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The Coronado National Forest consists of over one and three quarter million acres
of land in southeastern Arizona
and southwestern New Mexico.
The National Forest includes twelve mountain ranges they call sky islands.
They rise up seven thousand feet above the seas of desert
and scrub land and grassland below.
Each of these mountain ranges provides habitat for Coues Whitetail deer
a small
native subspecies of whitetails.
In this area, the rock of uplifts and the cactus are going to shred the hunter's
clothes, they're going to shred his boots and they're going to shred his skin.
It's tough country. In fact,
hunting a Coues whitetail deer
is about as close as you're going to get to chasing desert bighorns, without
actually have to draw one of those long-shot, highly coveted tags.
Since the bulk of the Coronado National Forest all lies just a
couple miles drive from Tuscon,
the impacts from outdoor recreation are intense.
In particular, off-road vehicle use has boomed in recent decades an
unrestricted off-road recreation can have very negative impacts on wildlife
habitat.
It disrupts wildlife sanctuaries,
it degrades soil, it degrades plant communities, and it can degrade water.
Today the Coronado has twenty one road-less areas that cover almost a half million
acres.
Not only these places provide a habitat for elk,
Coues Whitetail deer, mulies,
desert bighorns, Merriam's turkeys,
they provide habitat for hardcore enterprising hunters who like to park
their truck and get into the backcountry to put their stalk on.
The thing is
these road-less areas are not protected
as federally designated wilderness areas.
Rather, they're managed under the 2001 Road-less Conservation Rule, and this rule
is a perfect compromise.
It restricts new road building and some commercial timber harvest so we can
preserve our finest hunting areas but is still allows for fishing, hiking,
primitive camping, livestock grazing, controlled mineral development
habitat projects such as water guzzlers and
wildfire reduction activities.
It's a great rule.