A top Democratic congressman threw his weight this weekend behind a bill to add more than 2,500 acres to Saguaro National Park, and called it a rare example of a public-lands expansion proposal for which no local opposition exists.
Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon said he will fight hard this year to get a hearing held and to secure approval of fellow Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s bill. DeFazio is the ranking Democrat on the GOP-controlled House Natural Resources Committee.
DeFazio was in Tucson on Friday for a briefing by the Saguaro Park staff. The bill would add more than 2,100 acres to the park’s East Unit and nearly 375 acres to its West Unit. It has the support of environmental groups, Tucson’s mayor, the Southern Arizona Leadership Council and others.
The lands at stake include lush desert and a rare example of a flourishing riparian area.
This bill includes 1,374 acres of desert that has for more than 20 years been part of Diamond Ventures’ planned Rocking K development in the Rincon Valley adjoining Saguaro Park East. Diamond Ventures and all other landowners whose parcels would go into the park are “willing sellers.”
If the expansion bill were to pass, Congress would have to appropriate money to buy the land. DeFazio said the U.S. Land and Water Conservation Fund was “underspent” last year by $600 million.
