Bond Celebrates First Anniversary
Tucson, Arizona...June 2, 2005 - One year after Southern Arizona’s Pima County voters passed a historic open space protection bond, the county continues to make progress on acquiring properties identified as conservation priorities. The anniversary was marked by the purchase of Rancho Seco, a 10,000 acre ranch in the Altar Valley.
Besides the transfer of the Bellota, or A7 Ranch, from the City of Tucson to county ownership, several properties in the southeast corridor are currently under negotiation. To date, more than $44.5 million has been spent to protect close to 100,000 acres of habitat-protection priority lands.
The county’s Conservation Acquisition Commission has asked county staff to identify habitat- protection priority properties greater than 2,500 acres in single ownership, parcels with important riparian areas, and parcels within critical landscape connections in order to further focus acquisition resources.
In May 2004, voters demonstrated the strength of their concern about protecting clean air and water, and conserving the lands that help preserve water quality, by overwhelmingly approving Question #1 in the May 18 special election. The $174.3 million open space and habitat protection bond earned 65.7% of the vote.
Bond passage allowed Pima County officials to begin protecting nearly 186,000 acres of its most ecologically important Sonoran Desert lands—in places like Sabino Canyon, Tanque Verde Valley, Cienega Creek and the San Pedro River valley. All are private or state lands available for purchase and in the path of development.
The Conservancy and its conservation partners in the Friends of the Sonoran Desert coalition worked together for more than two years to carry out this initiative successfully.
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