Present: Wally Alexander, Mette Brogden,, Carl Jones, Dan Robinette, George Ruyle, Tom Sheridan, Micaela McGibbon,, Elsa Pesqueira, and Linda Mayro.

1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by T. Sheridan. T. Sheridan complimented L. Mayro and M. McGibbon on the incredible job of producing the Ranch Conservation Technical Report, Part I. Tom Sheridan cited M. McGibbon's chapter, "Current Practice of Ranching," as exceptional. L. Mayro stated that the report is also now on the Pima County website.

2. Review of Minutes from 10/13/99 meeting: M. Brogden made a minor correction to the minutes. A motion to accept the minutes was made by G. Ruyle. The motion was seconded and approved.

3. Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan Update: Maeveen Behan was scheduled to report on the item; however, she was unable to attend. L. Mayro gave a brief update. L. Mayro reported on the Steering Committee education session presented by the Tohono O'Odham Nation and the work they are doing on the endangered species, cultural resources, urban and economic development issues, their solid waste problem and other issues that affect the community. Moreover, they stressed their concern about how to put the appropriate planning in place that honors their cultural commitment to respect the land. L. Mayro added that Pima County Board Chairman Sharon Bronson and Chairman Manuel signed a joint resolution at the session to participate in the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. L. Mayro felt that this session was a successful conclusion to the Education Series.

L. Mayro passed out an updated organizational chart. Based on this, in January there will be land-based panels established. These will be organized on the different valleys or watersheds. These land-based panels will be comprised of Steering Committees' members, as well as residents, stakeholders (including developers), agencies, and others who would like to participate. The Technical Teams will present consistent data so land-based panels can have the same basic information and statistics, for example ­ soil types, species, cultural resources values, what land is already committed, where are the ranchlands, what is the zoning, what is the tax base, etc. There are nearly one thousand GIS covers now to draw upon. L. Mayro expects the Ranch Advisory Technical Team and staff will be presenting information to the land-based panels, possibly going from place to place, sequentially.

The land-based committees will be convening in January and February and working through the summer. L. Mayro stated that a big status report is due out next July -August that looks at the conservation elements in every valley. This is a way to help determine where growth can/should occur, what should remain as open space, and what should stay as ranchland. The land-based panels will have a representative appointed by the land-based panel from each valley to represent their valley's interest, vision and goals on an executive team.

L. Mayro stated that our job as a Technical Committee is to identify the critical land-based characteristics pertaining to ranching that characterize each of valleys.

4. Additional GIS "Covers" and Data for Ranch Conservation: L. Mayro referred to the handouts by M. McGibbon, "Ranch Conservation and Relevant GIS Data Covers," and "Ranchlands Characteristics," by Carl Jones. The question is what do we, as a Technical Team, want to present, what information would be helpful to the Altar Valley, for example, in understanding the land base. For each valley what are the consistent observations that we want to make. M. McGibbon will be doing a lot of the basic research in putting this information in the GIS system along with others. For example, we are doing a study with Pima Association of Governments (PAG) to identify existing perennial stretches of rivers and streams, including tributaries, and where shallow water exists, so we will have the best information on water. GIS data on stock tanks and wells already exists. GIS covers on soils, vegetation communities, and other environmental elements already exist.

Other specific Ranch GIS covers identified are animal units/land productivity, grazing leases, ranch names and boundaries, current and former agricultural lands, private ranch lands, ranches with grazing management plans, hunting unit maps and permits, and of course the different jurisdictional boundaries, public land ownership, ungrazed land reserves like the National Park. GIS covers that are still to be produced include committed lands, "rent-a-cow" lands, ranch improvements, and possibly ranchland recreational use. Development pressure will be a composite of lot-split locations, platted subdivisions and other committed lands, and State and BLM lands identified for disposal. Other team members suggested GIS covers that might include demand for social services, sheriff's calls, border patrol incidents, mineral rights, fire plans, and rural fires district boundaries.

Other desired GIS covers include recreational usage, recreation permits, indicators of vehicle usage (ledgers). T. Sheridan stated that recreation is going to be the big issue. Recreation is not necessarily benign. Aerial photographs were suggested as some type of data. Chuck Hutchinson, Arid Land Studies, U of A, has satellite data.

To make the argument for conservation there must be solid data. Ranch Technical Advisory Team will issue recommendations on the best information available to the land panels to make decisions.

T. Sheridan asked, as this plan progresses once areas in Pima County are identified as critical habitat what will this mean in terms of usage? L. Mayro stated that the Pygmy Owl Recovery Team is working on this plan and that the biological evaluations will provide further guidance. At present there is no prescription for usage or modified usage.

There was some discussion about NRCS "ecological sites" being a GIS cover of certain soil types. L. Mayro asked how do we get the data input into the County GIS system? BLM has the Altar Valley digitized. Santa Rita was digitized by U of A. BLM digitized Empire and Cienega. The Reservation is digitized.

T. Sheridan stated the importance of social aspect, land values, real estate land values, assessor's records for comparability. He would like to see maps that show land values to assess where development is more likely to occur; also prices of ranches that have been sold.

The question was brought up about all the different land exchanges going on in BLM and state lands. Disposal of land becomes a question.

T. Sheridan stated that when we come to the table we have to have a good idea of what we want protected and educate the rest of the people around the table and make a case for ranch conservation and at what price.

M. Brogden asked the question about conserving ranches if purchasing their development rights was an option. L. Mayro stated that this was one of the tools being explored. She asked as a conclusion, have we considered all the descriptors (GIS covers), economic issues-market values, real value of ranches, that we might include? What else in GIS values should we talking about? M. Brogden asked about the biological evaluation. L. Mayro stated that biological evaluations are the source of many of the GIS layers that have been prepared. Mayro concluded that a final list of relevant GIS covers will be presented to the committee that will be used to characterize ranch lands.

L. Mayro added that there will be future round robin exchanges between the different committees so we will all be informed of each other's doings. T. Sheridan will make a presentation to the Science, Cultural, and Economics Committees. T. Sheridan stated that some informal meetings have taken place between B. Shaw, P. Fish, G. Gumerman, and T. Sheridan to prevent misinformation from taking place. Also, these meeting took place because of the role the University is taking in the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.

M. Brogden will research the criteria developed in the East in P.D.R. How they are evaluated and prioritized.

5. Criteria for Evaluating Ranchlands:

Tabled to January 10, 2000 meeting or later.

6. Next Meeting & Agenda:

The next meeting will be held on Monday, January 10, 2000 at 3:00 P.M. Also the February was set at this time, it will be on February 14, 2000 at 3:30 P.M. Both meeting will be held at the Arizona State Museum, Room 309.

7. Announcements:

None.

8. Adjournment:

The meeting adjourned at 4:50 P.M.