County conservation plan includes UA range

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat C. Colin Kaltenbach, vice dean of the College of Agriculture and director of the Arizona Agriculture Experiment Station, oversees the Santa Rita Experimental Range which conducts agricultural research for semi-arid grassland. The outdoor laboratory is located 10 miles east of Green Valley.

The plan, drafted by County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, accounts for 8,920 acres of open land.

Although the UA oversees the land, the agriculture department did not find out about the county's plan until this week.

"We've not been contacted by the county. I first read it in the newspaper," said C. Colin Kaltenbach, vice dean of the College of Agriculture and director of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. "It seems to me they ought to contact us."

But Kaltenbach is not too upset, thanks to Senate bill 1249.

According to the Exchange of State Trust Lands for Federal Lands bill, the experimental range section the county is taking cannot be used for other purposes, such as cattle grazing or development.

"In my opinion it's going to take legislation (to change policy) and I don't think the legislation is going to do that or allow that to happen - at least I hope they won't," Kaltenbach said.

The conservation plan's purpose is to ensure that the land will continue to be preserved, Huckelberry said.

Kaltenbach said preservation is already the rule.

"Their (the county) objective has already been met," he said. "I don't understand what they're trying to do."

The UA Agriculture Department abides by the rules, Kaltenbach said.

"We're following the prescribed legislation and do what we intend to do," he said.

Researchers now conduct 15 to 20 projects on the range, including run-off erosion, termite and range land vegetation studies, Kaltenbach said. The 95-year-old range is oldest of its kind in the nation.

The UA's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department is also doing a hummingbird study, he said. Hummingbirds reside on the Santa Rita range.

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Forest Service also use the land for research, Kaltenbach said. The UA Agriculture Department uses the land to teach students about issues such as how vegetation changes over time.

Research results, published in journals and other publications, are used by faculty, farmers and cattle ranchers.

Irene Hsiao can be reached via e-mail at Irene.Hsiao@wildcat.arizona.edu.