Wilderness Watch is opposing a U.S. Air Force proposal for a massive increase in low-level jet training flights in more than 1.2 million acres of Wilderness in Arizona and New Mexico. The activity detailed in a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) entitled Regional Special Use Airspace Optimization to Support Air Force Missions in Arizona—including low-altitude jets, sonic booms, and supersonic flights—would shatter the area’s natural sounds, ruin the wilderness experience for visitors, traumatize rural residents, and stress native wildlife.
The 30 Wilderness areas at risk include the Gila and Blue Range Wildernesses in New Mexico, and in Arizona: the Superstition, Salt River Canyon, White Canyon, Needles Eye, Aravaipa Canyon, Galiuro, Santa Teresa, Fishhooks, Bear Wallow, Escudilla, Mount Baldy, Chiracahua, Arrastra Mountains, Tres Alamos, Rawhide Mountains, Harcuvar Mountains, Swansea, East Cactus Plain, Harquahala Mountains, Aubrey Peak, Upper Burro Creek, Hummingbird Springs, Organ Pipe Cactus, Cabeza Prieta, Coyote Mountains, Big Horn Mountains, Baboquivari Peak, and Pajarita Wildernesses. This proposal also threatens the Blue Range Primitive Area and many Wilderness Study Areas.
Eighteen of these Wildernesses were designated by the 1990 Arizona Desert Wilderness Act, which unfortunately contained a bad special provision that allows military overflights. But that doesn’t mean the proposed action won’t damage those Wildernesses, nor does that 1990 law give the Air Force a free pass to damage the other Wildernesses.
The Air Force wants to make changes to 10 Military Operation Areas (MOAs) to enhance its airspace training capabilities. Specifically, the Air Force wants to lower the altitudes of existing MOAs to support low-altitude training (in some cases, as low as 500 feet above the ground, and in one case, just 100 feet above the ground). The Air Force also wants to authorize supersonic training at lower altitudes in more MOAs, lower the minimum release altitude for flares, and authorize use of chaff bundles containing up to 5 million aluminum-coated silica fibers, which are used to obscure radar and are designed to stay airborne as long as possible before they settle to the ground.
Flares comprised of aluminum and Teflon are released to mislead heat sensitive or seeking targeting systems. They allegedly burn out far above ground level, but there are documented cases of them being mistakenly released at low altitudes, reaching the ground, and igniting fires. Tragically, in 2017, an Arizona woman was burned “from head to toe” when she discovered an Air Force flare that exploded in her face, forcing her to endure “a medically-induced coma for a week.”
Research documents the serious health effects of aircraft noise on humans and wildlife, including low-level supersonic jet flights, such as auditory damage and startling response. And extreme sound disturbances can cause wildlife to abandon important habitat and impact their ability to successfully feed, mate, nest, and raise their young. For people who seek quiet and solitude in these Wildernesses, military training exercises are always at odds with experiencing such values of Wilderness and should be prohibited.
We shouldn’t sacrifice over 1.2 million acres of Wilderness areas when there are better places for military training. In our comments we noted that the Draft EIS inadequately analyzes impacts to wilderness character. As one example, the Draft EIS merely talks about jet noise that can cause hearing loss. The Final EIS must thoroughly analyze impacts of jet noise on the loss of quiet and solitude to human visitors, as well as the impacts of jet noise on wildlife. The Air Force must either select Alternative 1 (the No-Action alternative) or delete the proposed military airspace overlap above all of the designated Wildernesses in Arizona and New Mexico.
Photo: USAF Photo by TSgt Ben Bloker
