Hudbay Minerals’ decision to close access to forest roads in the Santa Rita Mountains is angering southern Arizona residents who have long used the area for recreational and hunting purposes.
The action to shut off access to popular off-road trails came just days before a human-caused wildfire broke out near one of the closed roads leading to the popular Gunsight Pass.
Hudbay owns the Rosemont Copper Co. which is seeking state and federal permits to build the Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest southeast of Tucson.
Hudbay closed dirt roads on private land leading to Gunsight and Lopez passes on a prominent ridgeline on the Santa Ritas’ northern end — areas that have long drawn four-wheelers and hunters. The winding, rutted, rocky road leading to Gunsight from Sahuarita was particularly popular, the Arizona Daily Star reports.
“I find it extremely disheartening the mining company would close off this trail to the public, and it’s a significant loss to our community,” Matt Marine, who owns the Experience AZ website that offers information on four-wheeling, hiking and mountain biking across Arizona, said in an interview with the Daily Star.
Marine told the paper it is one of the most popular off-road trails he knows of in the Tucson area, based on the number of information requests he gets about it.
Gunsight and Lopez passes are on private land, but the roads that go through them lead to public land on the Coronado National Forest. Hudbay and the Forest Service say the company has a right to close the roads.
A Forest Service map shows Hudbay has closed roads in 13 locations in the area near the proposed mine site including nine locations on the west side of the Santa Ritas’ ridgeline. The proposed mine would be constructed on the northeastern slope of the mountains.
Mine opponent Tucson-based Save the Scenic Santa Ritas (SSSR) asked the Forest Service to force Hudbay to reopen Gunsight Pass. The Forest Service rejected the group’s request.
“The Forest Service has an obligation to ensure the public can access their national forest,” SSSR president Gayle Hartmann wrote in a Nov. 12 letter to the Forest Service. “We are deeply troubled by this recent development, and it underscores our significant concerns about this project,” she wrote.
Coronado National Forest supervisor Kerwin Dewberry responded to SSSR’s request in a Nov. 20 letter stating that access to public land across private land occurs at the private property owners discretion unless a written easement has reserved the right to public access.
“In the case of the private lands immediately surrounding Gunsight Pass in the Santa Rita Mountains, the CNF is not aware of any such” easement, Dewberry states.
Hartmann said the group is considering legal action.
The Daily Star reports that the Arizona Game & Fish Department has issued 2,000 hunting permits in its 700-square mile wildlife management unit that includes the proposed mine site and Gunsight Pass.
Four days after the Daily Star’s Dec. 4 story a human-caused wildfire started near Gunsight Pass at approximately 2 p.m. The fire grew to more than 200 acres in grass and oak vegetation.
Firefighters from the Bureau of Land Management, Arizona State Forestry, Tubac Fire Department, Sonoita Fire Department, Green Valley Fire Department and the Coronado National Forest were dispatched to suppress the fire, according to the Incident Information System report on the fire.
The fire was 85 percent contained by Friday, Dec. 11. A light snow fall off about two inches extinguished the fire over the weekend, authorities say.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
This is the second wildfire to start near the proposed Rosemont mine. An employee of the previous owner of the Rosemont project, Augusta Resource Corporation, started a 2011 wild fire that burned 1,826 acres.
The Forest Service service charged Augusta $514,000 for fire suppression expenses.
HUDBAY IS EXERTING ITS AUTHORITY AND ARROGANCE WITH THE FULL ENDORSEMENT OF THE FOREST SERVICE . CLOSING ROADS FOR RECREATIONAL PURPOSES IS DISGUSTING , PARTICULARLY WHEN HUDBAY DID NOT CREATE THE ROADS IN THE FIRST PLACE . THE ROSEMONT PROPERTY WILL REMAIN IDLE FOR POSSIBLY YEARS TO COME DURING WHICH TIME HUDBAY SHOULD SHOULD CO-OPERATE WITH RECREATIONAL USERS . EXCEPT FOR THE BUSH FIRES THAT HAVE OCCURRED , HAS THERE BEEN ANY VANDALISM REPORTED THAT INVOLVES THE ROSEMONT PROPERTY ? IF SO WAS IT CAUSED BY RECREATIONAL USERS ? NATURALLY , IF ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT WORK IS TAKING PLACE ON THE PROPERTY INVOLVING MOVEMENT EQUIPMENT , ETC , ALONG THE ROADS IN QUESTION , HUDBAY IS REQUIRED TO PROTECT ITS INTERESTS AND THE SAFETY OF ALL THOSE WHO MAY WISH TO USE ROADS THAT ACCESS THE AREAS . AT SUCH TIME , APPROPRIATE NOTICES CAN BE PUT UP .
HUDBAY HAS APPOINTED A NEW CEO AND HE SHOULD BE CALLED UPON TO PROVIDE AN EXPLANATION FOR HUDBAY’S ACTIONS AGAINST RECREATIONAL ENTHUSIASTS THAT RESTRICT THEIR USE OF THE AREA CONCERNED . HUDBAY WOULD BE WELL ADVISED NOT TO TRY AND PLAY HARDBALL WITH THE PEOPLE OF ARIZONA .
Good Golly Remember It Only Takes One Off-Road Idiot To Screw-Up The Off-Road Trails!! However Maybe Giving The OK To Rosemont Project Would Help?? Remember Hudbay Is In The Mining Business And Needs The Forest Service Permits To Start Mining!! Better Late Than Never!! God Bless America With A New Honest President Donald J. Trump.
