By
The Associated Press
TUCSON - Pima County's proposal for a sweeping conservation plan includes a reserve that would set aside large swaths of desert surrounding Tucson and most of its mountain ranges.
The reserve would protect 56 vulnerable species and every major habitat in the Tucson area, including ironwood and saguaro forests and riparian areas, according to Recon, the county's consultant on the plan.
County officials this week released the reserve plan, which is part of Pima County's ambitious Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.
County supervisors and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are scheduled to approve the plan by December 2002, after a series of public meetings and after planners and public officials refine and perhaps scale back the map detailing the reserve.
On the current map, bands of purple indicating areas targeted for preservation wrap around most of the Tucson area's mountain ranges. The purple encircles the city and its immediate suburbs and stretches southwest into the Altar Valley.
"This is the broadest-brush picture. You could almost call it a wish list for biological resources," said Paul Fromer, a biologist and project manager for San Diego-based Recon. "If we could get all of that, we would accomplish all the biological goals of the conservation plan. Probably from a biological standpoint, it is overbroad. We're trying to refine it."
The proposed reserve is the first step toward a full-fledged, federally approved multi-species conservation plan.
Its purpose is to preserve endangered species while allowing continued growth. Backers hope the federal government will allow development to achieve limited harm of endangered species in return for preserving their habitat.
County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said in a memo that the plan would leave unprotected enough land to handle more than 400,000 newcomers.
Huckelberry conceived of the plan as a way to balance the concerns of all sides in ongoing growth conflicts in the area.
Some people in the real estate industry have grown restive over the prolonged planning process.
They have said they want to focus the plan on protecting endangered species in some places so development could continue elsewhere.
They're concerned that Huckelberry's original drafts tried to cover too much ground, including stricter land use controls, that the plan would cost too much, and that his proposed fees to raise money to buy land were excessive.
Ranchers and some environmentalists have disagreed over how far the plan should go to preserve ranching and halt urban expansion.
Supporters said this plan would protect the desert and keep Tucson growing without becoming another Phoenix.
