ABOVE: Gabriel Baca (left), his brother Antonio Baca (center) and Jose Rivera enjoy the new sodded athletic field at St. John's Community Park, 3610 S. 12th Ave.

LEFT: Stephanie Prinzing's dogs Hopper (front) and Spike wait to get a drink from the dog water fountain at Jacinto Park, 2600 N. 15th Ave.

BELOW: Sandra Ramirez pushes daughter Natalia Navarro, 3, on a swing at Jacinto Park.

It was a long wait, but residents of the Miracle Manor Neighborhood finally have a park with amenities like other city parks.

“We’ve been asking, ‘Why can’t we have equipment in a park that is 60 years old?’ ” Jim Quinn, vice president of the Miracle Manor Neighborhood Association, said Thursday.

Neighbors will gather at 9 a.m. Saturday at Jacinto Park, 2600 N. 15th Ave., to dedicate improvements that neighborhood residents had sought: a ramada, connecting sidewalks, a swing set with rubberized safety surfacing, a drinking fountain, picnic and game tables and a basketball half court.

Getting them was a chore since funds came from both the city and Pima County, said Marsha Quinn, the neighborhood association’s liaison with Tucson and Pima County.

The project’s $268,331 came from four sources: a $203,331 Pima County Neighborhood Reinvestment grant, $30,000 each from the Mayor’s Office and Ward 3 Back to Basics programs, and a $5,000 grant from PRO (People, Resources, Organizations) Neighborhoods.

St. John’s Community Park, 3610 S. 12th Ave., will be dedicated at 2 p.m. Wednesday and also will have new facilities.

The land is owned by St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, which is leasing it to the city as a park site for 25 years.

Funds for the improvements came from grants from both the city and county, said Leslie Nixon, of the Pima County Neighborhood Reinvestment and Preservation Office.

A $500,000 Pima County grant funded construction of a skateboard facility at the park, Nixon said.

Other improvements include crushed stone paths, athletic field landscaping, a ramada, picnic tables and benches.

Through midnight May 31, citizens may vote twice daily among five national finalists for this Redwood Creek Greater Outdoors Project grant. Redwood Creek, a California winery, will give the money to the project receiving the most votes.

Anyone may vote once a day online and once a day by text message. To vote online, visit www.blazethetrail.com/greatoutdoors/vote. Send text message votes to 39668 with the voting code “trail.”

The grant money would fund the Saguaro National Park Connector Trail, a five-mile stretch of the Arizona Trail into the park that must be constructed by hand due to its remoteness and the rugged landscape.

The trail would allow access into backcountry areas and protect a sensitive riparian area.

For more information, visit www.aztrail.org.

Tucsonan Sirena Dufault, who has fibromyalgia, plans to complete an 800-mile hike of the Arizona Trail on Tuesday.

When she set out to hike the 800-mile Arizona Trail last spring, Sirena Dufault worried that she might not finish.

The daunting trail stretches from Utah to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Tucsonan Dufault’s concern stemmed from her decade-long battle with fibromyalgia, a little-understood chronic pain disorder.

“I was a little hesitant to publicize it because I didn’t know how far I could go,” Dufault said this week. “Now I can comfortably do a 15-mile day with a big pack, no problem.”

Tuesday – on national Fibromyalgia Awareness Day – the 35-year-old will make a final, eight-mile hike north of Oracle to complete the trail, trudging from the Tiger Mine Trail head to the American Flag Trail head.

Dufault kept an online journal throughout her trek, which she made mostly by herself in one- to five-day trips. Tuesday’s leg will mark the 80th day Dufault has spent on the trail.

Dufault said she hopes her success will inspire the 10 million Americans who suffer from the disorder. “There’s not a whole lot of positive information out there about people getting their lives back after fibromyalgia.”

Fibromyalgia’s symptoms include chronic, widespread body pain, according to the National Fibromyalgia Association. Symptoms can stem from an acute illness or injury, as in Dufault’s case. Her diagnosis came in 1998, a year after she was hit by a car as she crossed a street. For months afterward, even as her initial injuries healed, Dufault’s pain and fatigue worsened.

