The Flagstaff City Council gave formal approval to the Greater Observatory Mesa Natural Area plan during its meeting on Tuesday, June 3. All seven members voted in favor of adopting the plan, which focuses on the management of trails across city and Forest Service lands on the mesa.聽
The unanimous decision was not a surprise: following an extensive discussion in mid-May, all of the council members had indicated that they supported the plan. The vote confirmed that support, and will allow city and Coconino National Forest recreation staff to begin working on the plan鈥檚 implementation after years of public input and revision.
The final plan calls for a mix of trail construction, adoption and decommissioning to create a more accessible, sustainable and navigable network. About 20 miles of new singletrack will be built, while 4 miles of user-created trails and 10 miles of abandoned roadbeds will be naturalized. Roughly 2 miles of existing unauthorized trails will be adopted into the new system.
At the previous discussion on May 13, supporters of the plan argued that it represented the best possible compromise between providing recreation opportunities and preserving undeveloped open space -- even if they weren鈥檛 fully satisfied with all of its provisions.
Also at that meeting, Flagstaff鈥檚 open space supervisor Robert Wallace suggested that on-the-ground work on the project might not begin until 2028. Whether that timeline changes -- or whether President Donald Trump鈥檚 to the U.S. Forest Service鈥檚 recreation management budget will impact the agency鈥檚 local capacities in coming years -- remains to be seen.