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Tucson Audubon Society
Tufted
Jays, Logging, and Marijuana
—an IBA Story
Scott Wilbor, Important Bird Areas Program Conservation Biologist
Contact Info: (520) 628-1730
(This article was first published in the Vermilion Flycatcher, newsletter of the Tucson Audubon Society. To receive the newsletter in the mail, become a Friend of Tucson Audubon.)
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We were in hot pursuit of our umpteenth Mountain Trogon of the trip when we stumbled into an abandoned marijuana plot high on top of a ridge, deep in the remote rugged southern Sierra Madre of Mexico. For two days I had noticed smoke in the air from our campsite at El Palmito Tufted Jay Preserve in Sinaloa. But it was our third day when we finally reached a high enough ridge to see little forest plots burning north to south, all along the crest of the Sierras.
There were only four of us that day, two Mexicans and two Americans. The main group of biologists had already headed home. I asked our guide, Pronatura biologist and Professor Marco “Flaco” Gonzalez, what all those fires were? Both he and I spoke very little of the other’s language, so he turned to me and said “marijuana for Americanos.”
With translation help from my colleague from the U.S. Forest Service, Sue Kozacek, we learned that each burning forest plot was likely the result of a farmer clearing a small plot to grow marijuana, and maybe a little corn. Stumbling into a quarter-acre plot of three foot tall marijuana plants really brought home for me how widespread marijuana cultivation is in the Sierra Madre. Most of it is for U.S. consumption. From that same ridge I scanned the mountains to the north with my binoculars and noted massive forest clear cuts. During this short trip I had clearly learned first hand the threats to the forest in this region, the lack of local economic opportunities, the low living standards of the people, and the bird habitat conservation issues facing Mexico within the Sierra Madre ecosystem. And now I could relate these impacts to issues within our own southern Arizona Important Bird Areas (IBAs).
I and the other avian biologists from the U.S. and Mexico were attending a Sonoran Joint Venture Technical meeting at the El Palmito Tufted Jay Preserve to discuss cooperative bird monitoring in our common region of Arizona, Southern California, and northwest Mexico. But, invariably it was the stunning birds and the amazing pine-oak forest that surrounded us that spurred much of our discussions.
The Preserve (~7,500 ft. elev.) is a project of Pronatura Noroeste, a Mexican conservation group which has secured a 30-year lease from the local ejido (communal lands) of El Palmito, with grants provided by the Mexican and U.S. governments to protect the site from logging and manage it for birds—in particular the highly restricted endemic Tufted Jay (Cyanocorax dickeyi) of the southern Sierra Madre.
The site’s importance to the jay was only made apparent after a plane crashed at the site on a clandestine airstrip that was used to fly out marijuana. A large-scale marijuana operation had occurred in the 15-acre cleared area at the site. The Mexican Army’s discovery of the crash site led to the cessation of the marijuana growing operation and the subsequent opportunity for Pronatura to begin working with the ejido in 2003. Small plots of marijuana apparently continued to be grown until Pronatura secured its lease late last year, hence our discovery on the nearby ridge within the reserve.
Pronatura found a high density of nesting Tufted Jays and proposed to the federal government that it be preserved. They are now working with the ejido on alternative economic developments, including an ecotourism lodge with cabins and tents, a bird guiding venture, visitor center, a local forest fire prevention crew, a small wood harvest and furniture business, and some other projects.
They hope to fully develop the ecolodge in a few years to serve birders, primarily Americans looking to see spectacular “life birds” such as the jay, Mountain Trogon, Military Macaw, Blue Mockingbird, Gray-crowned Woodpecker, Tufted Flycatcher, Gray Silky-Flycatcher, Brown-backed Solitaire, Russet Nightingale-Thrush, Golden-browed Warbler, Crescent-chested Warbler, Slate-throated Redstart, Red Warbler, Sinaloa Martin, Blue-hooded Euphonia, Rufous-capped Brush-Finch, and Red-headed Tanager, all of which we saw during our short stay!
Xico Vega is the Pronatura Director of Conservation in Culiacan and the driving force behind the success of Pronatura at El Palmito so far. The Preserve is presently 5000 hectares (12,355 acres) and Xico hopes to expand it to 20,000 or even 40,000 hectares. This is a wonderful project, and one model for saving critical bird habitat from logging or marijuana farming. Still the Sierra Madre is immense, and the local economic development needs of many other villages will persist. New strategies and regional investment by the Mexican and U.S. governments are badly needed to protect the Sierra Madre Occidental, which is one of the Earth’s top “Biodiversity Hotspots” as assessed by Conservation International in 2005.
El Palmito Preserve is going to be proposed as one of a number of new Mexican AICAs (equivalent to our IBAs). Arizona’s IBA Program hopes to partner with Pronatura to assist in El Palmito’s recognition and protection. Our discussions on avian monitoring included the importance of citizen participation in basic bird inventory data-gathering as a first step in the development of bird monitoring programs. Under discussion is the possibility of having Audubon members from Arizona participate in a trogon (and/or Tufted Jay) survey next year at El Palmito Preserve. We will keep you informed!
Until then, if you would like to help the program survey birds at IBAs (or potential IBAs) around the state of Arizona, please contact the IBA Program at Tucson Audubon (628-1730).
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This page was updated on 02/21/06