Ask the Desert Botanic Garden, and the U of A's agricultural extension service. They would have seed recommendations.

You have to fence it to keep range cows out ... there might not be a grazing lease active, but if you have grass in the fences area and none in the unfenced, something is eating the grass.

For fast runoff control, get those "snakes" filled with straw and place them across the runoff areas at intervals, at right angles to the flow of the water. Plant a strip just above and below the strips to get a stripe of grass going to slow the water down when the snake eventually decays.

Gabions in the deeper eroded areas will slow down the water, as will brush dams. Start in the smaller erosion channels at the high points and stake bunches of brush down with forked branches (like making a beaver dam). Work your way down the channels. Multiple small dams are better than one big one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabion

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Searching Google for Arizona Native Grasses:
http://www.nativegrasses.com/info/ornamental/southwest.html
http://www.lgyp.com/brochure.asp?c=294897

And this link:

http://www.nativeplantandseed.com/

lazygardens, you are a BOOK of Wisdom my friend, thanks. Those are a very good start.

There is still an active grazing lease, but we are having trouble finding out who has the lease, it could very well be some folks from out of state, as you stated it IS open range country.

I had found the nativegrasses.com site, but found their pricing for native seed is outrageous: $23/lb and minimum broadcasting is recommended at 8 lbs per acre at 85+ acres that's a LOT of money.

Check with the county extension agency, tell them that you have 85 acres you want to revegetate and they may have some sources of bulk native seed.

To minimize seed use, you can revegetate selectively ... strips of adequately dense seeding across the slopes will decrease erosion and spread into the bare strips when the grass goes to seed where spreading that same amount of seed evenly across the area doesn't work.

But you really have to do the fencing or the cows will gobble up anything you sow. Don't plant what you can't fence.

I used to work with a Mexican aggie who was a whiz at erosion control and revegetation

Another GREAT idea, thanks again.