ARIZONA DAILY STAR:  Mon., Feb. 12, 2007

State asked to preserve NW lands

By Tony Davis

        The lower slopes of the Tortolita Mountains' west side are blanketed with saguaros and ironwood trees. But will this state-owned land stay that way?
        County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has asked Gov. Janet Napolitano to assure the county that this parcel, 17,905 acres, will not be sold for development purposes.  The governor agreed in the past month not to sell five other state-owned parcels totaling 5,005 acres in the Tucson area and about 42,000 acres statewide for development without consent of local governments.
        The parcels she has agreed to save have all been classified as conservation land by the State Land Department. They have never been permanently set aside as open space because of legal restrictions that make conservation of state land difficult to impossible.
        In his letter in late January, Huckelberry asked Napolitano to assure the conservation not only of the Tortolita parcel, but of three other state-owned parcels.  If all the parcels Huckelberry wants to save are added to those the governor has already agreed not to sell, a total of 29,127 state-owned acres in Pima County would be protected from development at least until Napolitano's final term ends in 2010.
FULL STORY:   http://azstarnet.com/allheadlines/168744