State Trust Land officials are unlikely to bring many tracts up for auction in 2009, and it could have implications for Scottsdale development and the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

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The State Land Department's Web site lists six auctions targeted for the next year for land in Scottsdale totaling more than 1,800 acres.

That includes 1,700 acres in north Scottsdale the city wants for the preserve. Officials refer to the acreage as "postage stamps" because of the parcels' shape.

But State Land Commissioner Mark Winkelman said Thursday that the department had about eight auctions in the last year with no bidders.

  

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