MSPC recommends a 25.7 square mile McDowell Sonoran Preserve bounded by a recommended study boundary (RSB). 

Scottsdale formally dedicates the initial McDowell Sonoran Preserve, which consists of three parcels of land totaling approximately 5 square miles. 

MSLT begins a newsletter called “Mountain Lines”; a “Friends of the McDowells” membership program; free hikes into the areas identified for inclusion in the Preserve and a fourth-grade education program entitled “Our McDowell Sonoran Heritage”.

Voters approve the preservation sales tax by 64%! 

MSLT begins a trailbuilding program that trains volunteers for work in the Preserve.  

Council creates a Desert Preservation Task Force (DPTF) to make recommendations for preserving additional desert lands and appoints 4 MSLT Board members to serve on it. 

October is officially declared “McDowell Sonoran Month” in both Scottsdale and the Town of Fountain Hills. 

The DPTF recommends expanding the RSB by an additional 19,940 acres of desert, including Granite, Cholla and Browns Mountains to the north. 

MSLT hires our first staff member, a full time Executive Director. 

Scottsdale purchases DC Ranch property in the RSB resulting in 87% of the RSB being protected. 

Council adopts expanding the RSB to include the DPTF recommendations. The McDowell Sonoran Preserve plan now encompasses 57 square miles (36,400 acres) of Sonoran Desert and its mountains. This will link the McDowell Mountains to the Tonto National Forest and surrounding communities’ trails and open-space systems. 

Voters approve using the existing preservation tax in the expanded area by 70%.

 In partnership with Scottsdale Community College, MSLT begins the “Preserve Steward” program to train volunteers to be caretakers of the Preserve. Our hiking program expands to include mountain biking and equestrian rides. 

 Key Preserve purchases are made in the southern Lost Dog Wash access area. In addition, the City purchases the historic Brown’s Ranch in the expanded northern Preserve area.

 Initial rules and regulations for Preserve use are presented to City Council by the MSPC. 

In partnership with Scottsdale Community College, MSLT receives a $311,000 grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust to start the Center for Native and Urban Wildlife (CNUW) at the college. CNUW will educate students of all ages about biodiversity and conservation. One of its activities will be revegetation projects in the Preserve. In partnership with the City, MSLT purchases 31 acres of land outside of the RSB and donates it to the Preserve.

MSLT and the City Preservation Division publish a “Fun Guide to the Preserve” pamphlet for use by teachers and young students. MSLT starts a “Preservation Programs” endowment with the Arizona Community Foundation. 

To celebrate the 6th Annual “McDowell Sonoran Month”, MSLT and the Preservation Division organize “The Big Preserve Pickup” - a highly successful cleanup of the Browns Ranch area. 

On February 15th the Arizona State Land Department holds a hearing to determine if 16,600 acres of State Trust Land in northern Scottsdale within the RSB should be reclassified as “suitable for conservation” under the Arizona Preserve Initiative. MSLT takes the lead in organizing a turnout of over 1500 people – a record shattering attendance for an API hearing - as well as thousands of letters in support of the reclassification. 

On August 30th, State Land Commissioner Michael Anable signs an order reclassifying 78% of the land (13,021 acres) and commits to hold off public auction on the remaining 22%, thereby giving Scottsdale time to explore funding options to purchase the land.

 In conjunction with activities honoring Scottsdale’s 50th anniversary of its incorporation, MSLT publishes Historic Scottsdale: A Life from the Land. This is the first Scottsdale history book to also cover the formation of the land, the area’s earliest inhabitants and the creation of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. 

 MSLT joins other conservation organizations to form the Environmental Fund of Arizona in order to increase workplace giving to environmental causes through the United Way campaigns. 

The third MSLT Preserve Steward class graduates. There are now 52 trained, active Stewards volunteering their time to be the “eyes and ears” for the Preserve. 

MSLT partners with the City of Scottsdale to create a new Preserve informational video that wins a Western Region Award of Merit from Media Communications Association-International.

Events celebrating the 7th Annual “McDowell Sonoran Month” culminate with “The Big Preserve Re – Leaf”. Overseen by The Center for Native and Urban Wildlife, in partnership with MSLT and the City’s Preservation Division the first planting of native tree seedling begins what will be a decades long restoration project at Browns Ranch in the northern part of the Preserve. 

Plans are approved for an office and retail complex in northern Scottsdale, which will feature unique Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, including a visitor’s center. Thanks to the generosity of The Pederson Group, which is developing this property, MSLT will receive donated office space in this center. MSLT looks forward to the opening of our new office in 2003.