Sedona News – Keep Sedona Beautiful will hold its next Preserving the Wonder Speaker Series event on Wednesday, April 17 at 5:00 pm. During this panel discussion, you’ll learn how a group of residents, businesses, environmental organizations, ranching permitees, recreation-related non-governmental organizations, recreation user groups and law enforcement collaborated to arrive at a set of proposed strategies to address what Keep Sedona Beautiful calls “The OHV Crisis”. These proposed strategies address environmental damage, excessive noise, disruption to the community and safety issues.
The Greater Sedona Recreation Collaborative was formed in an effort to respond to concerns voiced by local residents. Co-conveners included the National Forest Service, the City of Sedona, Yavapai County, Arizona State Parks & Trails and Arizona Game & Fish. These co-conveners hired Southwest Decision Resources (SDR) to facilitate the process. SDR helped identify a broadly representative group of local stakeholders to form the Motorized Recreation Working Group.
The Working Group spent months in shared learning exercises in order to better understand the nature of the problem and the complexities of working on a multi-jurisdictional effort. The group gathered data, learned about best practices for conservation and restoration of fragile land, and evaluated candidate strategies. They concluded that three categories of root causes need to be addressed: 1) volume of use and recreational demand, 2) physical infrastructure and the environment and 3) user behavior. Proposed strategies address each of these root causes.
A detailed report created by the Working Group presents the strategies and justification behind each. The report has been presented to the Co-conveners for their evaluation and implementation.
The Preserving the Wonder Speaker series is held on the third Wednesday of each month.
For over 50 years, Keep Sedona Beautiful has been dedicated to protecting and enhancing the scenic beauty and natural environment of Sedona and the Verde Valley. For more information about Keep Sedona Beautiful and this event, please visit www.keepsedonabeautiful.org.