Environmental Education

2019 Arizona Game & Fish Heritage Grants Awarded

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Source:  Arizona Game & Fish Department Press Release – May 23, 2019

At Arizona Game and Fish Commission meeting held on May 10, 2019 in Prescott, Arizona, the 2019 Heritage Fund Grant recipients were announced.  Heritage Fund money comes from Arizona Lottery ticket sales and was established by voter initiative in 1990. Heritage funding goes toward conservation efforts such as protecting endangered species, educating students and the general public about wildlife and the outdoors, and creating new opportunities for outdoor recreation.

The Heritage Fund Grant Program was established by the Arizona Game and Fish Department in 1992 as part of the overall Heritage Fund program. The grants program initially was developed as a way to promote outreach in order to enhance important partnerships and generate fresh approaches in support of the department’s mission. Since inception, the department has had the opportunity to award more than $16 million through the Heritage Fund grants program and support more than 800 projects throughout the state.

A total of $412,000 was available for the 2019 grant cycle and was awarded through a competitive application process in various categories (Environmental Education, Outdoor Education, Schoolyard Habitat, Urban Wildlife/Habitat, Public Access, and IIAPM).  This year the agency scored 34 Heritage grant proposals. Below are the grant awardees and the grant amount awarded.

Outdoor Education

  • Gilbert Public Schools, Superstition Springs Elementary: awarded $800 for “Second Grade Butterfly Wonderland Field Trip”
  • Arizona Trail Association: awarded $2,500 for “Arizona Trail Association’s Seeds of Stewardship Wildlife Bonanza”
  • Washington Elementary School District, Orangewood Elementary School: awarded $1,000 for “Orangewood Wildlife Studies”
  • Grand Canyon Youth: awarded $1,500 for “Outdoor Education along the Wild and Scenic Verde River”

Environmental Education

  • Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum: awarded $10,000 for “Earth Conservation Internship”
  • Northern Arizona University: awarded $2,745 for “Discovering the hidden voices of Arizona’s vocal rodents”

Schoolyard

  • Douglas Unified School District: awarded $2,936 for “Mobile working tables and viewing benches for Douglas High School Land Lab”
  • Topock Elementary School District: awarded $2,190 for “Tortoise Enclosure Kiosk”Cave Creek Unified School District, Sonoran Trails Middle School: awarded $9,844 for “Schoolyard Wildlife Habitat”

Public Access

  • Arizona Trail Association: awarded $20,000 for “Arizona Trail Sahuarita Road Trail Head”
  • Cochise County: awarded $30,000 for “Geronimo Trail’s Route to Public Lands II”

Urban

  • City of Show Low: awarded $9,100 for “The Meadow Trail”
  • Save our Mountains Foundation: awarded $10,000 for “Interactive Trail Signage for the North Mountains Preserve”
  • Tucson Audubon Society: awarded $12,000 for “Bringing Habitat Home-Creating Urban Bird Habitat”
  • Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection: awarded $18,560 for “Safe Passages for Wildlife on I-10 East”
  • Audubon Arizona: awarded $6,600 for “Birds and Bikes”

Identification, Inventory, Acquisition, Protection, and Management (IIAPM)

  • Northern Arizona University: awarded $71,498 for “Connectivity and barriers to New Mexico Jumping Mice movements”
  • Western State Colorado University: requested and awarded $52,300 for “Assessing the Phylogeographic structure of bluehead sucker (Catostomus Pantosteus discobulus) and flannelmouth sucker (Catostomus latipinnis) in the Little Colorado River drainage using modern DNA sequencing techniques and morphological analyses.”
  • Northern Arizona University: awarded $67,158 for “Historical & contemporary trends in Ranavirus infections within threatened Rana chiricahuensis populations”

We Still Need To Take Action – HB2701 and SB1241

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Over 300 Arizonas voiced their support for the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund using the Legislature’s Request to Speak System.  Hundreds more called or emailed their legislators and the Governor’s Office.  And letters of support have been sent like the one just received from the Nationa Trust for Historic Presesrvation, the privately-funded nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that works to save America’s historic places.  Click here to read the letter of support.

But we still need to take action.  Both Senate Bill 1241 and House Bill 2701 are stuck at the Capitol.  

