In June of 2018, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar [R-District 4] introduced the Cottonwood Land Exchange Act of 2018 — House Resolution 6146, a bill in Congress aimed at swapping a patch of land in Cornville owned by the U.S. Forest Service for a parcel on the edge of Cottonwood on Mingus Avenue owned by Yavapai County. The swap was supported by both Forest Service and county leaders and garnered bipartisan cosponsors from most of the Arizona Congressional delegation.
Despite passing through the House National Resources Committee without objection and being approved by the full House of Representatives, Gosar’s bill failed to pass the Senate before the end of the 115th Congress at the close of 2018.
With the new congressional term that started at the beginning of the month, Gosar reintroduced the bill, again garnering cosponsors from most Arizona House members, including U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran [D-District 1], and added a Senate sponsor in newly-appointed U.S. Sen. Martha McSally [R-Arizona], who introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
“The Cottonwood Land Exchange Act is common sense legislation that will benefit local communities and families in Cornville by allowing for expansion of Windmill Park,” Congressman Gosar wrote in a press release. “The consolidation of the multiple checkerboards of land will yield significant benefits to the people of Arizona. This legislation is the result of years of collaboration between Yavapai County officials, community members and the Forest Service.”
The initial plan for the land swap originated with Yavapai County Supervisor Tom Thurman, who noted that the land in Cornville is surrounded by private property and abuts Windmill Park, making it more beneficial for the county than the Forest Service. He also felt that the presence of numerous specimens of cliff rose, an endangered plant, makes the land in Cottonwood able to be better handled by the USFS than the county.
“They were in agreement, but the system on land trades right now in the Forest is very complicated right now and can take anywhere from five to 10 years,” Thurman said. “I don’t want to wait that long, so I went to Congressman [Paul] Gosar.”
“The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors wishes to thank Congressman Gosar, who authored the bill, as well as Sen. McSally and the entire Arizona Delegation, for their leadership and pursuit of common sense and public good will,” Yavapai County Board of Supervisors Chairman Randy Garrison wrote. “The ‘Cottonwood Land Exchange Act’ will support Yavapai County’s goal in returning the use of public land back to those we serve, while also protecting our natural and archeological resources, which can only improve the lives of our residents, now and into the future. Your support is greatly appreciated.”
Despite the failure of the bill to get through Congress last year, Jeff Small, a senior advisor to Gosar, said he believes that they should have more success this time around, especially with McSally leading the charge on the bill in the Senate. He noted that last time around, the bill got dragged into a much bigger legislative package on federal lands, which allowed it to be stopped for unrelated reasons. In the last week of 2018, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee [R- Utah] blocked the bill over disagreements on national monument policy.
“We were pretty optimistic there for a couple days and then it just didn’t quite get done,” Small said from Washington. “But, there’s no opposition, which is always good out here. Usually people find opposition about the silliest things. No opposition and pretty strong support out the gate, which is always good, so we think we can probably get this one done this Congress.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
