The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims that border
fencing won’t jeopardize the jaguar because the U.S. Southwest is
unneeded turf for conserving the species worldwide
(HCN, 10/15/07). Unless someone reverses this
myopic policy in court, we can forget about federal protection of
jaguar habitat any time soon, since, by inference, the same would
apply to any environmental impact. It would behoove jaguar
advocates of all stripes (and spots) to put aside differences and
work for comprehensive protection of habitat and open country for
jaguar and other wildlife, especially in Arizona, now the
fastest-growing state. Pima County’s planning for biodiversity
conservation and the Arizona Wildlife Linkages Workgroup for
protecting wildlife movement areas exemplify the needed
landscape-level approach. After more than a decade of stonewalling,
it is high time the multi-agency Jaguar Conservation Team engaged
in habitat conservation work. There is no point in worrying about
jaguar migratory routes from Mexico to the U.S. if there is no
secure habitat to welcome the big cats home.
Tony
Povilitis
President, Life Net,
www.lifenetnature.org
Bozeman,
Montana
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Will the cat come back?.
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