Cows are getting onto Sun Valley Parkway in Buckeye. Here's why and what's being done

Sun Valley Parkway might be the “road to nowhere,” but some West Valley residents are encountering cows along the way, prompting several communities and Maricopa County to come together and devise a plan.

Michelle Lampe, a resident of the Sun City Festival community near Tartesso in Buckeye, was driving home from Surprise in February when she was involved in a collision with several other cars and a cow. Lampe was driving at nighttime and saw three cars in the right lane that had already crashed into the cow. Lampe merged lanes, not realizing that the crash had caused the cow to go into the left lane.

The cow was black, so Lampe was unable to see it at night. A front wheel of Lampe’s car hit the cow, sending her car rolling and completely flipping her car.

“It was the most scary thing I’ve ever been through,” Lampe said.

Lampe was trapped in the air bags and had to be cut out. Luckily, Lampe only had a minor injury to her chest from one of the air bags.

Lampe said the area could use more light so drivers can be more aware of what’s in front of them, especially since black cows can be difficult to spot at night. The area currently has no streetlights.

Driver April Hurlbert agreed more lights would help with the issue, along with different fencing. Hurlbert said she had to swerve her car to avoid hitting three black cows in the middle of Sun Valley Parkway when she was driving from Buckeye. Hurlbert has since been in touch with the city to make sure people were aware of the issue.

Phil Bashaw, chief executive officer of the Arizona Farm Bureau, said issues with things like livestock and farm equipment crop up in rural areas that urbanize so quickly, like Buckeye has. In 2002, 934 farms in Maricopa County harvested more than 232,000 acres of farmland. In 2017, that number dropped to 631 farms harvesting about 187,000 acres of farmland, according to the Arizona Farm Bureau.

Generally, Arizona is a fence-out state, which means cattle can graze and responsibility belongs to the property owner or the owner of the right-of-way to fence the cattle out. While there are no-fence areas throughout the state — meaning the responsibility of fencing in cows belongs to the cattle's owner — Sun Valley Parkway is in a fence-out area.

While there is no way to determine liability without a full investigation, Bashaw said that, if someone were to hit a cow on Sun Valley Parkway, the driver of the vehicle may be liable to the owner of the cattle. While the value of cattle greatly varies depending on its age and breed, they typically cost between $1,000 and $2,000, Bashaw said.

What's being done?

Cows getting out along the parkway has been a concern of both Buckeye and Surprise residents for the past several years, Buckeye spokesperson John O’Halloran said. The issue has been exacerbated by people cutting the barbed wire fences that keep the cows in along Sun Valley Parkway.

Off-highway vehicle users, such as people driving ATVs and quads, cut the barbed wire fences to gain quicker access to the White Tank Mountains. Because much of the area is state land, the Arizona State Land Department was made aware of the issue but is unable to get ahead of it due to how much land there is.

Representatives from Buckeye, Surprise, Maricopa County and the Arizona State Land Department met in August to discuss how to address the situation going forward. The meeting was not open to the public, but O’Halloran said a good plan is now in place.

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On top of the State Land Department mending the fences, it also will put up more “no trespassing” signs since off-highway vehicle users are not allowed in the area in the first place. That’s because an area east of Sun City Festival, where much of the fence-cutting is happening, was designated by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality as a PM10 non-attainment area, which means there is too much dust in the area.

In turn, the Buckeye Police Department created a task force with the Surprise Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to ensure more officers and deputies are patrolling the area, meaning any violators out there could be cited. While other measures — such as installing solar-powered lighting in the area — were discussed, the main issue comes down to funding. The cities also are looking into sturdier fencing, which could potentially happen through national grants, O’Halloran said.

A further complication, in addition to state, county and city ownership of land, is that some of the land is privately owned, which is in turn harder to control, O’Halloran said. In those cases, private owners often lease the land where the cattle are grazing back to ranchers. But although the situation is complicated because there are so many players involved, solutions are in the works.

"I think we've devised a pretty good plan to help attack this situation," O'Halloran said.

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Reach the reporter at ahardle@gannett.com or by phone at 480-259-8545. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @AlexandraHardle.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why are cows on Sun Valley Parkway in Buckeye? What's being done