Election Archives - Page 6 of 8 - Arizona Heritage Alliance

Baby boomers retire here for the hiking, yet Arizona starves its parks. How smart is that?

February 25, 2023September 19, 2018 by azheritage2

Source: Opinion by Linda Valdez – Arizona Republic – azcentral.com – September 17, 2018

Opinion: Arizona’s environment is an asset. Yet we are starving the state parks that provide exactly
what baby boomers say they want from us. Arizona’s has a fast horse in the race to attract Baby Boomer retirees. But our state is starving the poor beast. Recent census figures put Arizona second only to Florida as a destination for today’s retirees, according to reporting by The Republic’s Catherine Reagor. And what is at the top of the list of what these retirees want? — Hiking. It’s the great outdoors that Baby Boomer retirees crave, and we’ve got plenty of it. But we aren’t taking care of it.

Consider:

The total operating budget for Arizona’s State Parks was $29 million in fiscal 2018, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. This is $15 million less than what Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute said was needed in 2009 to operate and maintain the state’s parks.
Since 2009, state parks have gotten no general fund money.
The parks don’t get to use all of the money they bring in through gate receipts and concessions. That money goes into the State Parks Revenue Fund, which reported total revenue of $20,460,700 in fiscal 2018. Only $14.4 million of it was appropriated back to the parks.
More than a decade ago – in 2007 – the parks had fewer visitors and more money. The fiscal 2007 parks budget was $37 million, and that included $27 million from the general fund.
During the recession, Arizona’s GOP-controlled Legislature stripped away $10 million a year in Heritage Fund money that had been dedicated to the parks by a 1990 citizens’ initiative. This funding, which came from the Lottery, has not been restored.
In 2014, then-Parks Director Bryan Martyn put a $80 million price tag on the cost of needed capital improvements in the parks – no-frills things like water lines and septic tanks.
Gov. Doug Ducey’s Parks Director Sue Black has faced criticism and investigations over her treatment of staff, according to reporting by The Republic’s Craig Harris. Concerns about her leadership remain but have not been resolved.

Open spaces mean economic growth

This isn’t just about the spiritual, emotional and psychological benefits nature provides to those who take the time to get out into the wide open spaces. This is about cold, hard cash. It’s about planning for an economically sustainable future. Arizona’s environment is an asset. It attracts people. That’s increasingly true as the large cohort of Baby Boomers look for retirement options that include outdoor experiences. Our State Parks include first-class natural, archaeological and historical sites. The parks need to be properly maintained to conserve the resource and give visitors a first-class experience.

It’s a National Parks problem, too

Arizona’s parks – along with Arizona’s wealth of National Parks and other federal lands – give us an edge in attracting Baby Boomer retirees who have money to spend on an outdoor lifestyle. And guess what? There’s a problem at the national level, too. The Restore Our National Parks and Public Lands Act of 2018 aims to begin spending on deferred maintenance on federal public lands. The price tag in Arizona alone is $531 million, including $330 million in needed maintenance at Grand Canyon National Park. Democratic Reps. Raul Grijalva and Kyrsten Sinema are original sponsors. Other Arizona House members signed on are Democratic Reps. Tom O’Halleran and Ruben Gallego, as well as Republicans Andy Biggs and Debbie Lesko. The bill is not moving.

Arizona’s missed opportunity

Meanwhile, back in Arizona, Ducey and his Republican colleagues in our Legislature like to talk about their commitment to economic development. But they lack awareness of how to market and maintain Arizona’s natural assets. They are systematically starving the horse that can help us win the national competition for retirees who want exactly what our state parks offer.

Reach Valdez at linda.valdez@arizonarepublic.com.

Arizona Game and Fish Department Seeks Public Input

February 25, 2023August 17, 2018 by azheritage2

Source: Arizona Game and Fish Department Email Blast – August 16, 2018

The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) is still seeking ideas for establishing and maintaining a discretionary, dedicated funding source for outreach, education and public awareness efforts. To view ideas received to date, or to submit ideas throughout the 30-day public input period that ends September 8, visit www.azgfd.com. Ideas also can be emailed to ideas@azgfd.gov.Draft funding alternatives, based on this public input, vetting and benchmarking, will be presented to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission during its public meeting Sept. 21 at the Navajo County Heber Complex, 2188 W. Country Club Drive, in Overgaard.

There will be an additional opportunity for the public to provide input on select alternatives, based Commission direction. AZGFD will host a public forum and webcast at 6 p.m. on October 10 at department headquarters (Quail Room), 5000 W. Carefree Highway, Phoenix. The public will be able to ask questions or provide comments in person during the forum in the Quail Room, or by email from their smartphone or other device.

The webcast also can be viewed at any AZGFD regional office, where the public also can submit their questions or comments via email. The forum will kick off another 30-day comment period that ends Nov. 8. AZGFD then will present potential funding option(s) to the Commission at its public meeting Dec. 7 in Phoenix.

Protect the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund

August 2, 2018 by azheritage2

Special to the Arizona Daily Star by Liz Petterson – August 2, 2018

“Few of us can hope to leave a poem or a work of art to posterity; but working together or apart, we can yet save meadows, marshes, strips of seashore, and stream valleys as a green legacy for the centuries.” — Stewart Udall

Tucson-based Arizona Land and Water Trust partnered with the federal Bureau of Land Management in 2014 to add 356 protected acres to Ironwood Forest National Monument northwest of Tucson. Home to Ironwood trees reaching over 800 years in age, the property provides steep, rocky slope habitat for desert bighorn sheep, the last endemic population in the Tucson basin. The funds for the property’s protection came from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Created by Congress in 1965, and spearheaded by then Interior Secretary and former Arizona congressman Stewart Udall, Land and Water Conservation Fund was a bipartisan commitment to safeguard natural areas, water resources and our cultural heritage, and to provide recreation opportunities — not with taxpayer dollars, but with a small portion of federal offshore drilling fees.

