Cabeza Prieta NWR Proposes Visitor Plan

Cabeza Prieta NWR Proposes Visitor Plan

The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge has drafted a plan to better provide services to its visitors, and seeks your comments at a public meeting at the Community Center in Ajos Bud Walker Park on Thursday, October 26 at 7 pm.

The refuges first Visitor Services Plan provides guidance for the next 15 years in managing visitor facilities and activities on the 860,010 acre refuge, and reflects the direction recently approved in the refuges Comprehensive Conservation Plan. The goal of the plan is to provide visitors with refuge-compatible, high-quality wildlife-dependent recreational and educational experiences designed to foster better appreciation, understanding, and protection of the plant, animal and wilderness resources of the refuge. Cabeza Prieta offers hunting, wildlife observation, photography and environmental education, as well as camping and hiking.

The plan calls for continuing management of the 803,418 acre Cabeza Prieta Wilderness to provide opportunities for primitive and unconfined forms of recreation. The plan also provides for continued seasonal vehicle use of the Camino del Diablo and Charlie Bell Pass Road and for the annual Desert Bighorn Sheep hunt in December, as sanctioned by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

The Visitor Services Plan calls for continued operation of a Visitor Center in Ajo, and an emphasis on public outreach and educational programs and volunteer involvement. New in 2006 are numerous interpretive panels for refuge visitors, on subjects including Sonoran Desert Community of Life, Desert Bighorn Sheep, Sonoran Pronghorn, Quitobaquito Pupfish, Wilderness, Native Americans, the Camino del Diablo, Desert Safety and Low-impact Recreation.

This winter will also see a new series of publications and updated versions of several documents on the refuge and its resources.

The public is invited to learn more about the Visitor Services Plan, and to offer their written comments to Cabeza Prieta NWR by November 17, 2006. Copies of the Visitor Services Plan are available for review on line at http://southwest.fws.gov/refuges, at the Ajo Library and the Cabeza Prieta NWR office at 1611 N 2nd Ave., Ajo. For continuing service, the public may visit the refuge office and Visitor Center weekdays, 7:30 a.m. - noon and 01 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

---FWS--