10/11/2006
Date: 10/12/2006
By Erik Filsinger, Arizona Mountaineering Club Land Advocacy Chair
Passage of Proposition 106 on November 7th would allow about 400,000 acres of the 7,000,000 acres total of State Trust Lands to be used for Conservation. Without that designation the current system of selling State Trust Land to the highest bidder would continue and where there are now trails and climbing areas there will be houses and gated communities.
The designation of 400,000 acres for conservation includes urban lands near Phoenix that contain significant climbing areas. Without passage of Proposition 106 the State Trust Land's in north Scottsdale could be sold to the developers. These climbing areas include Little Granite and Cholla Mountains. Elsewhere State Trust Lands could impact climbing at Cochise Stronghold, Upper and Lower Devils Canyon, and Jacuzzi Spires.
Proposition 106 has an even bigger impact for other outdoor recreational users such as mountain bikers and hikers who will lose many hundreds of miles of trails in urban areas of State Trust Land scattered around Arizona's cities.
For more information contact Erik Filsinger, Arizona Mountaineering Club Land Advocacy Chair at [email protected].