Bill Text: AZ HCM2007 | 2019 | Fifty-fourth Legislature 1st Regular | Engrossed
Bill Title: Administratively recommended wilderness; urging Congress
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2019-04-08 - Transmitted to Secretary of State [HCM2007 Detail]
Download: Arizona-2019-HCM2007-Engrossed.html
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House Engrossed |
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State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-fourth Legislature First Regular Session 2019
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HOUSE CONCURRENT MEMORIAL 2007 |
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A CONCURRENT MEMORIAL
urging the Congress of the United States to act to prohibit federal agencies from recommending and identifying Arizona's public lands as wilderness areas without express congressional consent.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
To the Congress of the United States of America:
Your memorialist respectfully represents:
Whereas, through federal land management planning and associated guidelines, federal agencies are recommending and identifying Arizona's public lands as wilderness areas; and
Whereas, these administratively recommended wilderness areas circumvent congressional intent and lack full and appropriate National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses; and
Whereas, the identification of these de facto wilderness areas has resulted in significant restrictions on public access and recreation, paralyzing constraints on the Arizona Game and Fish Department's ability to manage wildlife and potentially catastrophic limits on vegetation and habitat improvement projects, including fire management activities; and
Whereas, the conservation of wildlife resources is the trust responsibility of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, and this responsibility extends to all lands within Arizona to ensure abundant wildlife resources for current and future generations; and
Whereas, the designation of Arizona's public lands as wilderness areas has resulted in the erosion of the Arizona Game and Fish Department's ability to comply with its federal mandate to proactively recover threatened and endangered species; and
Whereas, according to federal land management agency guidelines, an administratively recommended wilderness area must be managed to "protect and maintain the social and ecological characteristics that provide the basis for wilderness recommendation" in perpetuity or until Congress takes action to formally designate the area as a wilderness area; and
Whereas, allowable activities within administratively recommended wilderness areas are left to the discretion of federal staff and deciding officers, resulting in even greater restrictions and hindrances than those formally vetted and designated by Congress; and
Whereas, congressionally designated wilderness provides clearer guidance for management and coordination with this state, specific processes for wildlife management exemptions and direction for collaboration via existing state agreements and guidelines; and
Whereas, administratively recommended wilderness areas lack transparency and circumvent the spirit of NEPA and congressional intent; and
Whereas, with the implementation of federal land management plans, recommended wilderness areas constitute a significant and immediate change in management without a fully disclosed impact analysis required by NEPA; and
Whereas, the federal land management plans lack full NEPA disclosure of potential impacts to this state and the public, assurances protecting this state's ability to proactively manage wildlife and fulfill its public trust responsibility, including specific management activities, and analyses of the cumulative impacts of further loss of public lands that provide for multiple‑use and wildlife-related recreational and economic opportunities; and
Whereas, the areas being recommended as wilderness were not included within the original wilderness designations with purposeful intent by Congress; and
Whereas, the subsequent expansion of previously designated wilderness is an overreach of the federal agencies and disingenuous to the public, subverting original collaboration, coordination, negotiation and agreements; and
Whereas, the federal agency planning documents suggest that significant management action or recommendation to Congress will not take place before further NEPA analyses are completed. Within the Prescott and Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest recommended wildernesses, the United States Forest Service indicates that these areas are simply preliminary administrative recommendations and that further NEPA analyses are necessary. However, in transmittal letters, the United States Forest Service states that "the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the . . . Forest's Revised Resource Management Plan contains the NEPA analysis necessary to support a legislative proposal." This suggests the necessary NEPA analysis has been conducted without adequate public engagement and is an egregious lack of transparency.
Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:
1. That the Congress of the United States act to prohibit federal agencies from recommending and identifying Arizona's public lands as wilderness areas without express congressional consent and state and local consent.
2. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.
