Posted on 09/08/2010 10:10:19 AM PDT by AuntB
By now, unless you have been living in a cave, you have heard the discussion about the passage of the controversial immigration bill, SB 1070, which in reality is only what the federal government is supposed to be doing - protect our borders.
One of the things that we as sportsmen should look at is the impact on wildlife and outdoor recreation, including hunting, that is affected by the constant flow of illegal aliens into Arizona.
I, for one, have quit even applying for any big-game tags down south, as I have no desire to deal with illegal aliens and human smugglers sneaking into the country. Then there are the drug smugglers. Those folks are well armed most of the time, and as we have seen recently, they have no qualms about shooting anyone including ranchers and law enforcement officers who try and interrupt their illicit business.
This isn't a new problem. It's been going on for some time now and has caused some real problems for wildlife and sportsmen.
A few years ago, I had a client from northern California who drew a HAM (Handgun-Archery-Muzzleloader) javelina tag in Unit 36C, which is located in southern Arizona.
One of my guides took him out, and on the first day of the hunt while glassing from the top of a hill, they spotted a herd of pigs running out of a nearby wash. Why were they running? It seems a small group of illegals were trying to avoid detection and so they were staying tight to the wash and spooked the herd.
Next morning, the hunter and his guide were sitting on the same mountain top glassing.
This time at daylight, the guide spotted another group of subjects, but these seven guys were dressed in camos, with five of them carrying huge backpacks. The guy in the front had what appeared to be an AR-type rifle, while the guy in the back was toting an AK-47.
"Those are guys you don't want to run into," my guide said to the client.
At that point, the hunter said to the guide in no uncertain terms, "I'm out of here!" Seemed he was carrying a .44 magnum handgun but was a little spooked about running into these heavily armed hombres. They went back to camp and the client loaded up and went home, his javelina hunt over.
Then there were the Kingman deer hunters that had drawn premium late December Coues deer tags in a unit that borders Mexico.
After two days of watching illegals being chased by Border Patrol helicopters and ground crews, plus seeing flashlights all around the camp at night, these guys gave up and came home.
"No hunt is worth our lives," they told me. And they were right.
Besides displacing wildlife from the historical places where they live, the illegals and drug smugglers also bring in tons and tons of trash, which they leave in the desert.
Drop sites all over Arizona have produced thousands of pounds of discarded clothes, water bottles, backpacks, food and other items.
It has gotten so bad that one group of Southern Arizona sportsmen do annual cleanups of the major drop sites.
And don't just think these desert drop offs happen only in Southern Arizona. A few years ago, Page McDonald and I volunteered to attend a cleanup in the desert just off the main highway north of Lake Pleasant. The site was close to Wickenburg and we wanted to see first-hand what was being dumped in the desert.
Folks running that cleanup said the illegals responsible for the trash we found were most likely headed either north to Las Vegas or west to California. That means of course that many of them come right through Kingman and Mohave County.
That day, the volunteers picked up an incredible amount of trash, filling up a number of Dumpsters that had been brought out to the site by the Bureau of Land Management.
Now, before you start sending me "fan mail" suggesting I'm some kind of racist, let me say here and now I'm not against legal immigration, but I am sure against this unchecked illegal immigration!
I could go on and on about the social costs of all of this, but I won't. This article is about the damage done to our desert, wildlife and sportsmen as a result of all of this illegal activity.
Did you know that it has got so bad that BLM has put up signs warning visitors about these dangers when visiting some parts of Southern Arizona?
The Arizona Game and Fish Commission passed a rule that now allows archers to carry handguns on their archery hunts.
Why? For protection against illegal aliens, drug and human smugglers mainly in Southern Arizona. Nothing like running into some bad guys when all you have is a sharp-pointed stick, right?
We as citizens and sportsmen in Arizona ought to be outraged at what is going on in our state.
Folks back east and even in neighboring California don't have any idea of the resource damage being done by this invasion of illegals.
But the problem is real in Arizona, and it is ongoing day and night. Should we just turn our heads and say it's no big deal?
Well over 70 percent of Arizonans think it is a big deal, and sportsmen don't make up that much of the population, so it is more than just a handful of angry sportsmen that are fed up with all of this.
It is obvious that the current federal administration isn't going to do much to stop or even slow this problem, even though under the Constitution it is their responsibility.
Nope, we better step up and keep the pressure on our state politicians to try and slow down this invasion.
The state's wildlife needs to be helped. Unfortunately, wildlife has only sportsmen - the state's only true conservationists - to try and protect them.
Ping!
Illegal aliens harm our quality of life - an taxpayers are forced to provide them with perks. Amazing how silent most environmentalists are regarding the impact - there was controversy within the Sierra Club but the pro illegals apparently won.
.....Illegal alien invasion impacts wildlife, hunters....
Birders, too!
There’s a lot of them, since SE Arizona and the San Pedro Valley are prime birding territory. They include both locals and tourists. There are butterfly collectors, too, and wildlife researchers.
It’s a lot better to have birders—who love Arizona and provide business to local motels/bed-and-breakfasts/hotels and restaurants—than hordes of illegals who trash our desert and conduct all sorts of criminal activity.
Stop the invasion! Secure our border!!!!
Good to see you, HS!
Some fine photos of the illegal alien invasion in LA.
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/
Illegal alien invasion impacts everything, negatively!!
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