“I saw her probably at her worst,” said Angi Edge, a nurse and massage therapist who treated Dufault after her diagnosis and became a fast friend. “So many people give up on themselves. They become their disease. She was just not going to give up.”

Dufault’s pain has not flared up in a major way in the past three years, she said. “I attribute that to being very, very active.”

For her next big adventure, Dufault might hike the Tonto Trail in the Grand Canyon. She walked 25 miles of that 90-mile trail last winter.

———

Read about Sirena Dufault’s experiences hiking the Arizona Trail in her online journal: www.aztrail4fms.org.

“While the Arizona Game & Fish Department has stated that it will investigate the circumstances of this case, I strongly feel that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, as the federal agency with responsibility for conservation of endangered species, needs to step in and determine the facts of this case,” Grijalva said Wednesday in a news release.

“It is not enough that the Game & Fish Department investigate its own activities, given what has happened, as they have made it clear that they would not change any aspect of their handling of this animal.”

Grijalva questions the protocol of the initial capture, the factors leading to the jaguar’s recapture, the animal’s health status prior to euthanization and why a more thorough autopsy was not performed.

The director of the state Game & Fish Department declined to give details about new information he said sparked the launch of the state agency’s investigation.

“The department’s investigative protocol requires careful protection of relevant information pending an outcome,” Larry Voyles said in a news release. “But once the process concludes, we will disclose information to the extent allowable by law.”

Macho B was accidentally caught in a Game & Fish snare set to capture bears and mountain lions on Feb. 18. He was released with a radio collar, then recaptured 12 days later after his movements slowed, hinting the aging jaguar was sick.

A Phoenix Zoo veterinarian put Macho B down after determining the animal’s kidneys were failing. Game and Fish was criticized for stressing Macho B by putting a radio collar on him. Stress can cause kidney failure in large cats.

Some environmentalists believe the stress of capture and collaring caused Macho B’s death.

“It was a high-risk activity, and they knew that,” said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Serraglio offered the comment at a March 5 protest “memorial service” for Macho B. About three dozen people attended the protest outside Game & Fish’s Tucson office.

The center this week won a lawsuit aimed at reversing U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service decisions not to designate critical habitat or create a recovery plan for jaguars. A federal judge ordered the agency to revisit the decisions by Jan. 8.

Game & Fish officials could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

By Ryn Gargulinski, B. William Poole

A federal judge Tuesday ordered the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to revisit its decisions not to designate habitat and create a recovery plan for jaguars in the United States.

The decision in a lawsuit filed by Defenders of Wildlife and the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity comes just weeks after the agency killed what many believe was the last jaguar in Arizona.

U.S. District Judge John M. Roll ruled Fish & Wildlife did not “articulate a rational basis” for the decision not to designate critical habitat for the Western Hemisphere’s largest cat. That decision must be revisited, Roll said in the 32-page ruling.

The agency also must go back to the drawing board and decide whether to draft a recovery plan, the judge ordered, setting Jan. 8 as the deadline.

Michael Robinson, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, was elated at the news.

“This is a lifeboat that has been extended to the jaguar, and it’s a much needed lifeboat,” Robinson said.

The court’s decision does not mean a recovery plan and habitat designation are a foregone conclusion, said Fish & Wildlife spokesman Jeff Humphrey.

“They didn’t order us to designate critical habitat or write a recovery plan,” Humphrey said.

The ruling only requires that the agency decide again whether to do those things, he said.

This is the third time Fish & Wildlife will decide on critical habitat, Robinson said.

Fish & Wildlife declined to designate habitat the first time because it determined that the process would harm the jaguars by highlighting their location.

After that was struck down, the service found the U.S. habitat was not critical to the species. That decision was shot down Tuesday, he said.

Robinson believes the service will now be forced to designate critical habitat.

“There is no other conceivable excuse under the law not to designate critical habitat,” he said.

Brian Segee, a Defenders of Wildlife attorney who argued for a jaguar recovery plan before the federal district court, also was buoyed by the decision.

“The United States is the jaguar’s home, and we should take the actions necessary for it to recover here. We are thrilled with the court’s decision and hope the Fish & Wildlife Service will now move quickly to initiate recovery planning and provide the jaguar with the full Endangered Species Act protections,” he said in a news release.

