1 Sedona Area Forest Service Land Exchange Issue Fear of private development on forest lands next to Sedona is a key driver behind the proposed Sedona Verde Valley Red Rock National Monument. September 16, 2015 By Sandra Cosentino, M.S., land planning, based on research with Coconino National Forest staff and planning documents, and attending Sedona land use meetings since 1997. Fear of Forest Service land exchanges to private developers is, I believe, the main reason for inclusion of thousands of acres of private land in the proposed Sedona Verde Valley Red Rock National Monument boundaries. The proponent, Keep Sedona Beautiful, proposes to close the forest lands to land disposal “through public land laws”. This was also KSB’s main concern in the 2010-2013 national scenic area proposed legislation. But the pioneer era of growing Sedona with forest land exchanges came to an end in 1998 with the Forest Service passage of Amendment 12 to the Sedona-Oak Creek forest plan and the Forest Service has very limited authority to dispose of public land in the Sedona area. Concern--KSB no-land-exchange guideline and inclusion of private property in boundary: This arbitrary guideline will PRECLUDE the Forest Service from providing needed community sites in the future such as for a school and for making small adjustments such as for right-of-way changes or for other valuable public purposes we cannot foresee decades from now. Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek are land-locked towns within the forest lands: --Do we want the future generations to have some options for good community purposes we cannot foresee at this time? National monuments under the Antiquities Act are to protect specific historic or prehistoric sites. Important geologic features are now also covered. No other national monument, however, includes cities, towns and large tracts of private land within its boundaries. --If this Monument proposal is enacted, the private property-forest service land interface will change. The consequences on the community and the private property owners are unknown. From the 1950's to 1980's, land exchanges in the Sedona area between the Forest Service and private parties served two important functions: 1. Private purchases of forest service lands adjacent to the checkerboard pattern of original homestead patent lands around Sedona solidified and added to the residential land base in Sedona. The Forest Service cannot directly sell public lands— this was done through the exchange process. This allowed the communities to solidify and expand the private land base to create a core town/city area. 2. The national forest gained valuable remote properties (such as along streams, or with archaeological sites) and helped consolidate the forest land ownership. The private proponent in the land exchange purchased, from the willing sellers, the desired remote parcel and then exchanged that with the “As homesteading declined after 1940, land exchanges became the only way to open new land for development. The first exchange was in 1940, when Dr. V. M. Slipher gained title to an 80-acre tract that is now the Sky Mountain subdivision.” “Between 1945 and 1960, the U.S. Forest Service exchanged 16 parcels into private hands in the Sedona area. USFS officials felt they were simply meeting the needs for more homes and commercial development here. As development grew, Sedonans began to lobby for preservation of forestland to protect the area's scenic and natural values.” (City of Sedona website)
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Sedona Area Forest Service Land Exchange Issue Fear of private development on forest lands next to Sedona is a key driver behind the proposed Sedona Verde Valley Red Rock National Monument.
September 16, 2015 By Sandra Cosentino, M.S., land planning, based on research with Coconino National Forest staff and planning documents, and attending Sedona land use meetings since 1997.
Fear of Forest Service land exchanges to private developers is, I believe, the main reason for inclusion of thousands of acres of private land in the proposed Sedona Verde Valley Red Rock National Monument boundaries. The proponent, Keep Sedona Beautiful, proposes to close the forest lands to land disposal “through public land laws”. This was also KSB’s main concern in the 2010-2013 national scenic area proposed legislation.
But the pioneer era of growing Sedona with forest land exchanges came to an end in 1998 with the Forest Service passage of Amendment 12 to the Sedona-Oak Creek forest plan and the Forest Service has very limited authority to dispose of public land in the Sedona area. Concern--KSB no-land-exchange guideline and inclusion of private property in boundary: This arbitrary guideline will PRECLUDE the Forest Service from providing needed community sites in the future such as for a school and for making small adjustments such as for right-of-way changes or for other valuable public purposes we cannot foresee decades from now. Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek are land-locked towns within the forest lands: --Do we want the future generations to have some options for good community purposes we cannot foresee at this time? National monuments under the Antiquities Act are to protect specific historic or prehistoric sites. Important geologic features are now also covered. No other national monument, however, includes cities, towns and large tracts of private land within its boundaries. --If this Monument proposal is enacted, the private property-forest service land interface will change. The consequences on the community and the private property owners are unknown.
From the 1950's to 1980's, land exchanges in the Sedona area between the Forest Service and private parties served two important functions:
1. Private purchases of forest service lands adjacent to the checkerboard pattern of original homestead patent lands around Sedona solidified and added to the residential land base in Sedona. The Forest Service cannot directly sell public lands—this was done through the exchange process. This allowed the communities to solidify and expand the private land base to create a core town/city area.
