Secretary Norton's Visit

In the past week, Interior Secretary Gale Norton accepted my invitation to visit Arizona to see firsthand how the state is dealing with issues relating to our water supply, our vulnerable forests and the Grand Canyon.

Three quarters of Arizona is owned by the federal government or Indian tribes. The Secretary of Interior has jurisdiction over much of that land and the natural resources on it. She is also responsible for enforcement of environmental policies on much of the land.

Our first visit was to the Gus Pearson forest restoration site near Flagstaff, where the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University has pioneered new management techniques to restore the health of our ponderosa forests in Arizona. The restoration effort is aimed at returning the forests to to their pre-settlement, park-like state, when low-intensity fires regularly cleared the forest floor of debris and permitted trees to grow to great size. Through site-specific thinning of small trees and underbrush, these scientists are opening the forest floor for plant and grass growth and reducing the competition among larger trees for moisture and soil nutrients. Accompanied by the head of the U.S. Forest Service Dale Bosworth, Secretary Norton also observed the beneficial effects of the use of thinning and prescribed burns on forest fire prevention.

At the Grand Canyon, Secretary Norton marked the opening of the first section of the Greenway Trail, a new trail that will provide a combination of non-motorized routes to travel to lessen traffic impacts. We were briefed on Park Service plans to accommodate traffic generated by more than 6 million tourists in the future. A report expected to be issued in the coming weeks will propose use of clean-burning busses for a few years, perhaps followed by use of light rail to move tourists into the Park.

The Secretary was given an air tour of the water systems of the Salt River Project and the Central Arizona Project. Later, at the Department of Water Resources in Phoenix, she was briefed on the progress of our efforts to conclude a final water settlement agreement that would resolve the last remaining disputes regarding allocation of water from the Gila River and the Central Arizona Project. Once resolved, this would be the largest water settlement in the history of the nation – after decades of negotiations and discussion – involving three-quarters of a million acre feet of water and three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Throughout her visit to Arizona, Secretary Norton spoke about the importance of harmonizing important environmental protection with the reality of increasing energy demands and population growth. She reiterated the importance of combining conservation with increases in energy production, noting that the largest number of overall recommendations made in the Bush energy plan involve increased conservation, including nearly $800 million to fund conservation programs at the Department of Energy.

Though Secretary Norton, a Coloradan, previously had spent considerable time in Arizona, it was important for her to visit our state early in new position as Secretary of the Interior.

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