Game & Fish

Viewpoint: Don’t tolerate the closing of state parks

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[Source: Roxanne Cary Cheney, Eastern Arizona Courier, 3-17-2010] — I want to commend Diane Saunders for her March 7 article about the potential closure of Roper Lake.  However, I need to clarify some of the data.  Roper Lake is budgeted for four full-time employees.  If Roper Lake closes, it will cost Graham County about $5 million in lost revenue and about 70-80 jobs.  That loss cannot be tolerated!  Do the legislators and governor hope to make a ghost town out of our fair community?

Additionally, the governor has now stolen the Heritage Funds and directed them toward her bottomless pit (of a) mismanaged budget.  The Arizona State Parks Board Heritage Fund was established in November 1990 by voter initiative and provides up to $10 million annually to Arizona State Parks from Arizona Lottery proceeds (A.R.S. §41-503).  Another $10 million annually goes to the Department of Game and Fish to conserve natural resources and protect endangered species.  This portends the ultimate lifeline for State Parks.  Do our state administrators have any answers for the one lucrative revenue source they are killing?  Yes, they will let private companies manage a few of the parks, as it works so well in California State Parks.  This is NOT true.  Californians can pay up to $70 for the luxury of going to a mismanaged and dirty state park that is now managed through a concessionaries contract.  Do not let this happen. Flood your legislators with letters or phone calls.

Please call your legislators today and let them know you will not tolerate the elimination of the state parks as we know them today.  If you would like to be a part of the ongoing fight to save our state parks, please join the Friends for Roper Lake.  You can contact me at 775-230-2225 or Roxi1b@yahoo.com.

Viewpoint: Attack on Voter Protection Act threatens our valuable initiative process

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[Source: William C. Thornton, Special to the Arizona Daily Star, 3-8-2010] — Voters Beware!  Once again our right to legislate by initiative is under attack in the Arizona Legislature.  Inspired by the progressive movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, framers of the Arizona Constitution provided citizens with the initiative and recall as remedies for an unresponsive Legislature and direct means of removing corrupt or incompetent public officials from office.

It’s no secret that many legislators don’t like initiatives.  Many voter-approved measures provide evidence of a gap between an electorate with a progressive streak and the conservative legislative leadership.  Examples include the Arizona Heritage Fund, which passed by a 2-1 ratio in 1990.  With Heritage Funds, the citizens of Arizona have invested more than $400 million of lottery revenue in Arizona State Parks and Game and Fish, and earned many additional millions of dollars in matching grants.  If you hunt, fish, hike, camp, boat or picnic, you have benefited from the Heritage Fund at no cost to taxpayers.

By initiative we have also banned the barbaric blood sport of cockfighting, the hideously cruel use of leg-hold animal traps and mandated more humane conditions for factory-farmed hogs.  These measures all passed with overwhelming public support when the Legislature couldn’t or wouldn’t act.

Through the mid 1990s legislators engaged in a series of fund transfers and other actions designed to undermine the initiative process.  Matters came to a head when, in a particularly outrageous display of contempt for voters, legislators took it upon themselves to “fix” an initiative that legalized the limited use of medical marijuana.  The backlash produced the “Voter Protection Act” of 1998 that rendered voter-approved initiatives immune from legislative tampering.  [Note: To read the full opinion, click here.]

Record 40,499 sandhill cranes counted in southern Arizona

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[Source: Outdoor News Daily.com, 2-13-2010] — The Sulphur Springs Valley in Arizona attracted a record 40,499 wintering sandhill cranes, providing an unparalleled wildlife watching opportunity in southern Arizona this year, say Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists.  “In 2008 this agriculturally-rich valley in southern Arizona drew a record 36,708 sandhill cranes.  This year circumstances and conditions conspired for this 80-mile-long valley to attract thousands more of these magnificent large birds,” said Mike Rabe, the department’s migratory game bird program manager.

Sandhill cranes are some of the largest birds in North America and have a wingspan of six to eight feet across, allowing them to fly and soar up to 100 miles in a single day in their quest for food.  Huge V-shaped flights of sandhill cranes plying the skies provide a thrilling sight for wildlife viewers.  When standing on the ground, adult sandhills can reach six feet tall.  “Experiencing the morning sandhill crane launch at the department’s two wildlife areas, especially Whitewater Draw, is truly spectacular.  Witnessing the cranes return to roost at these wildlife areas can be equally spectacular, especially during one of Arizona’s brilliant sunsets,” Rabe said. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]

Glendale looks at next phase of park

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[Source: Michelle Gingerich, yourwestvalley.com, 11-29-2009] — The Glendale parks and recreation commission will consider both budget issues and community feedback as it begins to plan the next phase of construction for the Western Area Regional Park at 83rd Avenue and Bethany Home Road.  When construction is completed, the Western Area Regional Park will be an 81-acre park with an assortment of amenities.  “The park gives a community aspect to Glendale’s sports and entertainment district,” said Bill Schwind, the deputy director of parks and recreation.

The city has plans to add a branch library, multi-generational recreation center, an aquatics complex, soccer, softball and little league baseball fields, an urban fishing park, a dog park, tennis courts and additional basketball courts to the park.  The park and all of the amenities are not expected to be completed until 2020.  “We are now evaluating what the costs will be for each additional future amenity,” said Mike Gregory, the park’s project coordinator.  “We will be evaluating not only the construction of the amenities but the costs to operate it once it’s built.”  [Note: To read the full article. click here.]