedent.

 Arizona water news roundup

“Desert living requires desert thinking”: Arizonan natural history writer Thomas Wiewandt recently published an op-ed advocating for new visions of agriculture in Arizona, because “transferring groundwater rights from farmlands to real estate developers is not a sustainable option.”

Water is for litigating: As water availability continues to trend negatively, negotiations over Colorado River cutbacks continue to be contentious, to say the least. The Arizona Department of Water of Resources is now considering legal action against the Upper Basin states (Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Utah) who, they say, aren’t offering reasonable cutbacks to their water use in negotiations among the seven basin states (including Arizona, California, and Nevada).

A saline solution: Some are pushing for a salty fix to the state’s water problems — extracting brackish groundwater resources which could be purified of their salt content and made potable for residential use. There is a large but limited amount of this water resource, enough for roughly 100 years. But extracting brackish groundwater can have the same problems as all groundwater extraction — land subsidence and earth fissures which threaten properties and public infrastructure. Dealing with the waste product from the purification process is also costly and poses hazards, experts say.

Let’s just drink out of the toilet: Another water fix for Arizona is treated effluent (waste water), and the ADEQ is about to publish draft rules for that treatment process, called “advanced water purification.” ADEQ’s deputy director said the resulting water is purer than regular treated water, despite the “ick factor” of where it comes from. Arizona polls show 77% of citizens are in favor of the technology, but only half said they’re ready to start drinking it.

 
Water is the new sugar, spice, oil, and gold: In the ongoing buyout of water providers by national and international investors, the Europe-based CVC DIF just bought 18 water and wastewater utilities in Arizona.

 
Today’s edition of the Ground Party Pulse features some fake classified ads and a few homesteader selections from Facebook Marketplace. Become a paid supporter to get the Pulse! 

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