Desert paradise fading
3 March 2002
By Tony Davis and Tom Stauffer

Irene Shiner says she found her soul five years ago when she first saw the Sonoran Desert northeast of Tucson while visiting from Pennsylvania. Today, she calls her Sabino Springs home paradise.

Her kitchen window lets her gaze at the pink, sunset-tinted Rincon Mountains every evening. The saguaro stands are thick, the lightning storms and rainbows are spectacular and the walking is fabulous, she says.

And, with locked gates at the subdivision's Snyder Road entrance, "It's safe out here," Shiner said.

For people, but not necessarily for animals, noted Sue Gurgevitch, a neighbor and friend.

Shiner said she understands that well. Five years ago, she and her husband would see coyotes walk every morning to a pond near the Raven golf course inside Sabino Springs. Mule deer would pass by once a month or so. Coyotes, javelina and bobcats raced through the subdivision regularly; once, a coyote came to the 13th hole and swiped a golf ball.

But today, Shiner estimates she sees about 10 percent of the wildlife she did five years ago when she moved into the new subdivision that will eventually contain 516 homes on 430 acres.

As the Sabino Canyon area grows at a faster clip than the city of Tucson and its other suburban areas, accounts of wildlife dislocation and a loss of the natural experience are becoming more common.

At the same time, efforts are under way to preserve the area's water flows and eradicate its non-native animal species. The area surrounding the canyon may never be home again to abundant wildlife, but some biologists hope its example will be used to protect other places in Pima County that still are.

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How it developed

The reports of wildlife losses are coming even though developers and homebuilders in that area have for years prided themselves on their environmental sensitivity, leaving huge patches of desert and the area's washes intact when they build custom homes on large lots.

Most of the area east of Sabino Canyon has developed at one house per acre, usually with plenty of desert surrounding the houses.

West of the canyon, much of the area has filled in at suburban-level densities of three or more homes to the acre. In spots, apartment complexes, office buildings and shopping centers occupy land once filled by wildflowers and prickly pear. But there's also plenty of land filling out with one- to five-acre and larger lots.

Those lots may not be big enough. University of Arizona studies during the late 1980s at Saguaro National Monument, now a national park, found that while developments at one house per 10 acres can draw more animals when homeowners plant grasses and shrubs and build pools, the number of mule deer and javelina decreased rapidly at higher housing densities.

"When you bring people into areas like that, you don't alter the habitat; you eliminate it," said Paul Krausman, a UA wildlife ecology professor.

"Tucson is a great city. We try to maintain wildlife as much as we can. At the same time, get real. You're not going to have densities of wildlife when you have housing developments, resorts and infrastructure. You can't support it."

Wildlife hasn't come close to disappearing from the area. Numerous Sabino-area residents, particularly those living near the Coronado National Forest boundary, say they still catch frequent glimpses of animals walking down the street, sipping water from golf course ponds, and hopping into back yards to dip and drink from ponds and pools.

Jennifer Hunter, a real estate broker who specializes in the Sabino Canyon area, said she sees small gray foxes and coyotes twice a week while driving home along Rudasill Road about a half-mile south of the Coronado National Forest Boundary.

"This area, because of its proximity to Tucson, would be developed anyway," she added. "But the way it's developed, it's created an environment in harmony with the desert. All these creeks up here - Esperero, Ventana, Sabino, Bird canyons - they didn't grade these washes, they protected them. Yes, there is tract housing up here, but they've left open space."

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* Contact Tony Davis at 573-4240 or at [email protected].
* Contact Thomas Stauffer at 573-4197 or at [email protected].