Comment on FR Doc # E8-18779

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe wishes to petition the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list the Sonoran Desert bald eagle for protection under the Endangered Species Act. In order to underscore the importance of the bald eagle to the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, it will be necessary to reiterate our original comments and present additional arguments. The bald eagle factors prominently into Pascua Yaqui Tribal religious practices, such as the Wiko Ya’aura Ceremonial Society and the Aztec Dancers, just to name two of the Tribal ceremonies. If you have further questions regarding the bald eagle as a factor in Pascua Yaqui Tribal culture, please call Amalia Reyes, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Education Resource Coordinator, at (520) 879-5742. Arizona is experiencing one of the greatest human population increases in the United States. The Verde and Salt River reservoir systems are experiencing enormous pressure from recreation/fishing boaters and hikers, resulting in negative impacts to the Sonoran Desert bald eagle through foraging and nesting disturbances. As a result of the human population explosion, the Sonoran Desert bald eagle will be subjected to increasing human disturbance on a daily basis, but most importantly during nesting (human disturbances can range from people merely getting too close to the nest, impairing the ability of the nesting pair to incubate eggs, to humans either killing the nesting adults or removing nestlings from the nest). The Bald and Golden Eagle Act does not provide the critical nesting buffer zone protection afforded by the Endangered Species Act. The protection afforded the Sonoran Desert bald eagle under the Endangered Species Act goes beyond the actual prima facie wording of the Act. Laypersons possess stronger recognition of the existence of Endangered Species Act and superficial knowledge of the protection afforded species under that act, than they would of the Bald and Golden Eagle Act. Fear of the heavier sanctions imposed under the Endangered Species Act would also be a greater deterrent to take by humans. Water is one of the key limiting factors to human population growth in Arizona as well as to the Sonoran Desert bald eagle habitat. Increased human demand upon aquifers and streams has had enormous detrimental effects to the Arizona natural habitat, killing huge tracts of trees in, what were previously, riparian areas. The survival of the Sonoran Desert bald eagle is inextricably attached to areas of open water for foraging purposes. Reduction in the volume of water in the Verde and Salt River water systems will negatively impact the Sonoran Desert bald eagle population. The negative impact will be realized through the concentration of fishing and recreation activities for both human and the Sonoran Desert bald eagle, bringing the two species in closer proximity. This is another area where the nesting buffer zone protection proffered by the Endangered Species Act will be required, functioning as an exclosure for human fishing/recreation activity. It is recommend that instead of using political features as specie range boundaries in the federally listed species range map (which cuts off the federally listed area in La Paz and Yuma Counties at U.S. Highway 95) that the federally listed area be established by ecological factors and extended west to the Colorado River. National Wildlife Refuge personnel stationed along the Colorado River have annual documentation of bald eagle foraging and nesting activity along the river. If you have further species specific questions please direct your inquiries to William Campbell, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Environmental Specialist, at (520) 879- 6365.