AZ BLM uses “suitable” endangered species habitat to close public roads

New Transmission Line Along Highway 74 Near Lake Pleasant

While searching through comments on a proposed transmission line project from APS along Highway 74, I found a disturbing response by the BLM to the Sierra Club. The comment below, from the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club, argues that there’s not enough evidence to support the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) findings of “no environmental impact” from the new transmission line project.

Environmental Impact Assessment and Endangered Species

The Environmental Impact Assessment is required by law to demonstrate the potential environmental impact of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) decision on endangered species and other wildlife in the project area. The proposal calls for a 20-foot-wide road to be carved through the mountains along the length of the transmission line. In this case, the environmental assessment claims that there will be no environmental impact on endangered species or other wildlife.

BLM’s Response and Speculative Habitat Designations

The Bureau of Land Management’s response explains one of several tools used to halt traditional land uses:

“The analysis of special status species that COULD occur in the area is disclosed in the FEIS/PRMP AS IF THEY WERE PRESENT WHERE SUITABLE HABITAT OCCURS FOR THOSE SPECIES.”

Bureau of Land Management

This means that the endangered species do not necessarily exist in the area or call it home. Instead, it is considered “suitable habitat” for them to thrive. There is no actual science showing the impact on endangered species; it’s all theoretical and speculative. Actual endangered species habitat requires congressional action. By basing decisions on speculative habitat, the BLM is essentially creating de facto designations that are managed to maintain their characteristics.

Suitable Endangered Species Habitat: A Common Tactic to Close Motorized Access

Motorized users have lost thousands of miles of roads to “suitable habitat” through travel management planning. Using this standard, the BLM could shut down the entire Sonoran Desert over the Sonoran Desert Tortoise. Furthermore, it’s an outrageous double standard to assert that people impact endangered species by using motorized roads on public lands, yet a new road and transmission line somehow do not have the same impact. It’s disturbing to know the BLM is making decisions with no scientific analysis, then basing planning procedures on speculative and theoretical impacts to potential endangered species habitats.

See the screenshots below.