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METAL DART CLICKUP
Photograph by Joel Sartore
Bombs and bighorns: military uses

A metal dart (above) towed by a warplane as target for live-fire, air-to-air combat training, punctures the floor of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in the Sonoran Desert of southwestern Arizona, set aside in 1939 for desert bighorn sheep and Sonoran pronghorn. Cabeza Prieta is the largest wilderness refuge in the lower 48 states, with 860,000 acres (348,000 hectares) placed off-limits to development. But the protected land lies adjacent to the immense Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range, where low-level training flights of military aircraft send sonic booms through the hills and valleys, shaking the countryside.

The airspace over Cabeza Prieta is controlled by both Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix and the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, and their use of this wildlife refuge is the result of an agreement between the Departments of Transportation, Defense, and Interior. Bizarre? But Bob Schumacher, manager of the refuge, sees both sides of the issue. “The military serves as a buffer—that’s why things have really gotten better,” he says. “If Barry Goldwater ceased to exist, the impact could be devastating. The lands could fall to multiple users.”

It’s not that Schumacher believes that planes are good for wildlife. “We don’t know the impact of the noise,” he says, “but a big sonic boom can literally blow your socks off. We’re large mammals. Do we know if, because of the sound of large cities, our lives have been shortened? Scientific studies do show stress, and they show recovery. The question is, what does that mean? I do not expect to see it resolved in the near future.”


©1996 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

 
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