Collecting AZ bonus points to hunt the Kaibab?

[cmc]

I posted earlier about the proposal to designate a National Monument in northern AZ. Here are some emails that have been sent out to provide an update.

cmc

Have you ever called or written your Congressman or Congresswoman? If you haven't, you might want to start now.

Three members of our Arizona Congressional delegation recently wrote the President and asked him to use his pen to make a proclamation setting aside and designating the North Kaibab, Arizona Strip, and portions of the South Kaibab as the Grand Canyon Watershed National Monument. If he does that, over a million more acres will get a new "designation", and with it, will come new rules and restrictions impacting recreation on that land. Click here for a map of the area.

Those three Representatives were Grijalva, Gallego and Kirkpatrick.
http://grijalva.house.gov/
https://rubengallego.house.gov/
http://kirkpatrick.house.gov/

The support for such a proclamation is no surprise from the first two Congressmen. However Congresswoman Kirkpatrick's support is somewhat of a surprise. Click here to see her letter on the subject. Also note...the letter is dated February 26, 2015, stating comment will be accepted from February 13, 2015 through March 6, 2015 (just extended to March 9th). Game & Fish received the letter on February 27th, and we have just 6 days now to let her know what we think! AZSFWC polled its 25 member organizations on their thoughts on the proposed monument.

We heard from 21 of the 25 AZSFWC member groups, and it was unanimous amongst the respondents that they were not in favor of designating the North Kaibab, Arizona Strip and portions of the South Kaibab into another National Monument!

Those same groups unanimously support the Arizona Game & Fish Commission's position on the subject, as well as their May 11, 2012 Resolution Concerning the Loss of Multiple-use Public Lands Due to Special Land-use Designations.
http://azgfd.net/artman/publish/New...rand-Canyon-Watershed-National-Monument.shtml

Sportsmen and women need to let the Congresswoman know what you think about this! Please be respectful, and send your comments and concerns to Rep. Kirkpatrick in care of Molly Brown at [email protected]

In addition to many of the points outlined in the Commission's link, here are some more:
-We don't need another National Monument, we already have 18 National Monuments in Arizona...more than any other State! http://www.azpbs.org/monumental/whatis.html
-We don't need more restrictions on wildlife management.
-We don't need more restrictions on sportsmen's access to public land.
-We don't need to eliminate the multiple-use component of our National Forests and BLM lands.
-We don't need another level of government oversight on another million plus acres of dwindling public land in Arizona.
-We don't need this monument to eliminate uranium mining, as there is already a 20 year ban on uranium mining encompassing more than 1 million acres (this proposed Monument) put into effect by the Federal Government in 2012.

If they represent you, it's important you contact them! If they don't represent you, let your representative know what you think too! Here is a link where you can find their contact information. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/AZ



Yours in Conservation,

Jim Unmacht President

The latest on Proposed Monument


Folks, in following up on our news yesterday relative to the Congressional push by three of our Arizona Representatives for the proposed new monument, here's some more information and some additional thoughts.

To provide Congresswoman Kirkpatrick input following her letter, you must do so by March 9th, directing it to Molly Brown in her office. Ms. Brown's email address is [email protected] and her phone number is 202-225-3361. A phone call will get their attention quickly! Then follow the phone call with an email to ensure they have your comments on the record.

Of course, if you are a constituent of Congresswoman Kirkpatrick, you can also give her email feedback via her website. The same is true for whoever your Representative is. However, if you are not a constituent, and don't live in their District, you won't be able to email them. You can call or send letters, but they'll only accept emails via their website from people residing in their District.

Congresswoman Kirkpatrick is also sponsoring a "stakeholders" meeting in Flagstaff on Thursday March 12th at 10:30 am to discuss the proposed monument. We don't have a location yet, but will pass it on when we do.

To answer some questions on who exactly is supporting this designation, check out the advocates' website. http://www.grandcanyonwatershed.org/

You'll find a list of elected officials and businesses who support it, alongside the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Grand Canyon Wildlands Council and Environment Arizona.

Here is a link to the perceived threats that "warrant" the proclamation, along with a map. http://www.grandcanyonwatershed.org/threats

Interestingly enough, if you go down the list of "threats" note the following:

Uranium mining, there is already a moratorium in place until the year 2032.
Old growth logging, the photo shows harvested logs in a burn area. The environmentalists are against any logging, and as recently as 2012, the CBD sued the Kaibab National Forest to stop a logging sale.
Public Land Grazing, called "Inappropriate Livestock Grazing", essentially the environmentalists want no public land grazing.
High Densities of Primitive Roads, the Travel Management Plans undertaken by the Forest Service and BLM aren't good enough for them, they want more roads closed.
Loss of Space for Wildlife to Roam, another perplexing one, as we've not seen any evidence our prized Kaibab Mule deer herd has had any migration corridors blocked or threatened.


Finally, here again is the Arizona Congressional Delegation.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/AZ If you go to this site, you can access all the individual sites for our Senators and Representatives. If you don't know who your Representative is, you can also check out the maps and find out.

District 1 Rep. Kirkpatrick

928-213-9977

http://kirkpatrick.house.gov/
District 2 Rep. McSally

520-881-3588

https://mcsally.house.gov/
District 3 Rep. Grijalva

623-536-3388

http://grijalva.house.gov/
District 4 Rep. Gosar

928-445-1683

http://gosar.house.gov/
District 5 Rep. Salmon

480-699-8239

http://salmon.house.gov/
District 6 Rep. Schweikert

480-946-2411

http://schweikert.house.gov/
District 7 Rep. Gallego

602-256-0551

https://rubengallego.house.gov/
District 8 Rep. Franks

623-776-7911

http://franks.house.gov/
District 9 Rep. Sinema

602-956-2285

http://sinema.house.gov/



Yours in Conservation,

Jim Unmacht
AZSFWC President

 

[LopeHunter]

My understanding is depending on the type of Federal designation that no more water tanks can be built and existing ones can no longer be serviced. Water tanks in an arid environment dramatically increase the carrying population of mammals, birds and reptiles.

 

[mtmiller]

Where did you get your info?

 

[cfree]

Thanks CMC. I have emailed my Representative Kirkpatrick a few times regarding this. Also took her survey she emailed to constituents. Seems to be falling on deaf ears.

Did you fill your Buffalo tag yet?

 

[cmc]

Negative cfree. Waiting on the snow to melt.

 

[BuzzH]

SFW propaganda...