Livestock Grazing and the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan
Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is a far-sighted planning effort launched by the
Board of Supervisors in October 1998 and officially adopted in March 1999. The Plan is intended
to serve as a guide for balancing urban growth with conservation of natural and cultural resources. The
Plan will also be prepared as an Endangered Species Act “Habitat Conservation Plan” application for
the “take” of the Cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl and other federally listed species.
The Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection supports the County’s effort to create the best possible
Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (“SDCP” or “Plan”), and remains committed to assisting the
County toward that goal. However, the Coalition is concerned with the September 2000 draft preliminary
Plan’s ranch conservation element and related reports because these reflect a significant overreliance
on ranching as a primary conservation tool.
Most of the peer-reviewed scientific literature available does not support conservation benefits of
livestock grazing. The draft preliminary Plan, for example, emphasizes the use of ranch land as a
boundary for urban growth. Ranches may well provide valuable open space. But where livestock grazing
contributes to degradation of native ecological conditions and imperilment of species, other means
of urban growth control must be utilized, and grazing must be eliminated from the most ecologically
sensitive areas.
Click here to download the full report.
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