Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise today in strong support of H.R. 324, legislation I was proud to introduce earlier this year along with my friend and colleague Representative Giffords.
My own history began in the Santa Cruz Valley at the Canoa Ranch where my father worked. My earliest memories are of life in an extraordinary, scenic valley; and they comprise a very important part of who I am today.
H.R. 324 designates the Santa Cruz Valley region of Arizona as a national heritage area. This would allow the National Park Service to support existing and future State and local conservation efforts through Federal recognition, seed money, and technical assistance.
The Santa Cruz Valley is one of America's longest inhabited regions, with traces of human occupation extending back 12,000 years. The region was not only the center of centuries of Native American culture and history but also served as a corridor of Spanish exploration, colonization, and missionary activity; and a frontier of Mexican and early American mining, ranching, and agriculture. Today the valley is a leading center of desert ecology, climate research, astronomy, optics, and archeology.
The historic Spanish missions, presidio fortresses, and ranches are found throughout the valley. Streets lined with Sonoran-style adobe houses recall the period when the region was part of Mexico. Ghost towns, old mines, territorial-style ranch houses, remnants of the mining and cattle industries date to the 1850s when this area became part of the United States.
The valley sweeps across the Santa Cruz and eastern Pima County, encompassing cactus-covered slopes, open grasslands, rugged canyons, forested mountain ranges rising to more than 9,000 feet, and lush oases created by rare desert streams. That varied landscape provides many different habitats that are home to a diversity of plant and animal life, including tropical species, unique desert species, and mountaintop survivors from the Ice Age.
The heritage area designated by H.R. 324 includes two national parks, four State parks, six large county parks, four major lakes, two designated scenic highways, and several hundred miles of backcountry trails and urban bikeways.
The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, designated by Congress in 1990, runs along the Santa Cruz River for the length of the heritage area. The Butterfield Overland Dispatch Trail also crosses the valley. Also included are 32 museums, as well as 28 districts and 102 individual buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and dozens of prehistoric and historic archeological sites.
A July 2005 study by the Center for Desert Archaeology, on which the bill is based, examined the many resources of the region and found that the area meets the 10 criteria set forth by the National Park Service for proposed heritage areas.
H.R. 324 designates the area; sets out the duties of the management organization and the requirements for a management plan; requires the Secretary of the Interior to approve or disapprove of the plan within 180 days; provides criteria for judging that plan; allows the Secretary to provide technical assistance and grants; and authorizes $15 million over 15 years, with no more than $1 million to be appropriated in any fiscal year. All Federal funds must be matched by contributions from non-Federal sources. The bill includes extensive protections for private property owners and prohibits the use of Federal lands received under the act for land acquisition.
H.R. 324 is strongly supported throughout the Santa Cruz Valley. All incorporated local governments have supported it and have given this proposal their formal support. Other supporters include two Native American tribes, chambers of commerce and other civic organizations, the Arizona Office of Tourism and other tourism councils, the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, conservation groups and developers, and many other businesses and individuals.
Mr. Speaker, at this point I would like to say a few words about the heritage areas in general. This is a well-established, well-tested program that has been operating for 25 years. There are 49 heritage areas running in 29 States. Well over 50 million people live, work, and recreate inside the national heritage area.
Mr. Speaker, the National Park Service and the Alliance of National Heritage Areas commissioned Michigan [Page: H9847] State University to study the economic impacts of the national heritage area. The study found that just one national heritage area resulted in $780,000 in wages and salaries; $1.2 million in value added, mostly from dining and lodging; and created 51 jobs. If you extend this to all the heritage areas, we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in economic benefit to local communities and roughly 2,500 jobs.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, let me once again urge my colleagues to support H.R. 324, my bill to help preserve a fascinating area full of history and culture and the wonders of nature.
