Protecting an Icon - Published in Arcadia News, December 2018

PROTECTING AN ICON

Effort underway to designate Camelback Mountain a preserve

The top of Camelback Mountain may look much different today if not for the efforts of five-term U.S. senator Barry Goldwater, who in 1965 made it a point to shield its higher elevations from commercial and residential development. Shortly thereafter in 1970, the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC) was formed with the objective of “setting aside the Phoenix Mountains as a unique wilderness park.” 

Over the course of many years, the organization wooed influential city officials with rides through the mountains on horseback, held large public hearings and even managed to successfully campaign for an amendment to the Arizona Constitution – all in the effort to preserve our natural land from commercial development. 

This accomplished group remains active to this day. Despite all the Valley-area parks and preserves the PMPC has helped establish, there remains work to be done. The job of protecting our natural wonders never ends, and the group faces continuous pressures from the increasing demands of a rising population.  

As it stands now, Camelback Mountain is not designated as a preserve like South Mountain, Piestewa Peak and Dreamy Draw. Jody Moman of the Arcadia Camelback Mountain Neighborhood Association (ACMNA) has lived at the base of Camelback Mountain for years.  

She says that preserve status would allocate more funds to the park, enabling better maintenance and marking of the trails, more stringent efforts to keep hikers off non-trail wildlife area, and a new trailhead for Cholla Trail directly off of Invergordon Road.  

“In the time that we have lived here, you can tell that the trail has been scarred and wildlife has been lost,” Moman said. “People have been hurt or killed because they don’t know where the trail is.” 

In a recent member newsletter, PMPC outlined the importance of keeping hikers on the trail, and how the preserve designation would aid in that effort.  

“The Preserves are established with defined pathways for maximum protection of hikers, and to also maintain the natural state of the desert mountains for plant and wildlife for all our future generations. Going off trail is prohibited within the City Mountains Preserves and those doing so are subject to a citation and fine by the City of Phoenix.”    

PMPC recently enlisted the support of ACMNA in its efforts to have Camelback designated as a preserve, and the effort has been going well. The idea was introduced at a Phoenix Parks Board Meeting on September 27 and it was met with wide support and no opposition.  

The matter goes before City Council on December 12. PMPC and ACMNA are hoping to secure preserve designation for Camelback Mountain by this spring. 

For more: acmna.org.