By including ranch lands as a landscape form worthy of protection and preservation, Pima County formalized its commitment to keep ranchers ranching as a way of achieving multiple community goals, including conserving natural and cultural resources, preserving open spaces, and defining urban form.

Drafted to facilitate discussion of implementation options. The concepts will assist in future planning and implementation discussions that take place as the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is finalized. A purchase of development rights program could assist in the funding of open space lands that contribute to the overall conservation reserve.

Pima County is blessed with a rich and varying record of human settlement over the 11,000 years representing prehistoric, Spanish Colonial, and Mexican-American influences in our history. The County's archaeological site is the building of structure with traditional cultural values and historic landscapes are all nonrenewable cultural resources.