Archaeology

Success: Reinstatement of millions of dollars for our state parks system

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Source:  Scottsdale Independent by Sam Kathryn Campana, July 19, 2019 
Gov. Doug Ducey flanked by Sen. Kate Brophy McGee and AHA Pres. Janice Miano with members of the AHA Board at SB 1241 signing. (Submitted photo)

“Endless pressure; endlessly applied” became the mantra for the advocates of the State Parks Heritage Fund — which after being approved by the voters with 66% of the vote in 1990 — was unceremoniously defunded 10 years ago.

These were lottery funds giving $10 million a year to Arizona Game & Fish (not rescinded) and $10 million a year to our state parks. Dollars invested in parks, trails, and historic preservation in every county of Arizona — with great return in the form of usage by Arizonans and our tourists.

These advocates were the Arizona Heritage Alliance (AHA) — a nonprofit formed to monitor legislation requiring the state to invest in Arizona’s outdoors — our state’s natural, cultural, historical and recreational resources. The first 20 years after citizens’ support and passage of the Initiative — realized over $368 million of investment.

But 10 years without this critical funding left our state parks system on life support. Only one park operates “in the black” — the internationally acclaimed Kartchner Caverns. Parks are an amenity — often intended to be free to the public — and not a revenue generator. So, infrastructure crumbled, park hours shortened or closed, precious historic buildings deteriorated, rangers disappeared. The Arizona We Want, commissioned by ASU’s Center for the Future of Arizona, confirmed that we covet our Natural Resources and further value our Health and Well-being, both of which were being compromised by this lack of funding.

With leadership from local activist Janice Miano, following in the footsteps of Beth Woodin and Tom Woods (sadly, neither lived long enough for this historic day), AHA introduced legislation or mounted an initiative effort nearly every year for 10 years – trying to reinstate these invaluable funds. “This year, building on past efforts, hundreds of our members and friends voiced their support” for this bill and hundreds more communicated with the legislature through phone calls, emails, letters or attendance at committee hearings, said Miano.

Their effective message: Arizona’s local, regional, and state parks and recreation facilities are economic development generators that encourage the spending of tourist dollars, attract businesses whose workforce choose jobs in locations with quality of life benefits, strengthen community cohesion, and increase property values. Historic preservation initiatives in our rural communities and urban areas promote economic development by creating jobs, revitalizing historic areas, increasing property values, and promoting heritage tourism.

Our most ardent advocates at the legislature, Sen. Kate Brophy McGee and Rep. Joanne Osborne (following Rep. Russell Jones’ bills in 2011 and 12), both Republicans led the bipartisan effort to shepherd SB 1241 through the legislature. This week the bill was formally signed in Governor Ducey’s office! Next efforts will be to ensure the Fund has dollars allocated through the budget process.

The work of the Arizona Heritage Alliance took 10 years of unwavering effort, resiliency, commitment and creativity. But when you head up north to cool Dead Horse Ranch, get wet at Lake Havasu, encounter fields of wildflowers at Picacho Peak, frolic among the Red Rock, or are content to just know that resources will again be available for our seventeen state parks — thank the Heritage Fund, the Arizona State Lottery, the Arizona Heritage Alliance, and your state elected officials. Know you must be vigilant and tenacious now to protect our most precious Arizona natural resources — parks, open space, trails, historic preservation investments, outdoor recreation, open space, non-motorized trails, outdoor and environmental education, and historic preservation. “Endless pressure; endlessly applied.”

Editor’s Note: Sam Kathryn Campana is a former Scottsdale mayor and AHA board member.

Arizona Legislature Approves Senate Bill 1241 to Restore State Parks Heritage Fund

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Arizona Senate Bill 1241 (state parks board; heritage fund) – introduced by Senator Kate Brophy McGee (R-Paradise Valley) and co-sponsored by Senators Paul Boyer, Heather Carter, Sine Kerr, Tony Navarrete, Lisa Otondo, and Frank Pratt – has been transmitted to Governor Doug Ducey for his review and signature. SB1241 restores the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund to be funded by grants, donations, and direct appropriations until Arizona Lottery encumbrances are repaid and removed.

House Bill 2701 (state parks; lottery; heritage fund) as also introduced this session by Representative Joanne Osborne (R-Buckeye) and co-sponsored by her House colleagues Andres Cano, Regina Cobb, David Cook, Tim Dunn, Charlene Fernandez, John Kavanagh, and Ben Toma, as well as Senator Sine Kerr. Although this bill whizzed through committees and the House and Senate, it was held as a budget bill. HB2701 would not only have put back the Heritage Fund into statute, but it would have provided full funding of $10 million from the Arizona Lottery – its original funding source from 1991 to 2009.

“It has been ten years since the State Parks Board was forced to cancel or suspend $11.7 million in Heritage Fund grants already awarded and contracted. It has been a long, hard journey to restore the Heritage Fund, but we finally did it,” said Janice Miano, Arizona Heritage Alliance Board President. “This year, building on past efforts, hundreds of our members and friends voiced their support for one or both bills via the Legislature’s Request to Speak system and hundreds more communicated through phone calls, emails, letters, or attendance at committee hearings.”

“If anything, we’re tenacious. We won’t give up until the State Parks Heritage Fund is 100% whole again. We’re thankful to our bill sponsors, all legislators, and our friends for making great progress this year,” said Russ Jones, Alliance Board Member and former State Representative who introduced bills in 2011 and 2012 to restore the Fund.

ABOUT THE ARIZONA HERITAGE ALLIANCE
Formed in 1992, the Arizona Heritage Alliance is a non-profit 501-c-3 organization that is funded solely with private donations, grants, and memberships. The Alliance’s mission is to protect, preserve, and enhance Arizona’s historic, cultural, and natural heritage by protecting the integrity and voter intent of the Game and Fish Heritage Fund; working to restore the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund; monitoring state legislative and agency activity; and educating Arizonans about the benefits of wildlife, open space, parks, and historic and cultural resources.

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.