Our Opinion: Congress should enact Tumacacori Highlands bill

Godspeed to legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva this week to protect and preserve about 84,000 pristine acres in the Tumacacori Highlands.

This swath of southern Arizona is extraordinary.

Rare species such as the jaguar, Mexican spotted owl and Chiracahua leopard frog live there.

So do more than 2,000 types of plants, 265 kinds of birds and 75 species of reptile, including many found nowhere else in our nation.

Hikers, hunters and birdwatchers flock to the highlands, where deep canyons, looming cliffs and oak-studded hills adorn a high desert area rich with pools, lakes and streams.

This splendid slice of unspoiled Coronado National Forest, with elevations ranging from 4,000 to 7,000 feet, well deserves to be designated as wilderness.

Indeed, such designation is the only governmental move that makes sense if we are to ensure preservation of an exceedingly special resource for generations to come.

That move by Congress would mark the first wilderness designation in Arizona in 17 years - since the late Democratic U.S. Rep. Morris K. Udall worked with Republican Sen. John McCain to pass the Arizona Desert Wilderness Act.

Only 6 percent of Arizona land is protected under the Wilderness Act, so adding this - and more elsewhere - makes sense.

Tumacacori is the obvious choice to augment Arizona's wilderness, as it is the state's largest intact roadless area that remains unprotected.

Also, the highlands abut the Pajarita Wilderness to the south and the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge to the west.

Thus, Tumacacori's designation as wilderness would have the added benefit of bridging the other preserved sites, creating an uninterrupted expanse of protected habitat.

That's especially important because Tumacacori contains the overlap of two biological zones, creating a very rich variety of flora and fauna.

The wilderness proposal has a wide range of supporters, from Santa Cruz River advocates to Republicans for Environmental Protection, from Ruby Mine to the Southwestern Biological Institute and from many residents of Santa Cruz County.

Democrat Grijalva, as chairman of the House Subcommittee of National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, is well positioned to push his proposal.

We wish him every success with that effort, which would benefit all of Arizona for decades to come.