Senate Bill 1241 (state parks; heritage fund), sponsored by Senator Kate Brophy McGee, puts the State Parks Heritage Fund back into statute. While there is are no dedicated funds attached to this bill, when Lottery encumbrances are repaid and removed, the Fund will receive its annual $10 million from the Lottery as originally enacted. In the meantime, the bill opens the door for grants, donations, and direct appropriations. This bill flew through committees of both chambers and the full Senate with a vote of 30-0. It is now stuck in the House Rules Committee. WHAT YOU CAN DO. Contact House Rules Committee Chair Anthony Kern by email or 602-926-3102 or Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers by email or 602-926-3128 to request SB1241 be moved through the Rules Committee to let House members debate, consider, and vote.

House Bill 2701 (state parks; lottery; heritage fund), sponsored by Representative Joanne Osborne, restores the State Parks Heritage Fund with $10 million in annual funding from the Lottery as originally enacted. HB2701 passed comfortably through the House, is now in the Senate, and will be included in the budget process because it has funding attached. WHAT YOU CAN DO. Contact your Senators and Representatives to voice your support of having HB2701 as part of the State Budget.

ADVOCACY ALERT – SB 1241 and HB 2701, both State Parks Heritage Fund bills, move forward.  Please contact your Senators & Representatives

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Source:  Arizona Heritage Alliance Alert – March 10, 2019

Dear Friends of the Heritage Fund

Arizona voters approved the creation of the Arizona Heritage Fund in 1990; The Heritage Fund originally allocated $10 million per year of Lottery monies to Game & Fish and another $10 million to State Parks. From 1991 to 2007, the State Parks Heritage Fund served our state well with its dedication to parks, outdoor recreation, open space, non-motorized trails, outdoor and environmental education, and historic preservation awarding 579 grants totaling $24,179,567 and supporting projects in every County in our State. However, as many of us remember, the State Parks portion of the Heritage Fund was defunded and eliminated from statute during the Great Recession.

The Arizona Heritage Alliance was formed in 1992 to help protect and educate about the Heritage Fund which was passed by Voter Initiative in 1990 with nearly a two-thirds majority of the vote. For the last decade the Heritage Alliance has been fighting to reinstate the State Parks Heritage Fund which was eliminated from statute in 2010 during budget negotiations, after 20 years of successful projects!! That’s a decade of lost income to Arizona’s communities. Game & Fish has continuously received their $10 million without a stop.

The Arizona Heritage Alliance Legislative Task Force has been working closely with our Sponsors Senator Kate Brophy McGee (LD28) and Representative Joanne Osborne (LD13).  It is our hope that this Legislature restores the Fund after satisfying all other current encumbrances, and to bring the Fund back to effect in a responsible and deliberate manner.

Senator Kate Brophy McGee’s Senate Bill 1241 (state parks; heritage fund) puts the State Parks Heritage Fund back into statute. There is no dedicated funding attached to this bill, however when Lottery encumbrances are repaid and removed, it will receive its $10 million from the Lottery as intended. It will also open the door for grants, donations, and direct appropriations. This Bill flew through the Senate with a vote of 30-0. It is now in the House.

Representative Joanne Osborne’s House Bill 2701 (state parks;lottery; heritage fund) would restore the State Parks Heritage Fund with $10 million in annual funding from the Arizona Lottery as originally supported by Arizona voters in 1990. HB2701 went through the House and is currently in the Senate and will be included in the Budget process, because it has funding attached.

We are almost there!!!
Please contact your Senators & Representatives
this week to voice your opinion in support of HB2701 & SB1241.

With the success of HB2701 & SB1241, the State Parks Heritage Fund will be back in statute which was the Voters’ original intent and the Fund will once again be whole and functioning, providing countless jobs, community pride, and potential for increased tourism to both city and rural areas.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us at mail@azheritage.org or call 602-528-7500. Thank you for all your support.  We can’t make this happen without you, so let’s do this!!!

Janice Miano
President, Board of Directors
The Arizona Heritage Alliance
azheritage.org

Program that gave millions to restore parks could be coming back under new bill

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Source – Andrew Nicla, Arizona Republic – Published February 22, 2019

Arizona parks and other public spaces could soon get millions of dollars of needed funding if one state lawmaker gets her way.

Rep. Joanne Osborne, R-Goodyear, is shepherding House Bill 2701, which would revive the now empty Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund that once gave millions each year to restoring and preserving parks, as well as maintaining and developing other outdoor areas. The bill passed a key committee vote Tuesday.

