SB1281

THE CONTEXT: Currently, the Arizona State Land Department (ASLD) is required to maintain a catalog of each existing or newly created national monument in Arizona. For each national monument, ASLD must request from the federal government all of the following: 1) a detailed accounting of each individual item to be protected; 2) the precise GPS location of each item to be protected; 3) the square footage that each item to be protected occupies; 4) the total square footage of the parcel of land comprising the national monument; and 5) a peer-reviewed justification for the protection of the object by the federal government.

WHAT THE BILL DID: The final vetoed version would require ASLD to maintain a catalog of each existing or newly created covered federal designation in Arizona, rather than a catalog of each existing or newly created national monument in Arizona, specifies that ASLD must request outlined information from the federal government for a covered federal designation as it pertains to each item of natural, scenic, historical or cultural value or each resource, landscape, species, ecosystem, habitat or characteristic to be protected by the covered federal designation, and require ASLD to determine whether the limits of a parcel comprising a covered federal designation, rather than a national monument, are contained to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the item of natural, scenic, historical or cultural value or the resource, landscape, species, ecosystem, habitat or characteristic to be protected.

WHY IT MATTERED: The practical reason for this bill was to turn the Legislature's standard for federal government into an enforceable rule. It would require ASLD to maintain a catalog of each existing or newly created covered federal designation in Arizona, rather than a catalog of each existing or newly created national monument in Arizona, and would also specifies that ASLD must request outlined information from the federal government for a covered federal designation as it pertains to each item of natural, scenic, historical or cultural value or each resource, landscape, species, ecosystem, habitat or characteristic to be protected by the covered federal designation, rather than leave the current rule unchanged.