2. The national forest gained valuable remote properties (such as along streams, or with archaeological sites) and helped consolidate the forest land ownership. The private proponent in the land exchange purchased, from the willing sellers, the desired remote
parcel and then exchanged that with the “As homesteading declined after 1940, land exchanges became the only way to open new land for development. The first exchange was in 1940, when Dr. V. M. Slipher gained title to an 80-acre tract that is now the Sky Mountain subdivision.” “Between 1945 and 1960, the U.S. Forest Service exchanged 16 parcels into private hands in the Sedona area. USFS officials felt they were simply meeting the needs for more homes and commercial development here. As development grew, Sedonans began to lobby for preservation of forestland to protect the area's scenic and natural values.” (City of Sedona website)
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Subdivision and sale of many of the original homestead sites 1960’s to 1970’s: “The real boom in Sedona tourism came in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Local ranchers and homesteaders sold property to developers. Local ranchers and homesteaders sold property to developers. The Doodlebug Ranch and the Jordan orchards were transformed into homes designed for retirees. Shopping centers and resorts were built for a new type of tourist who came as often for shopping as to view the magnificent scenery. The Tlaquepaque complex was built by Abe Miller beginning in 1971.” (City of Sedona website) That pioneer era ENDED with passage of Amendment 12 to the Sedona-Oak Creek area plan in 1998. An interdisciplinary team of natural resource specialists along with tremendous local involvement led this well crafted plan. The plan recognized the national and international importance of the Sedona area lands: forest lands in this area were REMOVED from the base for land exchange after passage of the plan in 1998 (with small exceptions noted below). “These standards have the force of law and/or regulation behind them and will require a Forest Plan amendment if future change is needed.” This map of core Sedona area Exchanges from 1950-1990 below was prepared by the Coconino Forest Service supervisor’s office. Notice the pattern of the original homesteads (yellow on map and marked “H”) and how parcels were added around them by Forest Service exchange process (pink, green, red, blue parcels from 1950-1990.
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Coconino National Forest limited authority to dispose of public land in the Sedona area:
The Sedona area has been removed from the base for land exchange with small exceptions noted in this report. Retention of these nationally and internally recognized high value public lands is the goal of the Coconino Forest Plan. There have been NO new exchanges with private parties since Amendment 12 passage in 1998.
To amend this restriction on land exchange requires an extensive analysis and public process. It is not a small administrative decision as Mr. O'Halleran has suggested in his presentations on behalf of the KSB monument proposal.
Only a few hundred acres in the Dells
area south of Sedona by the sewer system can be used to exchange for a high value site WITHIN THE SEDONA AREA.
6 of the 8 high value properties in this
planning unit the forest service identified as lands totaling 438 acres the Forest Service would exchange with willing sellers have been purchased from 1999-2004 by the Public Land Conservation Fund for more than 17 million dollars, so exchange for them is NO LONGER needed.
Land exchanges with private proponents
is rarely done today due to the long, costly, complicated NEPA process involved that now the proponent has to pay for. With the restricted forest budgets of recent years, the agency staff time is at a premium just to deal with management of the lands and resources—staff lacks time to work on exchange proposals.
Other very limited authority the forest service has to dispose of federal lands is: • For public sites needed by municipalities under the Townsite Act or Educational Land Grant Act (this is how Sedona obtained 276 acres for waste treatment lands and the high school site). • Use Small Tracts Act to make minor adjustments such as unneeded rights-of-ways. For example, the Forest Plan calls for the for these adjustments: Village of Oak Creek golf course encroachment; owners of of the church on the 11-acre Chapel of Holy Cross site buy a valuable property in this ranger district and trade
it to forest service or the forest service gets special legislation to allow the church to purchase the site; forest service acreage within Slide Rock State Park exchange for nearby state land. • Very limited authority to sell an administrative site such as the 11-acre sale of the Brewer Road Ranger Station, which provided funds for building a modern visitor center and ranger station as a gateway facility on Highway 179.
Original Homestead Settlement of Sedona Lands (excerpts from City of Sedona website) The first Anglo settler in Sedona was John James Thompson in 1876. More early settlers arrived in the 1880’s and took "pre-emption" homesteads, known as "squatters rights." By 1889, the General Land Office dispatched surveyors to locate the township and range lines. By the turn of the century, about 15 homesteading families called the area home. The first decade of the 20th Century saw more and more settlers arrive in the Sedona area to take up homesteads. Many were lured to the Verde Valley area by the growing mining economy of nearby Jerome. The homesteading era in Sedona continued until the 1930s, although fewer settlers were arriving by the end of the period. The last land acquired by homesteading was in 1942 on land south of the present Chapel of the Holy Cross. Some of the original homesteads changed hands, as owners moved away and others arrived to take their place. They were then further divided and subdivided.
