80+ Years of Conservation

In 1941, the Arizona Legislature took the Federal government’s Standard State Soil Conservation District Law and established Arizona’s Conservation Districts in response to the devastation of the great dust storms of the 1930s. In the beginning, there were only four Districts…today, there are 42 dedicated to the conservation of Arizona’s precious natural resources. The Districts were charged by the Legislature with the statutory responsibility to provide for the conservation and restoration of lands, water, wildlife, and other natural resources, and to protect water rights, the tax base, public lands, and the general health and welfare of the people. It is important to appreciate that Districts are the only organization – local, state, or federal – with such a broad authority to work on all types of natural resource conservation practices across all land ownership or land-use types. All other government agencies are restricted to specific resources like water or wildlife, or land ownership types like privately owned land or land owned by government agencies.