NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Sonoran Desert National Park, Arizona: A Proposal

Careful analysis of the many factors involved supports the conclusion that Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the Cabeza Prieta Game Range, and the contiguous Pinacate volcanic field in Mexico constitute an integrated unit of unspoiled Sonoran Desert. The biological, geological, historical, scenic, and esthetic values of the entire study area are of such outstanding significance and their recreation potential so high as to fully warrant whatever steps are necessary to provide for both adequately preserving the area and making it available for public use.

The logical and desirable solution would be to combine the Monument and Game Range to form the Sonoran Desert National Park. The accompanying map shows the boundaries of the proposed Sonoran Desert National Park. With elimination of the small segment of the eastern end of the Game Range and addition of the 80,000-acre extension on its western end, the total size of the Park would be approximately 1,242,000 acres.

Proposed Sonoran Desert National Park (click on image for a PDF version)

This action, of course, would be completely contingent upon termination of military use of the Game Range, which now precludes public use, and elimination of grazing and mining activities in the Monument which seriously threaten the very values which need to be preserved. As long as military activities prevent public use of the Game Range, no valid purpose would be served by changing its present status. Nevertheless, the significant potential of the area for public benefit cannot be overlooked, and an interest in the area for park purposes should be put on record. As soon as the situation changes so as to permit safe public access and use, the area should be considered for addition to the existing Organ Pipe Cactus area under National Park Service administration.

The entire Monument-Game Range complex is particularly suited for management in conformance with the National Wilderness Preservation System concept as outlined by the Congress in the Wilderness Act of September 3, 1964. Except for requisite developed areas and roadways, the proposed National Park in its entirety could be managed as desert wilderness.

In recognition of the fact that grazing and mining activities are incompatible with an attempt to preserve the fragile and delicately balanced biological values of a desert, these two uses should be eliminated as soon as possible from the National Monument, regardless of any proposal affecting its status. In the aforementioned Wilderness Act, Congress provided that prospecting and mining would be permitted to continue in a designated area for a period of nearly 20 years following enactment. This was based on the concept that 20 years is a sufficiently long time to insure that all valuable minerals in the area would be located and legitimate claims established. In the case of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, such activities have now been in force for more than 23 years after its establishment. In the circumstances, this would appear to have adequately met the needs of the mining interests as carefully considered and provided for by the Congress. Therefore, mining, as well as grazing, could justifiably be terminated without delay.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument contains features of sufficient significance to warrant National Park status even without the addition of the Game Range. With the elimination of grazing and mining, it is recommended that at least this area be redesignated as the Sonoran Desert National Park. If grazing and mining cannot be eliminate or phased out, there is no point in changing the status of the Monument at the present time.