The Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department is looking for amateur videographers and photographers to enter their works in a video contest designed to highlight the city’s desert preserves, parks and recreation facilities.
Videos can be either moving video or a video presentation of still photo images. All videos must mention the preserve area, park or community center location at which it was shot and, if applicable, any program featured in it. Winning videos also should build a comprehensible narrative through the use of natural sound (interviews or clips of narration or explanation from participants or users), voiceover narration or on-screen graphics.
To enter, participants will need to post their completed videos on You Tube and submit the link for consideration. Winners will be chosen for each month and will have a link to their You Tube-based videos posted on the department website homepage. Winners also will be announced in a news release and have their videos aired on the Phoenix 11 cable television channel.
Contest details are posted online on the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department website at phoenix.gov/parks.
Students Kelly Alvidrez, Victor Vizcaino and Benjamin Watts (far right) with Renee Bahl, executive director of Arizona State Parks (second from right).
Three Arizona State University students have been selected by Arizona State Parks as State Park Youth Ambassadors. All three students, Victor Vizcaino, Kelly Alvidrez and Benjamin Watts, are currently enrolled in the Parks & Recreation Management program at ASU.
Victor Vizcaino recently conducted field surveys in Kaibab National Forest on a research project with the City of Phoenix Parks Program. “It is an honor to have been selected as a Youth Ambassador for Arizona State Parks because I get to represent my state, my university and the pride we share for the beauty of Arizona,” says Vizcaino.
Kelly Alvidrez is interested in environmental education and wants to teach others about the outdoors and how to use it in a sustainable manner. “Through this appointment I hope to get young people excited about the parks and outdoor recreation. Also, I would like them to understand why we need to be stewards of our natural resources and how we can use them appropriately,” says Alvidrez.
Benjamin Watts enjoys exploring Arizona and its diverse assortment of natural resources. He believes getting people, especially youth, involved in the outdoor community is a crucial step in recognizing that we are a small part of a larger picture. “Being selected has really reaffirmed my decision to change my major and get involved with the Parks and Recreation Management Program. I took a chance and it has changed my life,” says Watts.
Kathy Andereck, Director of the School of Community Resources and Development in the College of Public Programs, says she is thrilled that these students have been chosen. “The students are reflective of the excellent education and mentoring provided by our faculty and the abundant opportunities available to Parks and Recreation Management majors. It also highlights the School’s philosophy and commitment toward community engagement and development of partnerships,” says Andereck.
The Youth Ambassador project is a cooperative effort between America’s State Parks and the Outdoor Foundation’s Outdoor Nation that encourages young adults to share their experiences with outdoor recreation. Each Youth Ambassador receives an Olympus camera and a 1-year Annual Pass to Arizona State Parks. They will document and share their experiences to the public using video, photos and blog entries that will posted on http://www.outdoornation.org.
“The Outdoor Foundation is pleased to partner with America’s State Parks to launch a nationwide Youth Ambassador program,” said Chris Fanning, executive director of The Outdoor Foundation. “Outdoor Nation is a growing youth-led outdoor movement where young leaders are championing change in communities and on campuses across the country. Protecting America’s State Parks is one of the most important things our ‘Outsider’ community can do.”
It’s been a tough year for the 28 sites within the Arizona State Parks system, particularly for the Homolovi Ruins State Park in Winslow, responsible for protecting and safeguarding the 4,000-acre cultural and religious site.
The park, originally home to the Hisat’sinom (the “long-ago people,” better known as the Anasazi of the 14th century), and closed since February because of statewide fiscal problems, is now in the final planning phase and about ready to announce a specific reopening date, expected soon.
“For over half a century, we have thrived as a department, but Arizona State Parks was not immune to the bumpy ride through our Great Recession during Fiscal Year 2009 – a year of significant change,” said its executive director, Renee Bahl.
Homolovi was one of 13 state parks forced to padlock its gates after the Arizona legislature, in response to a massive deficit, ordered a sweep of millions of dollars from conservation funds such as state parks gate fees. “These sweeps are catastrophic to the agency and will eliminate any hope of us operating the system,” said Parks Board Chairman Reese Woodling.
Anticipating some sort of belt tightening, the parks folks had already shut down camping and RV sites in October 2009, shortly before the Special Legislative Session officially ordered the money grab in mid-December. By February 2010, a phased series of park closures was started with Homolovi Ruins one of the first to close to the public.
Homolovi, a Hopi word meaning “place of the little hills,” features a cluster of some 300 archaeological sites including several separate pueblo ruins built by various prehistoric peoples from 1250 – 1400 A.D. The park serves as a center of research for tribal migration of that time period and while archaeologists study the area and confer with the Hopi to unravel area history, Arizona State Parks provided an opportunity for visitors to personally experience two of the seven ruins.
