If you or your organization would like to sign the following letter to protect the Arizona Heritage Fund, send us an e-mail and include your name, mailing address, e-mail, and state legislative district. To locate your district, click here. Thank you for your interest and support.
Dear Arizona Legislator:
We are writing to urge you to please refrain from diverting the Arizona Heritage Fund for fiscal year 2010 and for the fiscal year 2011 budget. We understand that these are very difficult times and that budgets are tight, but also believe that it is important to protect during this difficult time core Arizona resources –- our true capital: parks and wildlife, prehistoric and historic sites, trails, and other cultural and outdoors amenities which will serve well the citizens of Arizona during this bleak period.
Since 1990, the Arizona Heritage Fund has helped to protect wildlife, conserve habitat, preserve historic buildings and archaeological sites, and provide safe playground equipment for children in community parks, among other accomplishments. The Heritage Fund has benefitted and continues to benefit every legislative district in the state.
Protecting these important resources and providing parks, including state parks that are well maintained, are essential to our state’s economy, unique quality of life, and the future of our children and their children. During difficult budget times, it is as important, if not more important, to invest in these resources and secure their protection for the future. Since its passage, there has been no increase in the actual dollars to the Heritage Fund; that means that the current allocation adjusted for inflation funds a lot less. It is essential to Arizona and Arizonans who created the Heritage Fund to protect those dollars.
It is also important to note that parks and wildlife programs have already been severely affected by cuts in local, state, and federal budgets. As it is now, Arizona State Parks faces two dire choices – allow our parks to deteriorate or close them altogether – if funds for proper maintenance and protection are not increased. Cutting them would truly endanger those parks so important to the state’s economy and that of many small communities. Cuts in wildlife funding will result in less federal funding for both non-game and game programs. Our state’s wildlife need solid, ongoing and predictable funding to withstand the ever-increasing pressures from development, road-building, and other activities that fragment and destroy habitat.
We ask that you agree to keep the Heritage Fund intact in the FY 2010 and FY 2011 budgets. Thank you for your consideration.
- Agua Fria Open Space Alliance, Inc.
- American Association of University Women, Sun City/Peoria Branch
- Anglers United
- Apache Junction Parks & Recreation Department
- Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch
- Arizona Antelope Foundation
- Arizona Association For Environmental Education
- Arizona Audubon Council
- Arizona Boating & Watersports News Magazine
- Arizona Heritage Alliance
- Arizona Humanities Council
- Arizona Jewish Historical Society
- Arizona Land & Water Trust
- Arizona Native Plant Society
- Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science
- Arizona Parks & Recreation Association
- Arizona Preservation Foundation
- Arizona Riparian Council
- Arizona Rivers Project
- Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
- Arizona State Parks Foundation
- Arizona Trail Association
- Arizona Walks
- Arizona Watchable Wildlife Tourism Association
- Arizona Wilderness Coalition
- Arizona Wildlife Education Foundation
- Arizona Wildlife Federation
- Arizona Zoological Society
- Audubon Arizona
- Back Country Horsemen of Central Arizona
- Be Outdoors Arizona
- Borton Environmental Learning Laboratory
- Borton Primary Magnet School PTA
- CenPhoTV
- Center for Biological Diversity
- Center for Desert Archaeology
- Center for Environmental Innovation
- Cienega Watershed Partnership
- City of Avondale
- City of Benson
- City of Casa Grande, Parks & Recreation
- City of Douglas
- City of El Mirage
- City of Kingman
- City of Maricopa
- City of Page
- City of Phoenix, Historic Preservation Office
- City of Show Low
- City of Tucson
- City of Tucson Parks & Recreation Dept.
- City of Williams
- City of Winslow
- Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection
- Coalition of Pinnacle Peak
- Cochise County
- Coconino County
- Coconino County, Parks & Recreation
- Coconino Rural Environment Corps
- Competitive Environment, Inc.
- Cuenca Los Ojas Foundation
- Dave Bang Associates, Inc., Mesa
- Desert Archaeology, Inc.
- Desert Foothills Land Trust
- Desert Rivers Audubon Society
- Don’s Custom Painting, Scottsdale
- Environment Arizona
- Environmental Fund For Arizona
- Florence Main Street Program
- Florence Preservation Foundation
- Florence Visitor Center
- Fort Apache Heritage Foundation
- Grand Canyon Trust
- Grand Canyon Wildlands Council
- Gray Hawk Nature Center
- Great Arizona Puppet Theater
- Heritage Public Advisory Committee, AZGFD
- Huachuca Audubon Society
- Ironwood Tree Experience of Prescott College
- Lake Havasu City
- LaPaz County
- League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
- Local First Arizona
- Maricopa Audubon Society
- Maricopa Council on Youth Sports & Physical Activity
- Maricopa County Parks & Recreation
- Maricopa Trail & Parks Foundation
- Marshall Magnet School, Science Council
- McDowell Sonoran Conservancy
- Modern Architecture Preservation Project of Tucson
- Mohave Sportsman Club
- Museum Association of Arizona
- National Trust for Historic Preservation, Western Office
- Native Seed/SEARCH
- Nature Conservancy, Arizona Chapter
- Navajo Parks & Recreation Department
- Neighborhood Coalition of Greater Phoenix
- Nellie Bly Kaleidoscopes & Art Glass, Jerome
- Nexus Heritage
- Northern Arizona Audubon Society
- Pascua Yaqui Tribe
- Patronato San Xavier
- Phoenix College Biology Department Faculty & Staff
- Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council
- Pima Trails Association
- Pinal County Visitor Center
- Pinetop/Lakeside TRACKS
- Prescott Audubon Society
- Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
- Republicans for Environmental Protection
- Riparian Institute
- St. Luke’s in the Desert, Inc.
- Santa Fe Ranch, Nogales
- Save The Scenic Santa Ritas
- Seeitbeforeitcloses.com
- Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter
- Singing Wind Bookshop, Benson
- Sky Island Alliance
- Snowflake/TaylorRecreation & Parks Department
- Sonoran Audubon Society
- Sonoran Institute
- Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory
- Southwest Center For Education & the Natural Environment
- SRI Foundation
- Statistical Research, Inc.
- Stream Ecology & Restoration Group, NAU
- Sustainable Arizona
- Town of Buckeye
- Town of Camp Verde
- Town of Cave Creek
- Town of Chino Valley
- Town of Fountain Hills
- Town of Gila Bend
- Town of Huachuca City
- Town of Marana
- Town of Oro Valley
- Town of Wickenburg
- Trust for Public Land, Arizona Office
- Tubac Chamber of Commerce
- Tucson Arundo Removal Project
- Tucson Audubon Society
- Tucson Botanical Gardens
- Tumamoc: People and Habitats
- Verde Canyon Railroad
- Western Resources Advocates
- White Mountain Apache Tribe
- White Mountain Audubon Society
- White Mountains Land Trust
- Wildlife Society, Arizona Chapter
- Wild At Heart
- Yavapai Trails Association
- Yuma Audubon Society