Species with recovery plans and designated critical habitat recover much faster than species without them, the center said in its news release.

The center had sponsored a “memorial service” protest March 5 in honor of the euthanized cat, Macho B.

The nearly 20-year-old jaguar had been photographed in Arizona since 1996, but was euthanized earlier this month after a veterinarian determined Macho B’s kidneys were failing.

The big cat was accidentally captured in February by an Arizona Game & Fish Department snare, then released with a radio collar. He was recaptured 12 days later after his movements abruptly changed, hinting he was sick.

Jaguars used to roam across much of the United States from the San Francisco Bay area to Appalachia. Sightings have been rare for decades in Arizona.

Robinson believes Tuesday’s ruling will lead to broad habitat designation for the cats, perhaps as far east as Louisiana and Mississippi. He is confident there will eventually be breeding pairs here.

Even if the agency decides to designate habitat and write a recovery plan, those things are likely years away, Humphrey said.

Pima County is leading the pack in an extremely exciting category.

Rabies.

So far this year, we’re the No. 1 place in the entire state to be infested with this dread disease.

Who says nothing fun ever happens in and around Tucson?

From Jan. 1 through March 21, a total of 59 animals have tested positive for rabies across Arizona, 21 of those in Pima County. Comparatively, Cochise and Coconino counties have amassed a paltry 13 cases each.

Last year’s statewide rabies cases broke all records with 176, beating out the previous record of 169 set in 2005.

Pima’s rabid animal count for 2009 has thus far included 15 skunks and six foxes.

I was relieved my dogs – Phoebe and Sawyer – were not on the list, though one of my co-workers, Brad Poole, and his friend April McMahon nearly were.

They were out on a hiking date at Tanque Verde Falls when a skunk came barreling across a rock bed like, well, a skunk with rabies.

While in the past rabid skunks would turn cute and cuddly, perhaps to lure folks close enough to take a chunk out of a human arm, the skunks now come “charging, growling, snapping,” said county Health Department spokeswoman Patti Woodcock.

Rabid skunks are vying with Cujo for becoming the poster child for chilling rabid encounters.

At least Poole and McMahon did the right thing when confronted with the raving, raging skunk.

Poole got out his video camera, and they both moved closer. They then made their way to the rock crevice where the frenzied skunk had run to hide.

The two stopped short of poking their arms in the crevice, though Poole later told me he had considered poking a stick in the hole.

“The worst thing you can do is get too close to the animal,” said Steve Dell, a dog behaviorist and owner of Bark Busters dog training company.

His advice for folks, especially those out walking their dogs, is to divert the potentially rabid beast and get the heck out of there.

“Don’t bend down. Don’t try to feed it. Don’t try to pet the animal,” Dell warned. Even if the animal you’ve encountered has a collar, he said, it may be a stray that is infected.

“Carry some dog kibble or something in your pocket – obviously keep it away from your own granola mix – and gently toss the kibble a safe distance away from you.”

He noted that rabid animals, especially those that used to be house pets, will be foraging for food.

They should take to the kibble, giving you time to escape.

But make sure your own dogs don’t go for the kibble and end up fighting the rabid thing for it.

“Many dogs have an innate sense that something’s not right and will want to get away from the rabid animal,” he said. “Some are very friendly and will come up to anything.”

Sawyer, I’m sure, would attack a rabid beast. Phoebe would probably pee on it.

In either case, I’m stocking up on kibble.

Dell has yet to run across a rabid animal in Pima County, though a couple out hiking last year were attacked by a rabid bobcat.

Katrina Mangin and husband Rich Thomspon, both University of Arizona scientists, encountered the beastly beast while hiking in the Santa Rita Mountains last April.

That innate sense kicked in for Thompson, who immediately somehow knew the bobcat was rabid – even before it attacked his wife. The bobcat lunged at her, then climbed up her legs and wrapped itself around her, clawing and biting.

The couple got away only after Thompson pinned the raging cat to the ground with a stick and pummeled it to death with a hammer from his backpack.

Ouch. So much for the kibble.

