Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Museum Transfer
The long awaited transfer of the mineral museum from the AHS to the AZGS became effective today. Details are available at http://arizonageology.blogspot.com/2016/08/centennial-museum-transfers-to-azgs.html
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Guest Post
First published in the July 2016 Earth Science Musuem Newsletter
The AZ Geological Survey’s plight
garners local, state, national and even international attention and support!
By Shirley Coté
The Arizona Geological Survey
(AZGS) has been in turmoil since January when Gov. Ducey announced his budget
proposing the transfer of duties and responsibilities of the AZGS to the
University of Arizona (UA). And, in May
2016, the governor signed SB1530 the agency consolidation; budget
reconciliation; 2016-2017, a bill in which the AZGS was defunded and put under
the auspices of the UA. With this
transfer, the AZGS is no longer a state agency, and therefore required to move
from its 10,000+ square foot state office space on Congress St. in Tucson to a
2,500 sq. ft. space at the Arid Lands Studies building at 6th St.
and Campbell just east of the UA campus.
The AZGS also had to close its Phoenix offices and move its contents to
dead storage as there is no office space owned by UA to house them.
Recent articles in both Tucson
and Phoenix newspapers and in local and national blogs have highlighted the
AZGS’s plight.
In
Tucson on January 21st, Jonathan Duhamel of the Arizona Daily Independent wrote an article entitled “Governor
Proposes Transferring Arizona Geological Survey to University of Arizona-Bad
Idea.” Jonathan’s article can be read
at:
Also
in Tucson on May 26th, Tom Beale of the Arizona Daily Star wrote an article entitled “State geologists moving to UA, facing layoffs” The full article can be found at:
A
similar article was printed in the
Arizona Capitol Times in their May 31st edition at:
In
Phoenix, a letter to the editor from David Briggs of the AZ Geological Society
was published in the June 16th Arizona
Republic. In his letter he
states: “The governor’s efforts to consolidate state government have placed
this healthy, productive state agency on life support, and its prognosis is
grim. The Arizona Geological Survey’s
supporters do not understand how the decision to eviscerate this agency best
serves the needs of Arizonans.”
David’s full letter can be read
at: http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2016/06/15/my-turn-arizona-geological-survey-life-support-and-needs-publics-help/85848418/.
Additionally,
the Arizona Geological Society’s website has an informative article on the former
AZ Mining and Mineral Museum and on the uncertain future that the Arizona
Geological Survey is currently facing.
To view the both articles go to:
https://news.azpm.org/p/sci-tech-azpm/2016/7/1/91133-arizona-geological-survey-folds-into-ua-campus/.
On
Richard Zimmermann’s blog, Mineral Museum Madness (minmumad@blogspot.com) a
guest post entitled “The so-called agency
consolidation of the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) is a SHAM” was posted
and introduced as follows: A condensed version of the following guest
post was also published as a letter to the editor in the June 17th
paper copy of the Arizona Republic. In
the newspaper, the title of the letter was “Arizona Geological Survey saddled
with impossible tasks.” The full
letter to the editor can be read at: http://minmumad.blogspot.com/2016/06/azgs-challenges.html.
On
the national level, Scientific American
magazine blogger Dana Hunter posted a piece on the SciAM blog Rosetta Stone, entitled, “Help Save the Arizona
Geological Survey,” with the subtitle “The Arizona Geological Survey’s budget
has been slashed by the state’s short-sighted government.” The full article can be read at:
Also
on the national level, the American Geophysical Union’s Eos Earth & Space Science News reported “New Law Puts the Squeeze on the Arizona Geological Survey” https://eos.org/articles/new-law-puts-the-squeeze-on-the-arizona-geological-survey.
And,
on the international level, Matthew Loader, a geologist from the Natural
History Museum in London, copied the AZGS on a letter he sent to Gov. Ducey
opposing the defunding of this valued agency.
A copy of his letter is posted with the June 26th Arizona
geology blog at:
It’s
not too late to add your voice of support for the AZGS, write a letter to the
governor; to your state legislators; to your local editor; or put your thoughts
on social media and share, share, share.
Those who may be interested in supporting the AZGS financially are
encouraged to contact the Arizona Geological Survey at 520-621-2470 to see how
they can help.
YOUR SUPPORT FOR AZGS REQUESTED
The Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) is
pulling together a list of individuals and groups with an interest or stake in
the opening of the Mining, Mineral and Natural Resources Educational
Museum. As you may know, possession of
the Mining and Mineral museum building and mineral collection passes from the
AZ Historical Society to the AZGS on August 6th. The AZGS is strategizing now and identifying
stakeholders in advance. If you are
interested in receiving regular updates, please contact Michael Conway directly
by phone (520-621-2352) or e-mail fmconway@email.arizona.edu.
Michael Conway |Chief, Geologic
Extension Service
Arizona Geological Survey
1955 E 6th St.
PO Box 210184
Tucson, AZ 85721
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