Most visited is the largest, Homolovi II, an excavated site with about 1,200 rooms, 40 kivas or underground ceremonial chambers, clusters of pit houses, and three large plazas. Petroglyphs can be found along certain sections of the nearby Tsu’vo trail.
Many of the early peoples paused their migrations to stay awhile in these high grasslands and find a home along the Little Colorado River, tilling the rich flood plain and sandy slopes before continuing north to join peoples already living on the mesas, peoples known today as the Hopi.
The migrations ended when the people settled at the center-of-the-world, the Hopi Mesas north of the park. Today’s Hopi tribal members, referred to as the world’s greatest dry farmers, still consider Homolovi and other Southwestern pre-Columbian sites to be part of their homeland and make pilgrimages to the locations to renew ties with the people of the land.
As new people, like the Diné, and later, Europeans, arrived, the Hopi watched as ancient dwellings in their homeland were destroyed through digging into sacred sites for curios and souvenirs to sell. Finally, in an effort to protect what was left, the Hopi people supported the idea of Homolovi Ruins State Park, established in 1986 and opened in 1993 – until operating budget funding disappeared and “Closed. Do Not Enter” signs showed up.
While the state remains deeply mired in red ink with no clear-cut direction on how to balance its budget, the Hopi Tribal Council, in a 12-0 vote in October, approved a resolution to reopen the park as part of an intergovernmental agreement with the Arizona State Parks Board to operate and maintain the park.
“The park would be operated by the State Parks Department for 12 months with an option to renew the agreement for two additional one-year periods,” according to the Arizona Department of Tourism. “The tribe will provide $175,000 to subsidize park operations and State Parks gets to retain fees collected from visitors.”
“When the park closed, the Hopi people became worried that once again pot hunters could start desecrating our ancient homelands,” said Hopi Land Team member and tribal council representative Cedric Kuwaninvaya, Sipaulovi. “Now, in partnership with park representatives, the City of Winslow, and others, we can again protect and preserve our ancient homelands and share our cultural heritage.”
According to the timetable, the wheelchair-accessible Visitor Center will be open daily, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. The center offers a museum of Hopi pottery, carvings, and other art forms and exhibits explaining the archaeology of Homolovi’s ancient peoples and a gift shop of books and artwork operated by the Arizona Archaeological Society. The park also maintains a collection of artifacts returned from elsewhere in the Winslow area, items such as prehistoric pottery wares, stone and bone tools.
If the event returns to the schedule in July 2011, the annual Suvoyuki Days will take on a special significance. Suvoyuki, translated in the Hopi language means “to accomplish work through a joint effort,” celebrating partners who protect and save the area’s archaeological and cultural sites from destruction, a success admirably demonstrated in the reopening effort.
“We took some hard hits, but we will persevere through this fiscally turbulent time and reemerge as bright as ever,” Bahl said.
The 199-acre private inholding has rich riparian habitat and a collection of buildings that includes bunkhouses, two houses and a barn. With easy access to the Valley, right along Interstate 17, the site has enormous potential for education and outdoor recreation.
The Arizona Game and Fish Commission stepped in to put this quintessentially Western site into public stewardship. In October, it approved the acquisition of Horseshoe Ranch with money from the Heritage Fund and other sources. A staff member will live on site, providing a much-needed layer of security for a place that’s so close to a major metropolitan area. The monument has petroglyphs and archaeological sites that need the extra oversight.
This is a winning move from many angles. Acquiring the ranch ensures easy public access to the national monument, which might otherwise be limited.
Wildlife benefits from keeping this vast landscape intact, avoiding fragmentation from development. The monument and ranch are home to animals that range from a large herd of pronghorn to javelinas and mountain lions. Endangered species there include the Gila topminnow and desert pupfish.
Game and Fish will work with other agencies to restore grasslands and manage the critical Agua Fria watershed.
The public can enjoy the opportunities for hunting, fishing, exploring, viewing wildlife and bird watching. The Agua Fria was designated as an “important bird area” by the National Audubon Society.
It took a lot of partners to put this $3.3 million deal together. The owner had bought the land with the goal of a federal land exchange. When that didn’t work out, the Trust for Public Land helped carry the property.
No tax dollars from the state general fund are going toward the purchase, which will be paid through the Lottery-supported Heritage Fund (which has a dedicated land-acquisition fund) and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife grant. The ranch’s 68,000-acre grazing rights are being bought with help from the Arizona Antelope Foundation ($185,000) and the National Wild Turkey Federation ($1,000), using money raised from raffling special big-game tags.
The partnerships will continue to support the management of the ranch. A few strings remained to be tied, including a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Agua Fria National Monument.
Then this unique property will belong to all Arizonans from now on.
