With the passage of the Federal Endangered Species Act in 1973, the stage was set for a confrontation between urban development and the provisions of Federal Law. Language was amended to the Act that established standards that a plan would have to meet before the Fish and Wildlife Service could approve it and issue a permit for the take of a listed species. In those jurisdictions that have adopted this approach, conservation of natural resources is no longer an afterthought but a major element that has to be considered during the regular land use permitting process.

This draft report results from Board direction to develop a comprehensive environmental based response to urban growth pressures. The draft plan itself is the merger of active citizen discussion regarding growth with the Coalition for the Sonoran Desert Protection Plan and others, along with integration of a number of past and present County activities that are natural resource protection oriented.

To facilitate development of the Environmental Impact Statement which must accompany the Section 10 multi-species conservation proposal, a series of issue papers were prepared. In Pima County, ranching is uniquely able to preserve the integrity of vast tracts of connected and unfragmented open space and wildlife habitat. This study reviews the effect of five alternative permit strategies on the County's ability to preserve unfragmented landscapes through conserving ranch lands.

The first four sections present background information to define cultural resources and to explain the results of three years of effort ot locate, characterize, evaluate and comparatively analyze cultural resources in eastern Pima County. The last section examines each of these alternatives and concludes with a brief assessment of the effect of the no action alternative on cultural resources.