Arizona Daily Star

Legislation spearheaded by Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Arizona, to preserve the rugged American West should become law.
The Committee on Natural Resources approved on March 12 the bill to make permanent the 26 million-acre National Landscape Conservation System. It would protect more than 3.3 million acres and 56 miles of trails in Arizona.

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by Faye Bowers, Christian Science Monitor

Sonoran Desert National Monument, Ariz. - This swath of desert is in full bloom. The mountainsides blanketed by towering saguaro forests are now dotted with yellow and orange Mexican poppies, purple lupine, and white chicory. The monument is home to three wilderness areas and two historic trails.

These 487,000 acres sit along a corridor between Arizona's two largest metropolitan areas, Phoenix and Tucson, where demographers predict the population will increase from 5 million people to more than 10 million by 2040.

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Arizona Republic

From the breathtaking formations of the Vermilion Cliffs in northern Arizona to the historic Lewis and Clark Trail in Idaho, the Bureau of Land Management oversees extraordinary Western treasures. While amazingly varied, these places need to be organized in a coherent system.

Then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt started the ball rolling in 2000, establishing the National Landscape Conservation System by decree.

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by April Reese, Land Letter

LAS CIENEGAS NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA, Ariz. -- Atop a rocky hill in the heart of this mountain-ringed expanse of undulating grasslands and cottonwood-lined creeks, rancher Mac Donaldson gestures toward a stretch of bottomlands below.

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by Dennis Wagner, Arizona Republic

IRONWOOD FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT - Elena Daley, an administrator with the federal Bureau of Land Management, climbs atop a volcanic formation in the hills of southern Arizona and studies ancient petroglyphs scratched into stone by Hohokams.

There is a stick man, a pregnant sheep, a spiral.

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by Geoff Koss, CongressNow

A broad coalition of conservation interests is pressing for quick action this year on legislation that would make permanent a Clinton-era network of public lands administered by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management.

For the Conservation System Alliance, which includes environmental, preservation, faith-based and recreation groups as its members, enactment of the National Landscape Conservation System Act (H.R. 2016, S.1139) is a top priority, a coalition representative said.

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by Editorial staff, Las Vegas SUN

When it comes to the upkeep of places such as Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, federal officials say they rely heavily on community volunteers.

A story by the Las Vegas Sun's Phoebe Sweet on Saturday said 100 volunteers were expected to turn out over the weekend to help spruce up the conservation area that is just west of Las Vegas and sees about 1 million visitors a year.

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by Phoebe Sweet, Las Vegas SUN

Last year more than 1 million people visited Red Rock Canyon, a national
conservation area near Las Vegas, and each one left a little something
behind.

They brought about 800,000 cars, as well as PowerBar wrappers, water bottles
and booted feet.

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by Katherine Boyle, LandLetter

From the sidewalks of inner-city Milwaukee to Alaska’s rugged White Mountains, thousands of volunteers will pick up litter, clear trails and repair fences to celebrate National Public Lands Day this Saturday.

Last year, nearly 100,000 volunteers across the country came out to help care for the federal, state and local lands that make up more than one-third of the United States’ territory. When the program began in 1994, there were 700 participants.

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by Editorial Staff, Sacramento Bee

In 1872, Congress created Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s first. As the years passed, Congress kept adding more parks (including Sequoia, Yosemite and Lassen Volcanic national parks in California), but there was no system. Finally, after 44 years, Congress established the national park system, the first in the world.

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