ARIZONA DAILY STAR:  Sat., Feb. 5, 2005

Huckelberry presents desert-saving plan

Land purchases would far offset development

By Tony Davis

            Mesquite-dotted grasslands and saguaro-covered scrubland southwest of Tucson come out the big winners - along with cottonwood-draped streambeds southeast of Tucson - under Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry's new plan to save Sonoran Desert land.

            The big loser is the Northwest Side's ironwood forest, whose dense stands of cacti, ironwood trees and desert shrubs inspired the push for a desert-saving plan back in 1998. 

            Released late this week, Huckelberry's draft plan for habitat protection would set aside about 53,000 acres over the next decade through outright purchase or by buying development rights.  This includes nearly 12,500 acres that could be secured in the next three weeks, starting at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

            Huckelberry's plan provides the first detailed blueprint of how the county expects to save the best desert land needed by wildlife, in return for allowing more people to live on less-sensitive land.

            The county expects only 6,348 acres to be developed in unincorporated areas in the next 10 years. So the planned purchases will far exceed what's needed to offset development and get federal approval of the county's conservation scheme, Huckelberry says.

            The plan's maps show a series of proposed reserves in ranchland in the Altar Valley to the west, the Cerro Colorado Mountains to the south, the Las Cienegas area to the southeast, and the San Pedro River area to the northeast.  No reserve is proposed in the Tortolita foothills on the Northwest Side. Huckelberry's maps point out that the federal government has already preserved Ironwood Forest National Monument northwest of Marana.

            Huckelberry is certain to draw criticism from environmentalists who see the ironwood forest lands as vital in protecting the pygmy owl, and the old-growth trees and saguaros.  The reserves' locations match Huckelberry's long-held belief that the conservation plan should favor large, intact parcels of ranchland far from urban Tucson over smaller, fragmented and expensive close-in land.

            Over the county plan's 50-year life, it would protect 263,880 acres of private land, including 112,174 by purchase and 151,706 acres when developers set land aside as they get rezonings of sensitive lands. In return for that conservation, about 73,700 acres of land in unincorporated areas would be open for development over 50 years.

            On Friday, however, Huckelberry and his staff emphasized that the long-term preservation goal and the amount of acreage expected to develop over 50 years are preliminary figures and likely to change.

The plan would also:

● Protect 37 vulnerable species, 18 fewer than the county had originally contemplated protecting.

● Incorporate the existing Conservation Lands System, which advises developers to set aside 75 percent to 95 percent of sensitive lands as open space when they get rezonings. The plan keeps the set-aside practices as guidelines rather than making them rules. But if the guidelines don't set aside enough land, the county's land-buying requirements would increase.

● Clear the way for development in unincorporated areas without federal legal hurdles for 50 years, while setting specific conservation goals for the next 10 years. The county would be required to set new conservation goals every decade or lose federal clearance for development.

● Leave out 704,000 acres of environmentally sensitive state land, sharply reducing the conservation plan's scale, because the State Land Department and Huckelberry have disagreed on how to handle that land.

            The county will begin soliciting public comment on the plan at a series of meetings starting next month. It hopes to get the supervisors' approval by year's end before submitting the plan to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

            The reserve areas favored in the plan include large ranchland parcels that the county has bought or may soon buy using its 2004 open space bonds. They include the 1,700-acre Bar V Ranch, hugging Davidson Canyon on the far Southeast Side, and 9,574 acres of the Rancho Seco/Santa Lucia ranches just north of Arivaca. Arivaca is 40 miles southwest of Tucson.

            The Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on whether to buy the Bar V Ranch for $8.68 million. On Feb. 22, the board may buy the Rancho Seco/Santa Lucia properties for $18.5 million and the 1,034-acre King 98 ranch in the Altar Valley for $2.1 million.

            The reserves also include the San Pedro Valley's 6,829-acre A-7 Ranch, which the county bought last year from the city of Tucson for $2.04 million.

            Giving a joking thumbs-down Friday to the Northwest Side, Huckelberry said the county would spend $11 million, as voters approved last year, to buy the lush stands of cacti still standing in that growing area, but made it clear that wasn't his top priority.

            Said David Hogan, of the Center for Biological Diversity, "Huckelberry and the county have taken one right step in the direction of conservation by acquiring large ranches and other lands, but an important missing piece is conservation of smaller properties with very high value to a particular species."

            Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bronson said that for the county to buy significant amounts of Northwest Side land, reform of state laws would be needed to preserve thousands of acres of state land there.

● Contact reporter Tony Davis at 807-7790 or tdavis@azstarnet.com.

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