Craig McFarland, president and CEO of Pinal Partnership, is the featured speaker at the Tuesday, Jan. 13, SALT Speakers Series.
The Pinal Partnership’s mission is to improve research, planning and coordination of private and public efforts related to infrastructure, natural resources and community development in Pinal County. It includes committees dedicated to open space and trails, water and renewable energy.
The SALT Speakers Series will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Room 117 at the Apache Junction Multigenerational Center, 1035 N. Idaho Road.
“Craig will discuss Pinal Partnership’s $1.3 million grant to develop ASU’s AI-supported ‘Decision Theater’ as an innovative way to support planning and decision-making in Pinal County. Decision Theater has the capacity to simultaneously utilize vast amounts of metadata from the county’s population and economic growth history and projections, to conservation of important of wildlife habitat and endangered species areas,” it states in a release.
“AI-supported analyses will help to map out the best compromises for roadways, housing developments, solar farms and wildlife corridors to maximally benefit all. These are just a few of the many ways in which the Design Theater’s capability to analyze huge amounts of data can constructively contribute to Pinal County decision-making,” it states.
SALT is particularly excited with the possibility that this grant-funded project may help galvanize public and official support for conservation of open space, view sheds and scenery in the Superstition Foothills and the general Superstitions area in the face of ongoing development of greater Phoenix. These are the values people have long told us are important to them, and have been confirmed in multiple surveys, it states.
SALT is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to conserve the natural Sonoran Desert open space surrounding the Superstition Wilderness Area. The website is https://azsalt.org
SALT will provide the Speaker Series at 6:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of months in the spring of 2026 in collaboration with the city of Apache Junction Parks and Recreation Department as a combined in person and virtual format.