Month: April 2011

Arizona Game and Fish to restore river bed

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[Source: WMIcentral.com] – The Arizona Game and Fish Department is implementing a water quality improvement project along the banks of the Little Colorado River on its Wenima Wildlife Area located just north of Springerville. 

The 355 acre property is managed for native wildlife, and includes 2.5 miles of the Little Colorado River.  Some of the river’s stream banks are very unstable, and large amounts of soil is washed downstream when water levels rise.  The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality funded a water quality improvement grant to address these eroding banks. The Department originally purchased this 355 acre property in 1993 with the aid of the Heritage Fund, which utilizes Arizona lottery monies to protect habitat for threatened and endangered species.  Since the 1993 acquisition, the habitat within the Wenima Wildlife Area boundaries has greatly improved, but a few sections of the river continue to experience excessive erosion events during spring run off and after large monsoon rains.

The Department applied for and was awarded a water quality improvement grant administered by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. [to read the full article click here].

Editorial: Camp Verde pact with Fort Verde may be vulnerable again

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[Source: Camp Verde Bugle]

Partnerships, compacts and agreements are only as binding as the resolve of the parties involved. When one of those parties is at the mercy of a third party in order to fulfill its obligations, it becomes a high-risk proposition.

Arizona State Parks has had 15 partnerships in operation to keep 27 of its 30 parks open to the public. Three of those partnered parks are in the Verde Valley. In an unsurprising move, however, the recent Legislative budget again removes millions from ASP.

The cuts could endanger ASP’s agreements with the Town of Camp Verde, Yavapai County and other entities.

The question facing the Town of Camp Verde is not whether to throw good money after bad – town money so far has been keeping Fort Verde operating and that is a good thing – but whether to continue a partnership in which the state cannot hold up its end.

Camp Verde’s relationship with Fort Verde is not the Town’s most important issue. Providing and maintaining basic public services and safety are far higher on the priority list, and they should be.

Soon, Town Hall will once again examine its relationship with Fort Verde and re-evaluate where the economy is headed. Hoping for a substantive turnaround is like chasing shadows.

Everyone hopes the parks can ride out the economic storm. Ideas are on the table. There are many with determination and enthusiasm involved.

ASP is tied by the state and a lot of bad timing. The Parks Foundation has a concerted effort toward privatizing the state parks. It needs time and legislative support to do this, and neither seems available.

The Legislature is not in a mood to be patient with its own state agencies. It needs to cut deep and cut now. That yanks the rug out from under the hopes of ASP and its partnerships with local governments like Camp Verde. It also limits the resolve on the state side of these agreements.

Meanwhile, Fort Verde, the core of the partnership, ends up in its usual position – under threat.

Senate budget plan would shutter state parks

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[Source:  Pete Aleshire, Payson Roundup]

Like a bystander gunned down in a gang shooting, the Arizona State Parks system will have to virtually shut down if the recently adopted state Senate budget takes effect, according to park officials.

The Senate budget would sweep nearly $3 million in funding from the state park’s budgets, on top of $72 million in cuts over the past three years. In addition, the Senate budget would impose spending and contracting restrictions that would prevent the parks from even contracting with other agencies to run the now-endangered collection of 28 sites.

“Because they’ve got burrs under the saddle, they’re using that as an excuse to rip off the saddle and shoot the horse,” said Payson Mayor Kenny Evans.

That budget proposal could force the closure of every park in the system, including Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, Rim Country’s best-known tourist attraction.

“It’ll kill the ability to keep any state parks open,” said Evans, who spent the week in Phoenix lobbying House members to convince them to reject the Senate budget in favor of Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposal.

“Not only would (the Senate version) sweep $3 million in funding, but it imposes spending restrictions. So the parks could raise $10 million in gate fees — but could only spend $7.5 million.”

Other provisions in the bill would strangle the backup plan for keeping Tonto Natural Bridge open by making it almost impossible to turn the park over to a private contractor.

Payson and other local supporters have formed an innovative partnership with the state parks system in the past two years to keep the world’s largest natural travertine arch open, mindful that at its peak Tonto Natural Bridge drew more than 90,000 visitors yearly who pumped an estimated $26 million annually into the region’s struggling, tourist-oriented economy.

The state parks system came up with money to repair the rotted roof and shore up the historic lodge so it could perhaps once again house paying guests. Payson has contributed money to keep the park open and the locally-formed Friends of Tonto Natural Bridge has raised money and provided volunteers to compensate for deep staffing cuts.

Earlier this year, the park system indicated it hopes to find a private contractor to help operate Tonto Natural Bridge, by either taking over the entire operation or running certain potentially money-making elements of the park, like a lodge, gift shop or campground. The partnership with Payson, Star Valley the Tonto Apache Tribe and the local support group have provided a model for efforts to save parks statewide.

Evans said the state Senate’s budget, supported by Rim Country representative Sen. Sylvia Allen (R-Snowflake), goes far beyond balancing the budget to seemingly settle political scores.

“There are multiple agendas here and some (lawmakers) are using the budget to accomplish what they’ve tried to do for years,” he said.

As an example, he cited the provisions in the budget bill that would cripple efforts to bring in private contractors or form partnerships to help operate the parks.

“The Senate bill makes it virtually impossible to do that as well,” Evans concluded.

Assistant State Parks Director Jay Ziemann put out a memo this week detailing the potential impact of the cuts proposed in the Senate budget.

He noted that the parks system has already absorbed some $72 million in cuts in three years, which has left half of the state parks jobs vacant and stripped away most maintenance funds.

The proposed additional cuts include a $2-million reduction in the $10-million enhancement fund, which comes mostly from fees visitors pay when they visit. The language of the bill would make it impossible for the system to raise more money by raising additional fees and negotiating partnerships. Since the state and Payson developed their partnership to keep Tonto Natural Bridge open, the state has developed similar agreements crucial to keeping 16 other parks operating. The Senate budget will likely kill all those partnerships, concluded Ziemann.