Low-Altitude Jets and Sonic Booms Don’t Belong Over Wilderness

The U.S. Air Force has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that proposes a massive increase in low-level jet training flights in more than 1.2 million acres of designated Wilderness in southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Such activity would shatter the area’s natural sounds, ruin the wilderness experience for visitors, and stress native wildlife.

Your help is needed by October 9 to tell the Air Force to keep low-altitude jets, sonic booms, and supersonic flights out of these Wildernesses!

The Wilderness areas at risk include the Gila and Blue Range Wildernesses in New Mexico, plus the following Wildernesses in Arizona: 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. In addition to these 30 designated Wildernesses, this proposal also threatens the Blue Range Primitive Area as well as 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 near her home that later 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 this military training. The Air Force needs to hear from the public that it should not damage and degrade the wildness of these designated Wildernesses with its proposal.

To help make a difference, please submit your public comments to the Air Force by October 9 at the following link: https://www.arizonaregionalairspaceeis.com/comments/. To help assist you, Wilderness Watch has put together this list of talking points.

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