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

National Park Qualifications

The study area contains the finest, largest, and most interesting example of unaltered Sonoran Desert remaining in the United States. The variety and abundance of plant and associated animal life forms, in a setting of dramatically spectacular landforms, provide scenic, scientific, and esthetic qualities of an extremely high order.

Geologically, no better type locality of the basin-and-range topography can be found. This, combined with the awe-inspiring Pinacate volcanic display, gives the area geologic interest of superlative rank.

Archeologic and historic aspects, although involving relatively small numbers of humans, are of notable interest because of the adverse conditions under which their stories unfolded.

The entire study area forms a comprehensive whole. Each of the three major sections — the existing Monument, the Game Range, and the Pinacate area of Mexico — includes significant features not found in the other sections. Together they comprise an integrated unit embracing the convergent centers of all three of the recognized subprovinces of Sonoran Desert represented in the United States. In addition, this unit is of sufficient size as to permit unique biological communities to be relatively undisturbed and self-maintaining.

In discussing the suitability of the area for preservation, it should be pointed out that the association of features represented here is not duplicated at Saguaro, Death Valley, or Joshua Tree National Monuments, at Big Bend or Carlsbad Caverns National Parks, or, for that matter, in any other area preserved by Federal, state, or private agencies.

The study area has existing convenient access by scenic routes to the National Monument sector, and comparable access could easily be developed to the Game Range area from U.S. 80 (Interstate 8) in the vicinity of Yuma. With such approaches at both ends of the study area, good possibilities exist for linking the component sections together with a circulatory road system. Except for the question of establishing another port of entry from Mexico into the United States, Mexican Route 2, which crosses the northern fringe of the Pinacate volcanic field, would also provide another approach to the Monument-Game Range complex almost anywhere along its southern boundary.

The area enjoys a delightful 6-month winter season of low humidity and bright sunshine, and with its scenic, scientific, and historic attributes, the opportunities for outdoor recreation are outstanding.

From analysis of all these factors, it can only be concluded that the entire area is eminently qualified for National — if not International — Park status. In addition, it is singularly adaptable to development as a desert wilderness along the lines envisioned by the National Wilderness Preservation Act of 1964. Under this concept, access roads, visitor centers, and other public-use facilities would be confined to limited sites and narrow corridors with the bulk of the area carefully preserved in an unspoiled wilderness condition.

Recreation Demands

In this part of Arizona, recreation is a form of land use that has great economic promise. The study area is located within an easy day's travel of a great segment of the Nation's population. The southern California area with 10 million people and the Phoenix-Tucson area with close to a million people are the principal sources of recreation users. These regions are growing at fully three times the national rate of population increase and this trend is expected to continue. In addition, ever-increasing numbers of winter vacationists and retired people come from the cold areas of the Nation seeking a warm, dry climate in natural surroundings.

Visitor use at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which has grown from 60,800 in 1944 to 324,700 in 1964, is strongly indicative of the expanding importance of recreation travel in this section of the country. Increased mobility and leisure time, particularly that brought about by earlier and more complete retirement coverage, point to an even greater demand for outdoor recreation in the future. An enlarged National Park unit in the Sonoran Desert province would fulfill a vital role in meeting this demand, as well as contributing significantly to the economy of the region.

Potential for Research

The whole of the study area is also an integrated unit as far as scientific research is concerned. The subtle ecological shifts occurring in the arid Southwest are of great interest to scientists in a variety of disciplines. These changes are also of genuine concern to cattlemen and farmers as well as Federal and state agencies administering lands in this section of the country, and a coordinated research plan covering the entire area would be of great value.

Historic photographs, when compared to current retakes of the same scene, reveal striking alterations in vegetative cover since the late 1800's. For example, the lower edge of the scrub oak in some places has moved upslope some 400 feet in only 80 years. Saguaro cactus is dying out in places. Mesquite is invading what was once grassland. These reflect deep-seated processes with little-understood but probably significant and far-reaching consequences for man.

Scientists interested in this problem of change variously attribute it to climate, disease, predator control, fire control, and overgrazing. Recognizing the difficulty of identifying the changes resulting from man's land-use practices in contrast to those naturally caused, these scientists are urging the designation for research and control purposes of a large, comprehensive, unmodified study area which would comprise a substantial representation of the major subprovinces of the Sonoran Desert in its natural state.

The study area would constitute such a comprehensive unit, and the uniform and coordinated management of the entire area would increase the effectiveness of an integrated research program. This valuable purpose would be fully compatible with designation and management of the area as a National Park.