McDowell Sonoran Preserve and Desert Discovery Center

State Land Reform and Completion of the Preserve

There is a lot riding on the State Land Reform Initiative on the November ballot. Scottsdale has acquired, or is in the final stages of acquiring, all but the State Trust Lands within our future Preserve boundaries.

If the initiative is approved, approximately 16,100 acres of State Trust Land within the Preserve boundaries will be designated as permanent conservation lands, and an additional 3,543 acres can be designated for conservation through local planning. These conservation lands can be sold for appraised value but without an auction.

I strongly support passage of the State Trust Lands Reform Initiative and completing the Preserve. This is essential to our character, quality of life — a legacy for Scottsdale’s future.

The Desert Discovery Center

In the mid-1980s, I was the planner for 4,400 acres of State Trust Land in north Scottsdale. This land included the entire area around Pinnacle Peak. I encouraged the State Land Department and planning permit holder to set aside land for Pinnacle Peak Park and for a museum that would teach people about the Sonoran Desert, similar in concept to Tucson’s Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

I brought in natural history interpretive facility designers who had worked for the museum in Tucson, exhibit and museum professionals working on the Monterrey Bay Aquarium and others with expertise in the desert environment. We prepared site plans, exhibit concepts and a management plan for what was then called the “Desert Discovery Museum”.

As things turned out, over time, the size of the park was scaled back and development densities around the museum and park site were increased. The decision was made to re-locate the museum to the Preserve Gateway.

The Desert Discovery Center can provide the opportunity for residents and visitors alike to learn and appreciate the rich desert environment in which we live – it can help them learn to better understand what they see along Preserve trails. It can incorporate cutting edge technology with green architecture that disappears into the desert landscape. It should, in my opinion, be a first-class center for interpretation and learning, not a glorified trailhead.

I am strong advocate for the McDowell Sonoran Preserve and Desert Discovery Center.