Did you know that a vote for RTA Next is a vote to keep wildlife and drivers safe in Pima County?
The RTA Next plan will head to voters this March, asking the community to vote on continuing an existing half-cent sales tax (Prop 419) that will fund the RTA Next plan’s transportation projects (Prop 418) through 2046, including a $50 million budget for wildlife linkages.
This is a once-in-twenty-year chance to secure funding for critical wildlife crossings in Southern Arizona — because of this, CSDP supports both Prop 418 and Prop 419.
The current RTA Plan built the first and only wildlife crossing bridge in Southern Arizona, along with many wildlife underpasses and miles of wildlife fencing. Since its completion in 2016, this wildlife bridge has dramatically reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions. It has also given safe passage to thousands of animals each month across the six-lane Oracle Road between the Catalina and Tortolita Mountains (two of Southern Arizona’s spectacular mountain ranges known as sky islands). This includes iconic Sonoran Desert species such as bobcat, coyote, black bear, mule deer, and tortoise.
photo by Christopher Dobrzenski.
Learn more about the RTA Next plan
Have questions about the RTA Next plan before the March ballot? Consider attending an upcoming Q&A meeting. In-person and virtual meetings will be held through February.
CSDP board member Carolyn Campbell, who served as vice chair of the RTA’s Citizens Advisory Committee when the RTA Next plan was being drafted, shared, “Both residents and tourists can continue to enjoy viewing our wildlife, ranging from mule deer to Gila monsters. Twenty years ago, our successful RTA Plan was the first in the country to include voter-supported wildlife crossing funding. Today, states and local communities throughout the nation are realizing their value and building infrastructure to reconnect public parks and preserves to keep wildlife populations thriving and protect humans from injury and death.”
“This funding allows the region to protect our desert wildlife while improving the safety of motorists at the same time,” — Carolyn Campbell, CSDP Board Member.
RTA Next continues this successful, science-based work with the same sales tax that is already in place.
It funds research and infrastructure for wildlife linkages that still need solutions, including Interstate 10 at both Avra Valley Road and at Cienega Creek, as well as Rattlesnake Pass in Marana. Projects in these areas were approved in the original RTA Plan but could not be completed when sales tax revenue fell short of predictions.
With RTA Next, our community can finally connect these fragmented parts of our landscape and secure additional funding, including federal dollars.
This is work that we can all be proud of here in Pima County, which public input made clear: wildlife linkages had nearly ten times the public support of any other transportation project in the draft plan.
The Sonoran Desert can’t wait another twenty years — vote YES on Propositions 418 and 419.
Photo credit: Leslie Epperson