Washington, D.C.– Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva will receive this year’s Western National Parks Association’s (WNPA) Edward B. Danson Award for his efforts to protect national parks and public lands at a ceremony with actor Ted Danson and other speakers in Tucson this Saturday. The award will be presented during the group’s 75th anniversary celebration commemorating the group’s history and partnership with the National Park Service.
Grijalva has played a leading role in many of this generation’s public lands and environmental policy issues. He successfully led the fight in Congress to establish a moratorium on new mining claims near the Grand Canyon, wrote the bill that established the permanent National Landscape Conservation System at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and has promoted increased funding for conservation programs such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund since coming to Congress. He also helped establish the successful Four Forest Restoration Initiative, a collaborative public-private effort to protect Arizona’s Kaibab, Coconino, Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto forests.
He has been unafraid to press the administration on environmental issues, writing a letter to President Obama in the aftermath of the BP oil spill asking why documents he had requested on agency spill responses were heavily redacted. He has led the charge for better wild horse and burro management policies, leading a bipartisan letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in February highlighting questions about alleged BLM sales of horses to a known “kill buyer” and shortcomings in BLM’s financial handling of wild horses.
Grijalva previously chaired the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands and currently serves as ranking member on the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulations.
The event will take place at the Westward Look Resort at 245 W. Ina Rd. in Tucson at 7:00 p.m. this Saturday, March 9. National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis was scheduled to appear at the ceremony but had to cancel because of sequestration budget cuts.
Tickets are sold out, but working journalists will be admitted. Other WNPA award recipients will also be honored. For more information about the event, call Rep. Grijalva’s Tucson office at (520) 622-6788.
The Edward B. Danson Award is named for “Ned” Danson, a noted archaeologist and director of the Museum of Northern Arizona from 1956 to 1975. The Danson Award was established in 1986 by the Western National Parks Association to honor those who show exceptional support for the WNPA and national parks.
If You Go
Where: Westward Look Resort, 245 W. Ina Rd.
When: Sat., March 9 at 7:00 p.m.