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Proposed Yavapai-Apache Nation Land Exchange Provides Benefits to the Public and to the Yavapai-Apache Nation
Earlier this year, the Grand Canyon Chapter submitted comments in support of a proposed land exchange that has positive benefits to the public and to the Yavapai-Apache Nation. On the public lands side, the addition of the Yavapai Apache Nation’s six sections to the Prescott National Forest, which are located at the headwaters of the Verde River, enhances a decades-long effort to acquire checker-boarded private lands within the Prescott National Forest and consolidate them into public ownership, thus helping to protect important wildlife habitat, expand public access, improve agency management (including in the adjoining Juniper Mesa Wilderness), and helping to preserve the Verde River.
An important benefit is to prevent future development in the Verde’s upper watershed and to reduce stress on the Big Chino Aquifer, which feeds the Verde River. Additionally, the proposed exchange is consistent with current efforts by the Forest Service and other partners to acquire private property and/or conservation easements on other parts of the Yavapai Ranch. All together, these projects represent possibly the largest expansion of public lands in Arizona in decades, and will provide long-term assurance that Verde River headwaters lands remain undeveloped.
The addition of these lands to the Prescott National Forest would also benefit the effort to minimize light pollution in the area in that future development could include significant outdoor lighting. It will help Sierra Club’s efforts to establish a dark skies campground in the northern part of the Prescott National Forest to the east of Camp Wood.
For the Yavapai-Apache Nation, the proposed exchange would more than double the size of the current reservation land, restore additional traditional lands for the Nation, and enable the Nation to provide additional housing for members of the Yavapai-Apache Nation, improving living conditions and services.
The land exchange is not final, but it is exciting to see a project such as this advance to provide important protections for the lands and for the Verde River.
~ by Sandy Bahr -- Chapter Director for the Grand Canyon Chapter
