Arizona environmentalists now have a chance to lease
state lands for conservation purposes. As signed by Gov. Fife
Symington, the Arizona Preserve Initiative allows conservation
groups to lease state lands, estimated at 30,000 acres, within a
three-mile radius of all major cities.
An earlier
bill from Symington proposed to open up over 700,000 acres of land
anywhere in the state. The Arizona Cattlemen’s Association lobbied
hard to kill that idea. Ranchers want state lands in rural areas to
benefit the economy, says spokesman Bas Aja. But the group
supported the amended bill because it helps preserve open spaces
around cities. “We’d rather have this than shopping malls,” Aja
says.
Environmentalists say the bill is only a
small first step toward conserving state lands. “The only reason we
think this is positive,” says Sandy Barr of The Nature Conservancy,
“is because the handling of our state lands is so awful right now.”
* Bill Taylor
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Arizona state land opens for conservation.
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