Jan. 05, 2001 ARIZONA REPUBLIC Laurie Roberts

There is a place in Scottsdale where the chollas shimmer in the sunlight for mile after uninterrupted mile, where cactus reign, unimpeded by the unrelenting march of progress.

There is nothing easy about this land. It juts and jars and dips and soars into a sky so bright that sometimes you can hardly stand to look at it. No, there is nothing easy about it, and there will be nothing easy about keeping this land as it is, a dazzling display of Arizona at its best.

The fight begins Feb. 15, when the State Land Department holds a hearing to consider Scottsdale's request to preserve this land - 16,600 acres stretching from the McDowell Mountains to Tonto National Forest. You would think that would be something to celebrate, that preservationists who for years have campaigned to protect this land would be jumping at the opportunity to at long last plead their case. But some are uneasy. They worry that the state's decision to move ahead now could mean that some of this land will be lost forever.

This, you see, is state trust land, given to the people of Arizona to benefit education. Except that it's not ours to keep - only to sell to the highest bidder. And it doesn't really benefit education. For years, we watched more and more state land flattened for more and more development "for the benefit of the kids." Finally we said enough, and the Arizona Preserve Initiative was born. Simply put, API means that sometimes the value of land can't be determined in dollars and cents, that sometimes the value lies in leaving it alone.

Like this land.

A few years ago, Scottsdale voters agreed to buy it and the city applied to reclassify the land for conservation. The city still would have to buy it, but the price drops if it isn't bidding against the Del Webbs of the world. Still, there is a problem. Scottsdale doesn't have the money. Its mountain tax will never cover the tab. Then again, maybe it won't need to. Conservationists hope to put a plan before voters and Congress in 2002 to allow certain state land to be preserved at little or no cost.

Now comes news that the state land czar, Mike Anable, will consider Scottsdale's API request this year. Some suspect that it's a move aimed at selling some of the land to developers before the people can vote and preserve it all next year. "Why do they have to take action on it now?" asked Carla, who oversees the McDowell Sonoran Land Trust.

Nick Simonetta, Anable's PR guy, says it's simple: "We're trying to honor the application that Scottsdale put in by keeping things moving at a reasonable pace". He says Anable hasn't decided how much of the land should be set aside. But Anable said last summer that the city won't get it all. "I know Scottsdale wants me to save the whole thing, but frankly, some properties in their application aren't going to qualify," he told me.

There is a chance to change his mind - at 6 p.m. Feb. 15 at Desert Canyon Middle School. That figures to be the only chance for people to explain to Anable the power and the magic - not to mention the economic benefit - of keeping some land as it is. Of convincing him that some things shouldn't be for sale. Not even to the highest bidder.