Wildlife Corridors and Connections
This locally-funded study by Arizona Game and Fish Department includes fine-scaled models for five wildlife linkages in Pima County. You can also see the wildlife linkages on the SDCP Mapguide.
There is $45 million for maintaining and improving wildlife linkages in the
Regional Transportation Plan.
For example: Oracle Highway Wildlife Crossing
Critical Landscape Connections
Critical Landscape Connections are identified by number on the Conservation Lands System map. These are broadly defined areas (shown as purple arrows on the CLS map) that provide connectivity for movement of native biological reosurces but which also contain potential or existing barriers that tend to isolate major conservation areas. Specifically, these regional-scale areas of located: (1) Across the I-10/Santa Cruz River corridors in the northwest; (2) Between the Catalina and Tortolita Mountains; (3) Across the I-10 corridor along Cienega Creek in the east; (4) Across the Garcia strip extension of the Tohono O'odham Nation; and (6) Across the Central Arizona Project canal in Avra Valley. Roads, other infrastructure services, and residential and commercial land uses within these areas, depending on configuration, can result in habitat loss and fragmentation that inhibits the movement of native fauna and interrupts the pollination processes of native flora. For more information on conservation guidelines in these areas, see policy 9 of the CLS .
County Conservation Lands - Photographs
See a Flickr gallery of photographs from County-managed Conservation Lands
here
County Open Space Studies
In
August of 2009, an analysis was performed on how effectively County-managed lands contributed to conservation goals for particular species and landscape features significant to the SDCP. The analysis found that considerable progress had been made in meeting the
SDCP biological goals, and the county’s ranch acquisitions had prevented fragmentation of habitats next to existing protected areas.
Under the Pima County Multi-species Conservation Plan, the same county conservation lands that provide water, food, recreation, wildlife habitat and a sense of place to our community also support economic development through streamlining compliance with the Endangered Species Act. A recent memorandum to the Board of Supervisors provides some specific examples of recent cost-savings to Public Works projects.
The effects of County land acquisition on the tax base was one of the central issues discussed during the development of the Conservation Plan. In preparation for the bond election of 2016, an analysis of the cumulative effects of the open-space acquisition re-affirmed earlier predictions of almost no measurable impact. The character and location of the open space acquired, and the fact that improvements are what generates the bulk of the tax base are why the open-space acquisitions have not diminished the tax base.