CBD petition seeks protection for 2 plants in Cochise County

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition Wednesday under the Endangered Species Act, seeking protection for two Arizona plants. The center says the plants' numbers are withering due to mining, recreation, climate change, and, more predominantly, collection and cattle grazing. The petitioners render the need for federal protection for the Bartram stonecrop and the beardless chinch weed "unquestionable" and go on to explain that the decision to provide assistance for these rare plants should have been made 30 years ago. Though the petition originally started with the proposition to build the Rosemont open-pit mine near the Santa Rita Mountains, it also claims that the Forest Service and cattle ranchers are culpable. Both plants grow in what the biologists refer to as the Sky Islands in the Atascosa, Baboquivari, Chiricahua, Dragoon, Huachuca, Mule, Patagonia, Rincon, Santa Rita and Tumacacori mountains and Canelo Hills in Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties...more