Regional Impact Alert
Two US Air Force proposals threaten to erode the future of outdoor life, research, and recreation in southern Arizona and New Mexico
If permitted, these plans will severely impact vast expanses of the American Southwest, and lead a sharp change of direction away from the Sky Islands’ unparalleled conditions for research and peaceful contemplation.
In 2022, the Air Force proposed to intensify air combat training (SUA Optimization) over vast protected lands of the Southwest. The process for this plan advanced nearly three years without legitimate analysis, transparency, or public engagement. A final decision is pending.
Spring, 2024, a second proposal was announced: plans to transform Tucson’s Davis-Monthan airbase into the third US Air Force Special Operations hub (SOW Beddown). Tactical developments with profound dangers to public safety would be supported by the devastating airspace permissions awaiting action - and accelerate a foreign policy trajectory the majority of Americans polled reject.
August to November, 2024, a rising movement of concerned elected officials, Tribal Councils, counties, towns, organizations, community groups, businesses, and individuals sent thousands of comments to the Air Force regarding the unacceptability of their report (DEIS) on the proposed changes to rules for regional air combat training.
December, 2024, twenty-seven signatories - including artists, educators, journalists, owners of beloved local businesses, professionals of law and medicine; founders, board members, and coordinators of regional organizations focused on sustainability, conservation, and peace - submitted comments regarding the less conspicuous Air Force report (DEIS) on SOW Beddown, which ignores grave public risk.
Add your name to this petitionto endorse that document.
We are grateful for military service in defense of liberty. Yet, the proposals to restructure Davis-Monthan and southwest regional airspace demonstrate a culture of complacency and mismanagement that is undemocratic. To renounce dereliction at the highest levels of leadership is to defend honorable service.
Should we forsake regional safety, heritage, and critical ecology to accelerate Irregular Warfare the majority of Americans reject?
Davis-Monthan is being transformed into one of only three Air Force bases in the United States for this function, without democratic transparency.
We urge individuals and organizations to continue fostering awareness and legal action surrounding these proposals - to safeguard the future of Tucson, rural communities, protected tribal and public lands, countryside internationally revered in scientific research, and an entire region of unparalleled ecology.
When facing the proposals’ passage (anticipated 2025), let us reconvene with enough leverage to demand elected officials represent their constituents’ voices.
The health and safety of home must come before the aims of arms-tech investors and weaponry buyers.
Please join and share the petition
Your consciousness and action are meaningful and appreciated
Pending risks of proposed SUA Optimization include -
- Aircraft combat training as low as 100 feet from the ground, as close as 500 feet to people and homes; 2000°F flares dropped from as low as 2000 feet, sonic booms emitted as low as 5000 feet, hundreds of pounds of aluminium-coated glass fibers containing PFAs, routinely ejected from as low as 2000 feet (chaff)
- Perpetual threat of wildfire ignited by flares to rural communities and protected wilderness areas sheltering over 70 sensitive/at-risk species including 14 endangered species, plus avian breeding grounds utilized by a raptor population presumed to be the highest combined density/diversity on the planet
- Noise pollution impacts to humans, horses, and wildlife including chronic shock from sonic booms, chronic aural intrusion and startle effects which are scientifically correlated with species-specific risks to communication, predation, or escape; deficient motivation, language acquisition, reading, and memory in children; sleep disorders, mental health problems, and cardiovascular disease
- Decimation by sonic boom vibration-triggered emergence of species evolved to only emerge from hibernation when triggered by thunder vibration which signals life-sustaining precipitation, such as Spadefoot toads
- Adverse effects to sensitive aquatic organisms such as endangered pupfish, from broken-down particles of aluminium-coated glass fibres (chaff) which contain PFAs and can drift hundreds of miles on wind; and unknown effects to humans, birds, and other animals from respiration of drifting/degraded chaff
- Tremor danger to protected archeological and geological sites, and interference with esteemed regional astronomy
- Withdrawal or reduction of available medical emergency helicopter services
We urge the public to contact elected officials regarding this threat. The Sky Islands are homelands of Southwest Native Nations, internationally revered in scientific research, and a treasure of unparalleled biodiversity.
-
For reference on this issue:
Our Comments to the US Air Force
Peaceful Chiricahua Skies
US Air Force EIS