As scary as encounters can be, Dell said it should not deter folks from enjoying the great outdoors.

“People should have no fear of hiking in this area,” he said, “assuming they use some common sense. They shouldn’t be frightened to the point of staying inside.”

Nor should they go without their kibble. And it can’t hurt to put a hammer in your backpack.

Ryn Gargulinski is a poet, artist and Tucson Citizen reporter who saw a rabid bat up close when a homeless man brought one inside the New York City pet store where she used to work. Listen to a preview of her column at 8:10 a.m. Thursdays on KLPX-FM (96.1). E-mail comments and job leads to ryndustries@hotmail.com.

———

Rabid skunk video?

Watch Citizen Staff Writer Brad Poole’s encounter with a potentially rabid skunk.

Above from left: Matt Rousch, 15; Kendall Garmon, 16; Kris Garmon and Kristie Garmon, both 20, relax in front of their RV just off Happy Valley Road. Campsites like this would be off-limits under proposed Coronado National Forest rules. Background: Jeff Gregory, 47, often hunts and camps at Happy Valley in the Rincon Mountains.

Proposed Coronado National Forest changes would mean curtailed access for roadside campers in some spots, a forest official said.

However officials said they would try to keep as many campsites open as possible.

The changes to motorized vehicle rules – mandated by the federal government – are designed to ensure that road systems are maintained in a way that allows public and forest service access and protects the environment, said Laura White, an official for Coronado National Forest.

The proposed rules will be presented to the public Thursday in an open house in Tucson. The biggest change would restrict camping along Happy Valley Road, a 15-mile gravel path along the eastern flank of the Rincon Mountains.

“That’s the one where we have proposed doing away with dispersed motorized camping” within 300 feet of the road, White said. “We’re seeing an increase in the resource damage.”

The area, near Mescal, about an hour’s drive from Tucson, is crisscrossed with wildcat roads cut through the woods.

Some areas are so well-used that they are little more than large, streamside dirt lots where campers park RVs.

The new rules would create “spur” roads off of Happy Valley Road where camping would be allowed, White said.

Southern Arizonans have long used the area to escape from Tucson and as a launching point for ATV rides and hunting treks. Trails cut by riders have damaged the streambed in many places, and unauthorized trails are common.

But camper and hunter Jeff Gregory, 47, thinks the U.S. Forest Service is using the wrong method to control damage.

Gregory, a Mescal resident who was out at Happy Valley with his family Saturday, thinks the government should let campers camp, but make them respect the environment.

“Don’t restrict camping, just up the enforcement. If they come out here and see that your camp site’s a mess, they could issue a citation,” he said.

Joel Garmon, 48, has been camping and hunting at Happy Valley for three decades. He disputes White’s contention that there is an increase in damage.

“I don’t think this is in any worse shape than it was 30 years ago,” he said.

Most campers respect the environment and even clean up after others, he said. Still, a lot of people go there to drink, he said.

“That’s where you get a lot of problems with disrespect,” Garmon said.

The rule changes would add 5.75 miles of new forest road, reroute 0.95 miles and close 1.27 miles. There would be no significant changes to ATV access, because rules already prohibit ATVs except on designated roads, White said.

After the road changes were confirmed, maps would be published, probably by the end of this year, she said.

“That will be the enforcement tool, basically,” she said.

The Forest Service will take comments on the proposals through April 15.

Joel Garmon

———

If you go

What: U.S. Forest Service open house to present proposed vehicle use rules.

When: 5-7:30 p.m., Thursday

Where: Udall Regional Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road

———

Coronado National Forest Transportation Analysis Plan scoping statement: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/travel/scrd-scoping-notice-03112009.shtml

The rules – required of all national forests – would forbid dispersed camping within 300 feet of Happy Valley Road, a secluded, tree-lined sanctuary popular with holiday campers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts.

The new rules would designate about 6 miles of new forest roads, reroute about 1 mile and close 1.3 miles, according to a Coronado news release.

Coronado is taking comments on the proposed changes. The forest published its proposed changes Wednesday and will hold an open house from 5 to 7:30 p.m. March 26 at Udall Regional Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road.

