Provides a review of cultural resources management on the public lands as currently practiced in Pima County, Arizona. Cultural resources include archaeological sites, historic resources, and places of traditional cultural value. This report examines which agencies are responsible for cultural resource management, when they began their programs, how management is conducted, and the challenges that must be met in order to achieve the goal of preserving and protecting cultural resources for future generations.

In order to communicate effectively about land use in Pima County, we must understand that different individuals and groups of people have assigned meaning to places and landscapes in Pima County in accordance with their experiences and their mode of communication. Ten different cultures and their landscapes are described, providing a fascinating summary of the history of each group in the area.

A preliminary analysis that has been drafted in conjunction with participating federal agencies. Land managing entities provided information and later a detailed review of fact sheets that summarize each reserve in terms of its size, ownership, authorizing documents, land use activities, priority vulnerable species, exotic and non-native species, baseline information, GAP status, acquisitions, management plans, research, monitoring and recovery programs. The study proposes eight Reserve Management Areas that include land managers who could work together across administrative boundaries.

Describes methods that are used in order to prepare reserve design alternatives in the area of biological conservation. The report also provides a brief history of reserve design theory, and demonstrates how the principles of biological reserve design have been extended to the other Elements of the Sonoran Desert conservation plan.

Status reports containing more detailed information about the priority conservation areas of each species. The first summary provides a view from the technical perspective of how the biological reserve has been assembled. The second summary provides a view from the historical and process perspective of how the biological reserve has been assembled.

The cornerstone of any habitat conservation plan is the establishment of a set of reserves that are ultimately managed to preserve or enhance populations of a particular species or suite of species. Also, with any priority species in a particular region there are geographic areas that are much more important to the species than others. Identifying those areas is an important part of the planning process and a required activity to help assure that the best habitat areas for each species are identified and targeted for inclusion within the reserve system.

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.