Present: Tom Sheridan, Linda Mayro, Mette Brogden, Carl
Jones, George Ruyle, Jon Rowley, Wally Alexander, Nathan Sayre,
Mac Donaldson, Harold Barnett, Debbie Hecht, and Elsa Pesqueira.
1. CALL TO ORDER & INTRODUCTIONS
T. Sheridan called the meeting to order at 3:08 p.m. No introductions
were necessary.
2. REVIEW OF MINUTES FROM 04/13/2000 MEETING
After review, T. Sheridan made an addition to the Minutes on page
3, No. 6, paragraph 5. T. Sheridan called for a motion to accept
the Minutes from the 04/13/00 meeting with the addition. J. Rowley
made a motion to accept the Minutes. M. Donaldson seconded the
motion. Minutes accepted.
3. SONORAN DESERT CONSERVATION PLAN: Update
L. Mayro gave an update on the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.
L. Mayro announced the date of the next Sub-Area Public Meeting
on May 20, 2000 a session that summarizes what we know or data
that have been taken from public records and put into GIS on the
Empire-Cienega Valley, Western Pima County and the Upper Santa
Cruz sub-areas. L. Mayro passed out a draft outline of Sonoran
Desert Conservation Plan-March 2000. The gray areas indicate draft
reports that have been prepared to date. White areas indicate
reports to be produced or upcoming meetings. L. Mayro stated that
objective data about ranching have been compiled and will be synthesized
into a regional document. Now it is time for the Ranch team to
define, "What is it going to take to keep ranches in business?"
What are some of the tools - long-term leases, PDR's? And what
are the recommendations to achieve ranch conservation.
L. Mayro announced that the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan--
Altar Valley Land Panel Meeting will be held on May 14, 2000 at
the Arivaca Community Center. The agenda will be Discussion of
Resources of the Altar Valley Watershed Sub-area Planning Unit.
M. Behan will conduct the meeting. Ranch team members are welcome
to attend.
L. Mayro announced June 24, 2000 is an important presentation
deadline, so some time prior to that all the existing data will
have to be compiled for each sub-area in order to prepare a regional
overview and comparative analysis of the sub-areas for each element
to the Steering Committee. L. Mayro stated that she did not believe
that meeting date is flexible.
4. REVIEW OF DRAFT SUB-AREA REPORT to STEERING COMMITTEE
L. Mayro reported that these sub-area reports are all the objective
data that has been gathered from public records. T. Sheridan suggested
that if other materials have been generated these materials might
be incorporated as appendixes. T. Sheridan mentioned the "Altar
Valley Watershed Resource Assessment." N. Sayre will check
with the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance for permission. L.
Mayro stated that it might be better as a separate publication
to supplement the subarea report. N. Sayre mentioned another ecological
report produced by Walter Meyer that he will ask about. T. Sheridan
mentioned that because of time constraints any reports out there
that can help the Steering Committee come to a more objective
assessment of ranching. L. Mayro stated that everyone should now
have copies of the sub-area reports. She also stated that if anyone
has suggestions for other objective data that should be in these
reports or any revisions or corrections to please call her with
this information.
5. PRESERVING RANCHING IN PIMA COUNTY
L. Mayro passed out a slightly revised outline from the April
meeting. This outline was revised from comments received. L. Mayro
reinforced the need for everyone to help write this report. L.
Mayro stated she can write Sections D-F to present general information
in terms of what tools are available for property owners and from
the County. L. Mayro said to think about this as a "Ranching
Manifesto." She stated that Sections A-C, pertaining to sustainability
is where she needs participation in writing. She invited the Round
Table to contribute its paper on PDR for which they would be credited.
M. Brogden stated that under Section A or B, there should be a statement on "Economic sustainability as the basis for long-term tenure."
T. Sheridan asked if the County has any money to hire N. Sayre to help write this paper. L. Mayro stated she would look into this. N. Sayre said he would be interested in helping to write the paper, he could not write the whole paper. T. Sheridan stated he would like to see one person with dedicated time to oversee the production of this paper. N. Sayre stated he would like to see a section that just profiles examples of creative solutions that have been found.
There was much discussion about the different sections: management styles, stewardship, items to be added, generalities and parameters, and why preserve ranching at all. It was a consensus of the members that we cannot solve all of the problems, we can establish the basic tool kit, framework, and options.
L. Mayro gave the deadline of June 9, 2000 for getting the materials together for possible review by next Ranch team meeting.
H. Barnett gave a presentation on "An Overview of Mitigation
Banking in a Habitat Conservation Plan. He passed out materials
on his presentation.
6. PRELIMINARY RANCH CONSERVATION ELEMENT
This item was essentially tabled for the next meeting. L.
Mayro indicated this would be the regional synthesis of the data
that have been compiled and recommendations but that it would
be difficult to prioritize ranchlands for conservation in a very
refined way for the July status report. This is still, however,
an issue that the Ranch team will need to consider.
7. NEXT MEETING & AGENDA
Next meeting will be held on Thursday, June 15, 2000 at 3:00 p.m.,
Arizona State Museum, Room 309.
8. ADJOURN - 5:15PM