Your first sentence stands unjust. It can and it doesn’t take one person to do a whole lot so what’s the matter? How are they even going to get out there to do anything if it’s closed? I’M A SERIOUS RESIDENT OF ARIZONA OF TUCSON WHAT PERSPECTIVE ARE YOU COMING FROM YOUR CHOPPING THINGS UP ALL TOO MUCH I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’RE SAYING THE MINE WOULD HELP WITH TRAILS OR IF THE INTEGRITY OF THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE MINE CAN HELP WITH THE SITUATION. If you insist in stating things more clearly perhaps I can see with less confusion that it’s comming from a human.
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As the owner of the privately owned land at Rosemont, Hudbay Minerals has an obligation to provide a safe work environment for those working at the site as well as ensure the safety of those who use adjacent publicly owned land for recreational activities. Their decision to restrict access to its private lands at Rosemont provides Hudbay Minerals the best means of accomplishing this goal.
Horseshit! Those are mining claims NOT the same as privarely owned pieces of land.
Why aren’t patented mining claims the same as privately owned pieces of land?
A ” SAFE WORK ENVIRONMENT ” AT ROSEMONT COPPER AS REFERRED TO BY MR. HORQUILLA ONLY APPLIES WHEN THE FINAL PERMIT HAS BEEN ISSUED BY THE FOREST SERVICE AND HAS CLEARED ALL OF THE LEGAL HURDLES WHICH IT WILL FACE . THIS COULD TAKE YEARS DURING WHICH TIME THE AREA IN DISPUTE , THAT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY USED BY GENERATIONS OF RECREATIONAL ENTHUSIASTS , SHOULD REMAIN IN USE . THIS IS A TIME WHEN A CORPORATE GIANT COMES DOWN FROM ITS PEDESTAL TO ACCOMMODATE THOSE WHO POSE NO THREAT .
Researching the right-of-way easements for the national forest is a difficult task. Information must be garnered from several government sites, including the BLM, the state land Department, national forest service, Pima County, USGS, Department of Agriculture, and on down the line to sites I haven’t gotten to yet. There are some easements in place, such as the electrical easements until years 2020 and there is a telephone wire easement, an easement for any future ditches by the federal government. The Santa Rita experimental property has been protected by withdrawing the open mineral rights, they cannot be utilized in a mineral claim.
Everyone should realize that the definition of private property is actually a patented mining claim. In 1995 Asarco was granted for patented mining claims which included much of the land previously patented by the federal government. In 1994 October, the moratorium was placed on the issuing patented mining claims, December 1, 1995 Gov. Bruce Babbitt who was then secretary of the interior signed 4 patent assignments for Asarco. Think about that, Bruce Babbitt signs for consecutive patents for hundreds of acres to Asarco 14 to 15 months after moratorium was placed on issuing land patents.
Until the authority changed to the secretary of the interior the patents had to be issued and signed by the president of the United States.
The cost to Asarco for hundreds of acres of national forest was approximately $2500.
One of the gates installed on the forest service roads, specifically 4051, is sitting on the very tip of one of the mining claims. It’s national forest on either side of that little spot but because the survey says that it’s on the road they put a gate on it. I could continue for several pages but I’m going to stop this point and tell you that I’m still researching it.
It’s interesting that you bring up the subject about the 132 patented claims held by Hudbay Minerals in the Helvetia-Rosemont mining district. Yes, ASARCO was allowed to patent 21 mining claims covering 310.58 acres on December 1, 1995. And yes it was after the October 1994 moratorium. However, they were allowed to patent these claims because they had already filed for the patents before the moratorium went into affect. The claims patented by ASARCO are located in the area of the proposed pit.
The remainder of the patented claims covering 1,654.85 acres, including those covering Gunsight and Lopez passes were issued between 1882 and 1926.
Researching the right-of-way easements for the national forest is a difficult task. Information must be garnered from several government sites, including the BLM, the state land Department, national forest service, Pima County, USGS, Department of Agriculture, and on down the line to sites I haven’t gotten to yet. There are some easements in place, such as the electrical easements until years 2020 and there is a telephone wire easement, an easement for any future ditches by the federal government. The Santa Rita experimental property has been protected by withdrawing the open mineral rights, they cannot be utilized in a mineral claim.
Everyone should realize that the definition of private property is actually a patented mining claim. In 1995 Asarco was granted for patented mining claims which included much of the land previously patented by the federal government. In 1994 October, the moratorium was placed on the issuing patented mining claims, December 1, 1995 Gov. Bruce Babbitt who was then secretary of the interior signed 4 patent assignments for Asarco. Think about that, Bruce Babbitt signs for consecutive patents for hundreds of acres to Asarco 14 to 15 months after moratorium was placed on issuing land patents.
Until the authority changed to the secretary of the interior the patents had to be issued and signed by the president of the United States.
The cost to Asarco for hundreds of acres of national forest was approximately $2500.
One of the gates installed on the forest service roads, specifically 4051, is sitting on the very tip of one of the mining claims. It’s national forest on either side of that little spot but because the survey says that it’s on the road they put a gate on it. I could continue for several pages but I’m going to stop this point and tell you that I’m still researching it.