In 2021,  six years of intense public pressure on the Prescott City Council culminated in the accomplishment of our original conservation goal to protect the threatened heart of the Granite Dells. About 474 acres of Granite Dells land was ceded to the City in the annexation agreement. The Council had never before been pushed to negotiate this seriously with a landowner to get significant public benefit from the open space requirement.

Along the way, Save the Dells became a formal Political Action Committee (PAC) in order to recruit and support city council candidates that would not only champion open space conservation, but also listen to citizen concerns about poorly managed growth & development, quality of life, transparency in decision making, and sustainable water management. In 2019 and 2021 voters resoundingly approved this approach with a total of three council candidates and one mayoral candidate elected by landslide margins.

with these successes, Save the Dells continues to be looked to as an agent of change, working to pivot the conversation from “politics as usual” to addressing the above-mentioned concerns our communities have for our future. We’ve seen just how interconnected these issues are, and must expand the lens of our work to include larger Quad Cities region-- because we firmly believe that the most effective, sustainable solutions are regional and collaborative.