Now, the Land and Water Conservation Fund is set to expire on Sept. 30. It is critical that the Land and Water Conservation Fund be permanently reauthorized with full, dedicated funding. The fund is authorized to receive up to $900 million annually but over the years, more than $20 billion have been diverted elsewhere. Even so, the fund has protected land in every state over its 53-year history and supported more than 41,000 state and local park projects.

Arizona has received approximately $235 million in fund dollars, protecting places such as the Grand Canyon and Saguaro National Parks, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, Tumacácori National Historical Park and San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.

In Pima County alone, the fund has contributed to more than 150 projects, including the City of Tucson’s Reid, Kennedy, Udall, Fort Lowell and Lakeside parks; a dozen school and local park playgrounds, courts, sports fields and swimming pools; Dennis Weaver Park in Oro Valley; Tucson Mountain and Arthur Pack regional parks and The Loop in Pima County; and Catalina State Park.

Arizona Land and Water Trust has worked with willing landowners and government agencies — BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Arizona Game and Fish, Fort Huachuca and Pima County among others — for 40 years to protect 50,000 acres of wildlife habitat and working ranches and farms in Southern Arizona for future generations.

We were honored to receive the assistance of the Land and Water Conservation Fund in 2014. It makes sense to use a small portion of the fees from the withdrawal of our country’s natural resources to preserve its beautiful and environmentally critical places.

Please contact your representatives and senators. Don’t let the Land and Water Conservation Fund expire.

Environmental Study Ranks Arizona Second Lowest Among Western States

October 20, 2017 by azheritage2

Source: Joshua Bowling, The Republic/azcentral.com, October 18, 2017

It found Arizona’s access to public lands and responsible energy development need improvement.

(Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic)

Arizona ranked second-lowest among eight Western states in a scorecard measuring the use and management of public lands, an advocacy group said Tuesday. The scorecard, produced and released by the non-profit Center for Western Priorities, examined how Western states regulated public lands, recreation, wildlife conservation and energy development.

Jennifer Rokala, the center’s executive director, said reports like this one are increasingly important in the national political climate. “Currently much attention is focused on the national level at what the Trump administration will do to roll back protections of public lands,” she said during a media conference call Tuesday. “Truly, there’s a different story to be told at the state level.”

Rokala said “no one state does everything correctly,” but she hopes the scorecard will provide a sort of roadmap so state officials can see what policies legislators in nearby states are implementing and learn from them.

Holly Fretwell, a research fellow at the Property and Environmental Research Center in Montana, said these sorts of specific reports can help illustrate what specific states need, rather than “one-size-fits-all” national studies. Fretwell said public land issues are often difficult issues for states that have to juggle state land use with federal land use. “We tend to have this conflict,” she said. “The competing demands on resources and how to use resources because they’re on the federal level.”

Average marks for recreation

Lyman Lake State Park features three hiking trails. (Photo: Arizona State Parks)

Although Arizona outperformed Idaho in the scorecard, it ranked behind Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nevada. Arizona scored “average,” its highest mark, in the outdoor recreation category, since it doesn’t have an office of outdoor recreation or statewide standards for environmental education, according to the report. In “access to public lands,” Arizona received the lowest possible score, “needs improvement,” because of a 2010 piece of legislation that eliminated funding for the State Parks Heritage Fund, which drew from state lottery funds, according to the report.

The access to public lands category also earned the state low marks because of designations by the Arizona Navigable Stream Adjudication Commission. The commission determines what waterways in the state are navigable and, currently, only permits navigation — the ability to float through private property — on the Colorado River. Navigability factored into scores because it can carry slightly different definitions across state lines, according to the report. Both Montana and Idaho were commended for “exemplary” access to waterways. Allowing boats to float through private land usually means there are walkable routes along the banks of the waterways, the report says.

Jesse Prentice-Dunn, who co-authored the report, said it’s important because it keeps aggressive landowners from doing things such as stringing barbed wire across waterways to keep people off their property. He said he knows of such instances occurring in other states, but not in Arizona.

George Mehnert, the commission’s director, said the Colorado River has that navigable distinction because it is federally managed and out of the commission’s control. Other waterways regulated by the state do not have the same distinction, he said. Mehnert, in an interview Tuesday, said the commission is preparing reports and won’t make the other five rivers navigable this year. Attorneys representing the communities near those bodies of water can appeal the commission’s decision to the Arizona Superior Court. The other five waterways are the San Pedro, Santa Cruz, Gila, Salt and Verde rivers.

Energy rules score low

At Dead Horse Ranch State Park near Cottonwood, recreation includes fishing, horseback riding, hiking, biking and camping. (Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic)

The scorecard also dinged Arizona with a “needs improvement” score in the responsible energy development category. Prentice-Dunn said the low score was due in part to Arizona’s energy development policies. The state requires reporting of oil and gas spills within 24 hours, but doesn’t make those reports readily available to the public, he said.Arizona also doesn’t have any fracking chemical disclosure rules and allows voluntary reports through FracFocus, an industry-operated website that provides public access to chemical usage. “This is something that Colorado, New Mexico and Utah all have databases online, so that’s certainly an area where Arizona could improve,” he said. “In the West, in particular, energy communities and development kind of feel like they’re on a collision course … it really helps for the public to have the impacts of what energy development are.”

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in the Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow the azcentral and Arizona Republic environmental reporting team at OurGrandAZ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.