Install Gate to Protect Visitors and Preserve Resource Habitat (multiple projects)

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument » Install Gate to Protect Visitors and Preserve Resource Habitat (multiple projects) » Document List

Organ Pipe Cactus NM (ORPI) has 92 hazardous mineshafts (up to 450 ft deep). Most abandoned mineral land (AML) sites are significant cultural resources. Hazardous AML features were fenced with barbed wire in the 1970s and 1980s; about 14 also have covers placed in the early to mid-1900s, made of wood, concrete &/or iron. All AML sites are in designated wilderness. Many AML sites are visited by the public. Even more remote sites likely experience increased visits as illegal border-related traffic and interdiction activities take place in backcountry areas.

In this project, barbed-wire fence exclosures will be refurbished or replaced as appropriate at approximately 30 to 50 hazardous AML features. New warning signs will also be placed. At 8 to 14 mineshafts (depending on methods, funding, and cost of materials), new or retrofit closures will be constructed. Closures may be steel, polyurethane foam, bat gates, and/or other. AML sites will be treated in priority order, including features at Victoria, Milton, Baker, Growler, Kuakatch, and Copper Mountain mines.

Contact Information

Mark Sturm
Chief of Resource Management
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
520 387 3683 x7110