Conservancy, State Of Arizona
Plan Partnership To Buy Ranch

TUCSON, Ariz. —(AP)— A picturesque and historic cattle ranch covering 22,000 acres of shortgrass prairie along the Border will be preserved with state help if its owners accept an offer from the Nature Conservancy.

The State Parks Board committed at least $8.3 million last Thursday to help the organization buy and preserve the San Rafael Ranch.

It's the first time the state's parks system has been involved in a public-private partnership. It's intended to keep the ranch south of Patagonia from being sold and subdivided for development.

If successful, it would result in the historic property remaining an active ranch but with significant environmental restrictions.

"We're confident that if this ranch is preserved, that other landowners may consider in the future engaging in similar protection efforts," said Les Corey, director the nonprofit environmental organization's Arizona chapter.

The Nature Conservancy will pay "substantially more" than the state's share, he said. Because of a confidentiality agreement, Corey said the proposed sale price could not be divulged.

The parks agency could add $1 million to its share if necessary, Travous said.

The conservancy's letter of intent to the ranch's owners calls for its purchase by the end of October; it must get approval of its state and national directors first.

"It's a leap of faith in some respects, both for us and for the Nature Conservancy," said parks director Ken Travous. "We don't know that we've got a perfect deal. The bottom line is that we know that this ranch has to be protected. There have been people working on this for 20 years. We knew that some day its owners would be forced into subdividing this."

The ranch, located between the Coronado National Forest and the Huachuca Mountains, is also known as the Sharp Ranch after the family which has owned it for 90 years. The family found itself forced to put the ranch up for sale because of estate tax laws, Corey and Travous said after the State Parks Board's meeting in Phoenix.

"This is an historic moment for conservation in Arizona," Corey said. "It's the dawn of a new era in terms of cooperation between rural and environmental interests in the state to try to find common ground. This never has been done in Arizona before.

"Arizonans will be proud of the bold action that Arizona State Parks took today," he added.

The proposal calls for the Nature Conservancy to buy the corporation that owns and operates the ranch, the San Rafael Cattle Co., and all its assets and liabilities. The parks board then would buy out part of the conservancy's investment.

The conservancy would sell a portion of the ranch to the board for public hiking and for a visitor's center; it also would sell the board the title and all development rights with some use restrictions, or conservation easements. That would prevent subdivision, mining, water depletion or introduction of exotic species. About 2000 riparian acres also would be fenced to prevent cattle-grazing.

In turn, the conservancy would sell the rest of the ranch to an "environmentally minded" rancher to continue running some of the 800 to 1000 cattle now on the ranch. That, and lack of full public access, had drawn objections from environmental activists and hunters.

The conservancy's state board was to vote Saturday on the proposal, and the national board of governors will consider the issue at its annual meeting next week in Colorado.

The San Rafael Valley's rolling grasslands and open spaces were the background for the movie "Oklahoma!"

Said Travous: "The San Rafael Ranch was the big domino in the San Rafael Valley. If that domino fell, you would have heard that echo all over Arizona. What it is is a glimmer of hope for Arizona."