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Eminent biologist is guilty - Mary Darling transplanted endangered
cacti illegally 11/17/03 A prominent biological consultant has pleaded guilty to illegally transplanting endangered cacti, after the real estate investor she was working for turned her in. Biologist Mary Darling, whose clients have included the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, Amphitheater Public Schools and Pima County, has agreed to stop environmental consulting for five years after moving 30 federally protected cacti. Darling, 48, in a plea agreement last week in federal court, also agreed to a $5,000 fine, five years' probation, 90 days of home confinement and 250 days of community service. Federal prosecutors accused Darling of moving endangered Pima pineapple cacti from one privately owned parcel to another south of Tucson without getting a state permit for transplanting native plants. That's also a violation of federal law. She moved the cacti by helicopter in August 2001 to the Winter Haven Ranch in the Altar Valley from another private parcel that officials and her attorney would not identify. She was working through her then-employer, Stantec, for Philip Aries, Aries said Monday. He has been a Tucson real estate broker since 1983. Aries said he raised concerns last year with state and federal prosecutors about the legality of the transplanting. He had acquired an option on the Winter Haven parcel, of about 2,000 acres, hoping to use it for other landowners to store endangered cacti transplanted from other locations. He also saw it as a potential "mitigation bank," which lets developers buy legal credits that allow them to blade other parcels containing pineapple cacti. The deal eventually fell through. Aries said Darling told him it was legal to move the cacti by helicopter but not by highway. "I know in hindsight that it sounds kind of silly. But she was the absolute authority in the market. She told me that she had researched it with the Federal Aviation Administration and with attorneys," he said. Later, Aries said, he became suspicious after Darling urged him not to promote the cacti transplants in selling the land. "As a real estate broker, I have a duty to disclose," he said. "I don't think she set out to hurt anyone," Aries said. Darling's attorney, Michael Piccarreta, said she believed she was helping the cacti by removing them from a location where they could have been bladed for development. "It was a mistake and an error of judgment. A misdemeanor and being placed on probation is the price of that error in judgment," he said. This may be one of the few prosecutions and possibly the only one under U.S. laws protecting endangered plants, said Sherry Barrett, the Southern Arizona field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Endangered plants get no U.S. protection on private land unless someone violates a state law in handling them. "It's an endangered species, and its population is being affected by a lot of urban development," Barrett said. "We are trying to find a way to recover the species, and the movement of them is contrary to its survival and recovery.'' The pineapple cactus, slightly less than 2 inches tall, lives in Pima and Santa Cruz counties and in northern Sonora, Mexico. All but about 1,500 of the 3,800 once found in the United States have been removed for development and other reasons, Fish and Wildlife said. The maximum sentence in the case is a year in prison, a $100,000 fine and a year of supervised release. Federal Magistrate Glenda Edmonds will decide sentencing Feb. 12. Darling has been active in high-profile endangered species issues in Southern Arizona since the mid-1990s. As a representative of SAHBA, she was on a U.S. team of scientists and others looking for ways to put a recovery plan for the endangered pygmy owl into effect. She also conducted owl surveys for the county on several small road-widening projects. She was on Pima County's citizens advisory committee for a Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan to protect vulnerable species. She also was Amphi's biologist in a legal dispute over building a high school in pygmy owl habitat. Under her plea, Darling will not apply for any state or federal permit to take any action regarding endangered species. That includes pygmy owl surveying, which she has done since 1997. She will also write an article about the case in which she admits her culpability and advises others to avoid violating species protection laws. In a prepared statement, SAHBA said Darling has been a great asset to the community as an environmental consultant. "The Endangered Species Act is so complex, we understand how someone could violate it," wrote Edward Taczanowsky, executive vice president of SAHBA. Craig Miller, Southwest director for Defenders of Wildlife, countered: "The Endangered Species Act itself is very straightforward in its attempt to balance wildlife with human activities. The complexity arises when people attempt to circumvent the law for profit or personal gain.'' * Contact reporter Tony Davis at 807-7790 or verdin@azstarnet.com. |