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Environment

Forest and Rangeland Health | Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act | Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program Act | Sierra Vista Subwatershed Feasibility Study Act | Las Cienegas Enhancement and Saguaro National Park Boundary Adjustment Act | Petrified Forest National Park Expansion | Yavapai Land Exchange | Clean Water | Other Environmental Initiatives

I am a strong advocate of the prudent use of our natural resources; the thoughtful conservation of our national historic, cultural and natural treasures; and the restoration of forest health in Arizona. By putting these principles into practice we can protect Arizona’s environment and improve our quality of life.

Forest and Rangeland Health

One of my top priorities continues to be restoring the health of Arizona’s forests, which include the largest stands of ponderosa pine in the world.

Regrettably, as a result of decades of well-intentioned, but unwise, fire-suppression practices and forest-management policies, our forests have become overgrown, packed with dense underbrush and numerous small trees that deny older, larger trees the water and nutrients to continue to grow. The dense growth also weakens the forest, making trees more susceptible to insect and disease damage, and more prone to devastating, high-intensity “crown fires,” which can melt soils, destroy wildlife habitat, and disrupt watershed functions. As we have seen far too often in recent years, such fires can also threaten human lives and property.

Effective science-based restoration will help restore the health of our forests and return them to their pre-settlement, park-like state, where low intensity fires can regularly clear the forest floor of debris and permit trees to grow to great size. 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.

President Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative, launched in 2002, helped streamline the federal regulatory process to expedite the application of these important restoration techniques. Congress, too, has built on that initiative, passing the Healthy Forest Restoration Act in late 2003. The President’s initiative and the congressional legislation have enabled the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to work more productively with state and local leaders to plan and conduct science-based forest restoration projects.

Unfortunately, key components of the Healthy Forests Initiative are now in jeopardy due to lawsuits, one of which, Summers v. Earth Island Institute, will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court later this year.

While certain parts of Healthy Forests must await the resolution of the lawsuits before proceeding, collaboration among groups concerned about forest health can continue apart from that federal initiative.

One way groups can collaborate is through stewardship contracts. Stewardship contracts are multi-year contracts that allow the Forest Service to use the woody biomass from forest thinning and restoration work to offset some or all of the costs of the work.

Stewardship contracts are yielding results in the White Mountains of Arizona. In 2004, the Forest Service awarded the White Mountain Stewardship 10-year contract to Future Forest LLC, a partnership of local businesses. This contract is designed to restore forest health, support local economies and encourage investment in biomass utilization by focusing on the ecological needs of the area and guaranteeing for the contract term a supply of wood to the contractor. Since implementation of the contract, the cost of forest restoration treatments has been reduced significantly, from $1,100 per acre to approximately $550 per acre, and treatments of larger areas are now possible. Additionally, the commercial utilization of the woody biomass generated from forest treatments supports more than 13 businesses and hundreds of local full-time jobs.

Despite the successes relating to stewardship contracting, the Forest Service, which is responsible for stewardship contracts, is not utilizing this tool to its fullest potential. Last year, I introduced legislation (S. 2442) that would fix a technical problem that has kept the Forest Service from implementing more contracts.

Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act

The Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act, which I sponsored and which became law in 2004, created three institutes to promote the use of adaptive ecosystem management techniques and work with land managers to design and implement science-based forest-restoration treatments. That measure will help produce the science to do effective restoration, using the applied research approach of the institute model employed at the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University. To learn more about the implementation of the Act, visit: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/partnerships/institutes/index.shtml.

This year, I secured $2 million for the ERI to continue this important work. In addition, President Bush proposes funding for the Institutes in his fiscal year 2009 budget.

Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program Act

Last year, I reintroduced the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program (MSCP) Act. Cosponsored by Senators Ensign, Feinstein, and Reid, the bill would authorize appropriations for the federal government’s share of the cost of a comprehensive, cooperative effort among 50 federal and non-federal entities in Arizona, California, and Nevada to protect and maintain wildlife habitat along the Colorado River. The bill would also provide assurances to the affected water and power agencies of the three states that their river operations may continue as long as they comply with the conservation program.

Sierra Vista Subwatershed Feasibility Study Act

In August 2007, Senator McCain and I introduced the Sierra Vista Subwatershed Feasibility Study Act. The bill would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to study ways to add to the water supply in the Sierra Vista Subwatershed, which is home to Fort Huachuca, the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA), and nearly 76,000 residents in southern Arizona. SPRNCA, which protects nearly 43 miles of the San Pedro River, serves as a principal passage for the migration of approximately four million birds. It also provides crucial habitat for 100 species of birds, 81 species of mammals, 43 species of reptiles and amphibians, and two threatened species of native fish.

Because SPRNCA and the Fort could be negatively affected by declining water levels in the area, the Bureau of Reclamation concluded that augmenting the local water supply may be necessary. The feasibility study authorized under this bill is the next step in the process of determining how to best address the water challenges facing the Sierra Vista Subwatershed.

Las Cienegas Enhancement and Saguaro National Park Boundary Adjustment Act

In 2007, Senator McCain and I introduced the Las Cienegas Enhancement and Saguaro National Park Boundary Adjustment Act. This bill directs a land exchange that would add approximately 2,300 acres to the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area and 160 acres to Saguaro National Park. For more information about the bill, click here to read my introductory remarks (pdf, 102K)

Petrified Forest National Park Expansion

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.

Yavapai Land Exchange

In 2005, the President signed into law the Northern Arizona Land Exchange and Verde River Basin Partnership Act, commonly known as the Yavapai Land Exchange. That measure, which I sponsored along with Senator McCain, was supported by the Nature Conservancy, the Central Arizona Land Trust, and the Arizona Antelope Foundation, among others. It 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 will be consolidated under Forest Service ownership to preserve it 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.

Clean Water

The existing formula for allocating federal wastewater infrastructure funds under the Clean Water Act is outdated and fails to account for population trends and needs today. As a result, the formula fails to allocate federal dollars fairly. Arizona is the second-fastest growing state in the nation, but it ranks dead last among the states in terms of the allocation of federal dollars for clean water needs.

I am working to change that formula, but in the meantime I have requested funding outside the formula to ensure that Arizona receives a fairer share. I requested funds according to the need to achieve compliance with federal Clean Water Act mandates, community involvement, and the state’s water quality priorities. Here are some of the recent wastewater treatment projects I obtained funding for:

  • $300,000 for Bullhead City (Fiscal Year 2008)
  • $1.5 million for Lake Havasu City (Fiscal Year 2006)
  • $1 million for City of Avondale (Fiscal Year 2006)
  • $800,000 for City of Safford (Fiscal Year 2006)
Other Environmental Initiatives

Some of the other initiatives that I’ve helped to pass include: appropriations for the Yuma National Heritage Area, the Yuma East Wetlands, the expansion of Saguaro National Park, and the federal acquisition of other environmentally sensitive lands for preservation purposes, as well as legislation to expand the boundaries of Walnut Canyon National Monument.

 

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Related Press Material:

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08/11/08 Resolution Copper: A Winning Scenario

08/04/08 An Unproductive Two Weeks

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