Forest and Rangeland
Health | Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire
Prevention Act | Petrified Forest National Park
Expansion | Yavapai Land Exchange | Other
Environmental Initiatives
I
am a strong advocate of prudent use of our natural resources;
the thoughtful conservation of our national historic, cultural
and natural treasures; and the restoration of healthy forests
in Arizona. By putting these principles into practice we can protect
Arizona’s environment and improve our quality of life.
One of my top priorities continues to be restoring
the health of the forests and rangeland in Arizona, which boasts
the largest ponderosa pine forests in the world. Effective science-based
restoration will help return the forests to their presettlement,
park-like state, where low intensity fires regularly clear the
forest floor of debris and permit trees to grow to great size.
Restoration techniques involve reducing the excessive
accumulation of underbrush and small trees on our national forests
that are the result of decades of well intentioned, but unwise,
fire-suppression practices and forest-management policies. This
build up of fuels has led to devastating, high intensity "crown
fires" that melt soils, destroy wildlife habitat, and disrupt
watershed functions. They also threaten human lives and property.
I support the promising techniques that the U.S. Forest Service
and Northern Arizona University are utilizing to improve the health
of Arizona's national forests.
The President’s Healthy Forests Initiative,
which streamlined federal regulations, and the Healthy Forests
Restoration Act, which Congress approved in late 2003, have both
improved the capacity of the Secretary of Agriculture and the
Secretary of the Interior to plan and conduct projects to reduce
hazardous fuels on public lands to reduce the threat of catastrophic
wildfire and restore our forests and rangelands. These efforts
are bolstered by coalitions forming between the public land managers
and state and local stakeholders to identify critical projects
and to begin effective treatments on the ground. In fiscal year
2005, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior
treated a total of 228,176 acres in Arizona.
I sponsored the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire
Prevention Act to create three institutes to promote the use of
adaptive ecosystem management and work with land managers to design
and implement science-based forest-restoration treatments. That
measure, which was signed into law in October 2004, will produce
the science to do the job right by taking the applied research
approach of the institute model, which is currently in operation
at NAU. To follow the implementation of the Act, visit http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/partnerships/institutes/index.shtml.
In 2005, I received the National Parks Conservation
Association’s National Parks Achievement Award for my role
in securing the enactment of the Petrified Forest National Park
Expansion Act. The measure, which President Bush signed into law,
expands the park to include an additional 120,000 acres of checker
boarded federal, state, and private lands to protect against theft
of petrified wood and fossils, pot hunting, vandalism to petroglyph
sites, and the environmental degradation caused by mineral exploration.
Late last year the President signed into law, the
Northern Arizona Land Exchange and Verde River Basin Partnership
Act, commonly called the Yavapai Land Exchange. That measure which
I sponsored along with Senator McCain, and which is supported
by the Nature Conservancy, Central Arizona Land Trust, and the
Arizona Antelope Foundation, to name a few, will preserve nearly
25,000 ecologically significant acres in the headwaters of the
Verde to protect the watershed, safeguard wildlife habitat, and
provide outdoor recreation for future generations. Under the exchange,
a 110 square mile area in the Prescott National Forest near the
existing Juniper Mesa Wilderness would be consolidated under Forest
Service ownership to preserve the area in its natural state and
prevent its subdivision and development. The new boundaries will
also include the largest stand of privately owned ponderosa pine
forest along with one of Arizona’s last untouched antelope
valleys.
Some of the other initiatives I’ve won passage
of include: appropriations for the Yuma National Heritage Area,
the expansion of Saguaro National Park, and the federal acquisition
of other environmentally sensitive lands for preservation purposes;
legislation to expand the boundaries of Walnut Canyon National
Monument; and measures to restore the health of our state’s
treasured forests.
I helped secure the following important federal
funding to continue to restore forest health in Arizona, expand
wastewater treatment plants, restore riparian habitat, improve
flood control and increase public recreation opportunities:
For fiscal year 2006 (current year)
• $2.5 billion for wildland fire management
• $1.6 million for the Ecological Research Institute at
Northern Arizona University to design and implement science-based
forest-restoration treatments;
• $1.0 million for environmentally sensitive land acquisitions
in the Coconino National Forest, Sedona Red Rocks
• $1.5 million for Lake Havasu City, $1 million for Avondale,
and $800,000 to the city of Safford to expand their wastewater
treatment plants;
• $350,000 for the City of Yuma Crossings Heritage Area;
• $3 million for wash and tributary flood control in Nogales,
to prevent flood damage and promote recreation to accommodate
population growth;
• $718,000 to restore the riparian habitat of the Colorado
River in Yuma’s East Wetlands;
• $3.5 million for Rio de Flag flood control, in response
to concerns that a large flood could displace nearly half of
Flagstaff’s more than 60,000 residents, threatening Northern
Arizona University and parts of the city’s historic downtown;
• $8 million for a longtime riparian habitat and nature
trail program in the Phoenix and Tempe reaches of Rio Salado,
which has brought back significant avian wildlife;
• $10 million for the Tucson Drainage Area;
• $4.5 million for a riparian habitat program at the Tres
Rios project using treated wastewater;
• $400,000 for the Va Shly’Ay Akimel project restoring
Salt River riparian habitat;
• $450,000 to monitor downstream riparian habitat from
the Alamo Dam; and
• $359,000 for studies to improve the efficiency of water
use in west-central Arizona.
For fiscal year 2005:
• $2.5 billion for wildland fire management;
and
• $500 million in emergency funds to prevent borrowing
from other Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management accounts
to pay the costs of firefighting efforts.
For fiscal year 2004:
• $2.72 billion for wildland fire management;
and
• $397.4 million to repay Forest Service and Bureau of
Land Management accounts that were depleted in 2003, when funds
were redirected to pay for firefighting efforts.
For fiscal year 2003:
• $2.5 million for forest treatments and
rehabilitation in the area of the Apache-Sitgreaves National
Forest damaged by the 2002 Rodeo-Chedeski fire;
• Authority for the Forest Service and the BLM to enter
into stewardship contracts with private entities to thin and
clear out distressed small-diameter trees that impede healthy
forest growth;
• $825 million to repay Forest Service accounts that were
depleted in 2002, when funds were redirected to pay for firefighting
efforts; and
• $2.1 billion for wildland fire management.