Comments can be filed by e-mail at comments-southwestern-coronado@fs.fed.us (put “Travel Management NEPA” in the subject line), by fax at 388-8305 or by telephone at 388-8419.

Tumacacori National Historical Park preservation crew workers repair the No. 9 bridge wall.

Crews have been repairing trails and the historic concrete and rock bridges at Sabino Canyon Recreation Area that were damaged by monsoon floods in 2006.

The Southwest Conservation Corps ended its work on trails last week.

Coronado National Forest officials called on the historic preservation crew of Tumacacori National Historical Park to repair the nine low-water crossings on the road to upper Sabino Canyon.

“They are the southwestern experts in masonry, adobe, lime, plaster, lots of different kinds of historic construction, and we’ve been very fortunate that they’ve been willing to come up here time and time again,” said Chris Schreger, restoration specialist with the Coronado National Forest and U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Friends of Sabino Canyon, a nonprofit organization, raised money to hire the Southwest Conservation Corps to work on Box Camp and West Fork trails.

The corps, founded in 1998, is a nonprofit agency contracted to do a variety of outside work, from invasive species removal in parks to trash pickup along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The corps works in the Southwest, mostly southern Arizona. In addition to its Tucson office, it has two offices in Colorado and one in New Mexico.

The corps provides jobs for youths as young as 14 and accepts them from all over the country. Workers are paid $290 a week. Last year, 95 youths worked on 28 separate projects.

Josh Burt, program director for the corps, said Box Camp Trail lacked general maintenance and was “almost not a trail in places.”

The crew cleared the trail and built structures to prevent water erosion, said crew leader James Brown, 29, of Cortland, N.Y.

The crew on West Fork Trail worked mostly on cutting back vegetation.

Both crews camped out on the trails for the duration of their work.

“It’s just really gratifying to come out here and do something for the community around you and actually see the work you get done being put to use,” said Chris Loyd, 24, from St. Louis.

Crew leader Katie Schroeder, 23, from Midland, Mich., said working for the corps “has made me realize that I care about having opportunities for the public to spend time in the outdoors in a positive way.”

The low-water crossings were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The crossings were last repaired in 2003 and are tended to when needed, said David Yubeta, a historic preservation specialist with the National Park Service.

The crew of five and some extra volunteers worked on all nine crossings. The Forest Service has used $93,000 from its regular project money to pay for the repairs.

“We’re actually repairing them the way the CCC would’ve repaired them, using native material, native rock,” Yubeta said, “and that requires an artistic bent.”

Josh Burt, program director of the Southwest Conservation Corps, hikes the Sabino Canyon Trail. The Southwest Conservation Corps was contracted by the National Park Service to repair the trail.

Oscar Billa of the Tumacacori National Historical Park preservation crew repairs the No. 9 bridge in the Sabino Canyon Recreational Area as a hiker walks by. The crew, along with workers from the Southwest Conservation Corps, helped repair damage done by the 2006 floods.

———

Urban corps?

The Southwest Conservation Corps’ Tucson office wants to start an urban program to involve more local young people.

Participants ages 16 to 22 could attend school in the morning and work on urban conservation projects in the afternoon, executive director Kamillia Hoban said.

One potential project is revitalization on “A” Mountain.

The corps hopes that money from the pending federal stimulus bill will provide funding and that they can have an urban crew in place as early as March.

———

Southwest Conservation Corps

1376 W. St. Mary’s Road

(520) 884-5550

———

On the Web

Southwest Conservation Corps

sccorps.org

Sabino Canyon

www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/forest

Friends of Sabino Canyon

sabinocanyon.org

This is an 8-mile medium difficulty hike with an elevation gain of 750 ft.

Allow 4 to 4.5 hours. Some rock-hopping possible if water is high. Meet at the interpretation ramada near the visitors center, 5700 N. Sabino Canyon Road.

Hike starts at 8:30 a.m. Bring plenty of water, snack or lunch on longer hikes. Wear sturdy shoes or hiking boots. No pets, no smoking, cell phone only for emergencies. Under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. All levels of hikers are welcome.

The activity is free but there is a $5 park entry fee.

For more information call Dorothy or Harry Wilhelmsen at gramynow@comcast.net or call 546-7521.