Preface
This article reminds us that we have much to be thankful for. This article was published 25 years ago and the two land trusts introduced in this article have been successful. Check their websites to measure just how successful they have been. You’ll find links to their websites at the bottom of the page.
Editor
Reprint from Jan. 23, 1991 Arizona Republic 1991
Published in A Peek at the Peak, February 1991
Grand Prize, 2014 Photographers’ Choice, DFLT Photo Contest by Tereasa Funke
Pair of Private Trusts Seek to Keep Land Unspoiled
SCOTTSDALE – Two private land-preservation trusts are forming in north Scottsdale and the Cave Creek-Carefree area to try to save desert and mountain terrain from development.
The Desert Foothills Land Trust was formed under the auspices of the non-profit Cave Creek Improvement Association, according to CCIA President Laura Cox, a Cave Creek councilwoman, who helped create the trust.
“We’ve formed. We’ve got our committee and we’ve got our first mailing list,” she said.
A second group, the McDowell Sonoran Land Trust, filed incorporation papers last week, its creators say.
Both trusts hope to obtain federal tax-exempt status as non-profit organizations this spring.
Without the tax-exempt status, the trusts likely would have problems attracting donations of land or money to buy land.
Early morning hike at Brown’s Ranch near Balanced Rock in Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve.
Cox said the Desert Foothills trust eventually would “spin off” from the CCIA as an independent non-profit corporation interested in preserving land “anywhere in the foothills.”
She said the Desert Foothills trust will focus its efforts “generally north of Carefree Highway (north) to the Tonto (National) Forest, west to 24th Street, and east to Tonto Hills.” The towns of Cave Creek and Carefree and far north Scottsdale are included in the trust area.
The two trusts will work together, said Karen Bertiger, one of the creators of the McDowell Sonoran Land Trust.
‘We are interested in the area north of the Central Arizona Project … probably up to about Carefree Highway,” Bertiger said. The McDowell Mountains straddle Scottsdale’s eastern boundary north of the CAP aqueduct.
The McDowell Sonoran Land Trust plans to hold its first organizational meeting Feb. 6th, she said.
Both trusts have similar goals: To try to persuade people to donate land or money to the trusts, which pledge to keep the lands unspoiled in perpetuity.
“Our mission statement is we intend to acquire environmentally unique lands, including archaeological sites, mountains (and) flora and fauna of Sonoran Desert lands,” Bertiger said.
‘We hope to be able to do some habitat projects. And open space for future generations,” she added.
Visitors pan for gold at Desert Foothills Land Trust event.
The Desert Foothills Land Trust, a few months older than Bertiger’ s group, has published a brochure that states, “Our goal is to acquire, hold and manage the open space areas surrounding us to ensure that they remain forever untouched.”
“Our objective is twofold: To leave a legacy of natural lands for future foothills residents to enjoy, and to provide a permanent safe haven for our wildlifecohabitors.”
More than 800 similar trusts have been established in the United States, the Desert Foothills Land trust brochure notes.
“Preferably, we would like to have people donate land,” Cox said.
The trust also will seek conservation easements that would protect portions of an area without transferring ownership to the trust, she said.
A third option is Cash donations, Cox said. “Money would be wonderful.”
Bertiger and environmental activist Jane Rau will be listed as incorporators of the McDowell Sonoran Land Trust, according to the trust’s lawyer, Fred Davidson. Both will sit on the trust’s interim board of directors, he said.
Pete Chasar of the Mountaineers Inc.’s McDowell Mountains chapter also will be an initial director of the McDowell Sonoran Land Trust, Davidson said. Mountaineers Inc., is a non-profit mountain preservation and clean-up group that is lobbying for an expansion of the county’s McDowell Mountain Regional Park.
Rainbow and Brown’s Mountain, McDowell Sonoran Preserve
Scottsdale planners, who have struggled for several years to write an Environmentally Sensitive Lands Ordinance to guide in the northern two-thirds of the city, say they support private land trusts.
“Quite a movement has developed in the past year,” said Dudley Onderdonk, Scottsdale’s advance planning manager.
“The idea of land ownership is real important to them (private trusts). They say the real way to try to control land if you want to preserve it is to own it,” Onderdonk said.
Neither trust has reported any donations to date, but Bertiger said the McDowell Sonoran Land Trust is negotiating for two donations.
”They are very exciting … but I’m not at liberty to talk about that right now.” she said.
Related Websites
Desert Foothills Land Trust, www.dflt.org, Website
McDowell Sonoran Conservancy, formerly the McDowell Sonoran Land Trust , www.mcdowellsonoran.org, Website
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