Like sweethearts marking their silver anniversary by renewing their vows, local officials and conservation advocates are pledging their support once again for Ironwood Forest National Monument.
Elected leaders in Pima County, the City of Tucson and the Town of Marana have all passed proclamations declaring Monday as Ironwood Forest Day.
The 190,000-acre desert preserve west of Tucson was established by President Clinton on June 9, 2000, but exactly 25 years later, the monument finds itself under threat of being downsized by the Trump administration.
Citing a leaked Interior Department draft document and unnamed government sources, the Washington Post and other news outlets have reported that Ironwood Forest is one of six Western national monuments targeted for possible boundary reductions and expanded mining activity.
The county Board of Supervisors approved a resolution on May 20 opposing such changes, which District 3 Supervisor Jennifer Allen called “a step backward” that runs “counter to the wishes of the people of Pima County who have voted repeatedly to preserve and protect hundreds of thousands of acres in the county.”
Monday will mark the 25th anniversary of Ironwood Forest National Monument, west of Tucson.
The supervisors followed that up on Tuesday with the Ironwood Forest Day proclamation.
The Friends of Ironwood Forest already celebrated the monument’s 25th birthday with an event back in March, when the weather was cooler, but on Saturday, the volunteer group will hold a “Day of Action for Public Lands” to mark the anniversaries of both Ironwood and the federal statute that allowed for its creation.
Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law on June 8, 1906, granting the president the authority to designate monuments on federal land.
Saturday’s rally will be held from 8-9 a.m. at Ironwood’s Waterman Peak Trail parking area, off Avra Valley Road, about 20 miles west of Interstate 10. Participants are encouraged to bring water and a hat to protect against the desert heat and their own homemade signs in defense of the monument and other protected places.
The late afternoon sun shines on a petroglyph at Ironwood Forest National Monument.
“Ironwood Forest represents everything the Antiquities Act was created to preserve — from ancient archaeological sites to unique desert wildlife,” said Tom Hannagan, board president for the friends group. “This is a moment to show how much Americans care for our public lands.”
Ironwood Forest National Monument wraps around the Silver Bell Mine and takes in portions of the Roskruge, Sawtooth, Silver Bell and Waterman mountain ranges in Pima and Pinal counties. It is home to hundreds of plant and animal species, including dense stands of saguaros and ironwoods and a robust herd of desert bighorn sheep.
The federal Bureau of Land Management oversees the monument as part of the National Landscape Conservation System, also created during the Clinton administration.
Trump targeted Ironwood Forest — and the Antiquities Act itself — during his first term with an executive order directing his then-Interior Secretary to recommend changes to about two dozen national monuments created through the act under previous administrations.
In the end, Trump only signed off on major boundary reductions at two monuments in Utah, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. President Biden reversed those actions by executive order on his first day in office.
Discarded holiday trees become erosion control at a desert restoration site in Avra Valley.