The fund was established by a voter initiative in 1990 that passed by a wide margin, but was drained during the Great Recession when the state was short on cash. At the time, the fund received $20 million annually and split that money between parks and wildlife preservation. The wildlife grant program, the Game and Fish Heritage Fund, remains funded through lottery money.

Before the parks fund was phased out in 2010, it received $10 million from state lottery money and was divvied up by a commission in a series of grants to cities that applied. This new bill would bring back the program into state statute and secure that lottery money.

Meanwhile, there’s a different bill moving through the Senate introduced by Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, which would put the program into state statute but not secure funds.

If the House bill 2701  is passed, according to the language, it would secure immediate funding and split up the money like this:

  • 50 percent to outdoor recreation, open space development, restoration or renovation projects.
  • 30 percent to historic preservation projects.
  • 10 percent to non-motorized trails.
  • 10 percent for outdoor and environmental education.

Earlier attempts to revive fund failed

That money is crucial to many now-halted projects that once got funding from the shuttered grant program. Between 1991 and 2006, the program awarded more than $24 million through 579 grants. Phoenix received $3.6 million from 48 grants.

Ever since the fund went away, both Democrats and Republicans have crafted bills in hopes of reviving it, but those never made it far at the Capitol because lawmakers couldn’t find room in the budget.

A network of trails across Oracle State Park makes it a popular destination with hikers and mountain bikers.On Tuesday night, Osborn pitched the idea to a groggy House committee, which seemed delighted to talk about something everyone agreed on after bickering for hours over water law. During her presentation to the committee, Osborn called the bill “our bill,” a nod to the wave of support from voters in the ‘90s, and said the time to reinstate it was well past due.

“It really is our bill because there were many voters of the state that wanted this to go forward,” Osborne said, adding that this is the “last item from the recession to be put back into the lottery funding.”

This is Osborne’s first session at the Capitol and she chose to support this, she said, because she felt obligated to help preserve the heritage and history of the state her family has been in since the 1800s.

“It’s the people of Arizona that wanted this for so long and I’m happy to be able to put it (the fund) back in its rightful place,” Osborne told The Republic.

Osborne and Brophy McGee were approached by members of the Arizona Heritage Alliance, a non-profit aiming to protect the fund. The group searched for lawmakers who could likely pass the measure, after spending months earning support from state lottery and Game and Fish officials and other stakeholders. So far, both bills have earned near-unanimous support in committees, advancing farther than most in previous years. But regardless of that support, there appears to be no certainty of refilling the account right now. Even if the House bill passes, it won’t necessarily guarantee complete immediate funding because it relies on lottery money, which is still tied up in other financing. When the fund was swept away, it carried some debt to the lottery with it. If funding was secured, it could take many years to fully repay.

Without money, rural projects languish

The longer the fund remains dry, according Lani Lott, the Alliance’s executive director, the longer some projects in rural communities outside of the state’s larger counties could remain on hold. Lott said many local and regional parks haven’t been able to make improvements, many parks are needing deferred maintenance and new parks that are coming may also need help.

“Everything has just been kind of not moving forward on certain levels in terms of those historic preservation projects and other improvements,” Lott said, adding that some grants had to be given back.

“But we have a lot of support from organizations across the state who’ve all seen the value of the Heritage Fund when it was in place,” Lott said. “I think if people love parks, historic preservation, visiting state parks in Arizona, I’d encourage them to support this.”

The Heritage Alliance has worked with a handful of other environmental groups to see this through, but there are few people who have supported the program for as long as Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. Tuesday’s hearing was one of many she’s attended to advocate for the fund’s revival, and has pushed for it long before she was an environmental lobbyist at the Capitol.

The fund is among a long list of programs and political interests grasping at the state’s budget surplus, which could also invest money into it if the lottery couldn’t otherwise. Bahr thinks the extra money helps push their case to jump-start the program and the bipartisan support so far has her and other advocates more optimistic than before that this could actually get done.

“There’s a greater understanding of the values it provided and can provide again,” Bahr said.

“What’s not to like?” she said. “It really is a fund that benefits communities throughout the state, both urban and rural communities, not just one area.”

Andrew Nicla covers the environment for the Republic. Reach him at andrew.nicla@gannett.com or on Twitter @AndrewNicla.

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