Rancho Vistoso Residents Seek Town Investment To Return Vistoso Trails Preserve To Desert

Concerns over delayed restoration efforts

Residents of Rancho Vistoso are alarmed by the lack of urgency of town staff in restoring the Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve to its natural state. It took residents four years and several million dollars to save this property from major residential development. Instead, based on their efforts, the town was gifted open space in perpetuity on the defunct Golf Club at Vistoso course.

Preservation is the goal
The goal of the residents and of Archeology Southwest, the conservation easement holder of this land, is to return the land to its natural state and to prevent the property from becoming far more than that, as proposed to the town in a 2022-23 study by consultant Sites Southwest.

Archeology Southwest has a lot of power in this situation
They are responsible for the easement that protects the 202 acres of the Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve. Their job is to ensure that the land remains open desert forever. The Conservation Fund, the group that created the Preserve, had been the administrator.

Financial Concerns and Budget Allocation
It will take significant funding to “create the desert.” If town staff has its way, however, there will be minimal investment in the property. And this is the crux of the current issue. Town Manager Jeff Wilkins is considering a budget allocation of $200K in FY 24/25, with plans to limit annual spending to $100K - $200K annually over three decades. According to residents, that is simply not enough.

Recreating the desert is no easy task
Archeology Southwest and the residents want to see the property revegetated back to the desert environment that was present when the Tohono O’odham ancestors (Hohokam) inhabited it. There has been a great deal of concern that the Sites Southwest Master Plan with all the proposed programming and trails violates both the spirit and letter of the conservation easement.

Community action tonight
Tonight, thanks to Vice Mayor Barrett and Council Member Nicolson, residents will get their chance to ensure that sufficient funding is allocated in the 2024-25 budget to get the job done..

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