Dear HCN,
The July 30 front-page
piece titled, “Not in our backyard” was well-written and
informative, except for one important detail: It gave the reader
the impression that Greg Woodall and his sister, Carla, invented
the campaign to preserve Scottsdale’s McDowell Mountains and are
practically doing it by themselves. That isn’t the
case.
Greg and Carla were part of the second wave
of activists fighting for preservation of the McDowells. When the
McDowell Sonoran Land Trust (MSLT) was first organized, I sat on
the original steering committee, then became one of its
incorporators in 1991, along with Jane Rau and Karen Bertiger. Greg
and Carla were not part of the original group that founded,
organized and initially funded MSLT.
In 1993,
members of MSLT and others finally convinced the City of Scottsdale
that much of the land in the McDowells would have to be purchased
with public funds in order to be saved. The city created a
preservation task force and then a commission to identify lands and
acquisition strategies. A core group of about 10 to 15 individuals
(including Greg, Carla and myself) served on the task force and
commission and its committees.
When the city
created a resolution for a vote on public funding in 1995, many of
us also served on the Save Our McDowells election committee. We won
the election and, as a result, there is now a 0.2 percent sales tax
to fund purchases for the McDowell Sonoran
Preserve.
It’s true that Greg and Carla have done
a great job over the years, especially in rallying support to
expand the preserve. But, even in this effort, they are only the
tip of the iceberg.
Pete
Chasar
Brookings, Oregon
The writer is past chair of McDowell Sonoran Land Trust.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Carla and Greg Woodall not the whole story.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
