FINDING AGREEMENT AMONG THE DISAGREEABLE

posted by Michael Chihak

From the truth is stranger than fiction department: A half-dozen organizations with widely different and conflicting points of view came together and agreed on something.

Not just anything. Something significant. In this era of I'm right and you're wrong and never the twain shall meet politics, this isn't just any news. This is big news.

As Tucson's Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Foundation describes it, the groups agreed on a plan to jointly restore forest ecosystems in a method that will reduce wildfire threats and strengthen local economies in four of Arizona’s national forests.

The agreeable groups include the timber industry, environmental organizations, scientists, recreational interests, local governments and officials of the four national forests.

Now here's even bigger news: What they agreed to is working. Parts of the forests that have been restored in the manner prescribed in what is known as the Four Forest Restoration Initiative were the least damaged in this summer's record-setting wildfires in Arizona.

The agreement was reached in February and will be rolled out over the next two decades. At the time, it got some publicity but not the kind of fanfare that would point up the bigger picture of what this means.

That is, how did this agreement come about? Through hard work, listening, open mindedness, willingness to compromise for the sake of true solutions.

The cynic in me wants to say that the key factor was that likely, no elected officials were involved. You know, those folks with one eye on the next election and the other on their intractable dogmas.

Let’s hope enough of them noticed this and took note of what the makings of it were. Perhaps it will lead them come up with all manner of solutions to significant issues that the country faces.

IN AFTERMATH OF FIRES, MUCH WORK TO BE DONE

posted by Michael Chihak

How can Arizona get its vast forest lands in shape to prevent a repeat of the devastating fires of nearly a decade ago in the White Mountains and Santa Catalina Mountains, and repeated in an even bigger way this summer in southern, central and northern Arizona?

Friday's Arizona Week broadcast will strive to answer, via interviews with up to five experts in forest management, fire history, forest ecology and the political will to bring together divergent interests.

We will focus on the causes and aftereffects of the Wallow Fire in the White Mountains and the Monument and Horseshoe 2 fires in Southern Arizona, including a look at long-term strategies for preventing such fires in the future.

The program's lineup of experts:

-- Cathleen Thompson, interagency coordinator for the Coronado National Forest Burned Area Emergency Response operation.

-- Rob Griffith, soil scientist with the Coronado National Forest working on post-fire conditioning to minimize erosion.

-- Stephen Pyne, Arizona State University fire historian.

-- Molly Hunter, Northern Arizona University forestry ecologist.

-- Maggie McCaffrey, program manager for the Udall Foundation's U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution.

WILDFIRES: CAN WE AVOID ANOTHER SUMMER LIKE THIS ONE?

posted by Michael Chihak

Cooperation among disparate and often competing individuals and interests and customized, strategic approaches to forest management are the long-term keys to minimizing undesirable monster wildfires, experts say.

Friday's Arizona Week will include an update on the big fires that swept through huge swaths of northern, eastern and southern Arizona this summer and look at the politics, science and economics behind controlling wildfires.

Not all wildfires are undesirable, and not all will ever be controllable, knowledgeable experts say.

"I think we have to accept that in Arizona, particularly the White Mountains, fire is inevitable," Steve Pyne told Arizona Week in an interview for Friday. Pyne is a wildfire historian and a professor at Arizona State University.

"As long as we keep this as public land and we want to keep it in a quasi-wild state, fire is going to happen," Pyne said.

Besides Pyne, Northern Arizona University forestry Professor Molly E. Hunter will appear on the program. Hunter will discuss a Southwestern forest where rehab work has made a positive difference in minimizing unwanted wildfire damage.

NEW SEMESTER, NEW INTERNS FOR ARIZONA WEEK

posted by Michael Chihak

The fall semester at the University of Arizona means, among many other things, new interns for Arizona Week. Here are brief profiles of the two students joining us for the semester. Look for their work on this blog and on the program.

Melanie Huonker, 22, is a senior majoring in journalism with an emphasis in broadcast. She interned at KVOA and KOLD in Tucson and this summer at KFVS in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Melanie is general manager of the university's student TV station, UATV. She sparked an interest for politics while reporting for the Arizona Sonora News Service, interviewing Ruth McClung and Raul Grijalva, running for Arizona's 7th Congressional District seat.

Lucy Valencia, 21, is a senior majoring in journalism. A native of Yuma, Ariz., she previously worked for The Arizona Daily Wildcat as both a general assignment and public safety reporter. Lucy interned for the Tico Times in San Jose, Costa Rica, this summer as part of a UA School of Journalism study abroad program.

Look for Melanie's and Lucy's work on this blog and on Arizona Week Fridays at 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD-6.

CLICHÉ DRIVES EDUCATIONAL THINKING IN AZ

posted by Michael Chihak

Doing more with less.

That worn-out cliché is the new mantra in American society, whether in our households, businesses or governmental agencies.

There are exceptions, of course: Hedge-fund managers, wall street brokers and big bankers still do more with more because they're gambling with other people's money. But that's a topic for another day.

For most of us, austerity is the byword. It's especially evident with the start of a new school year and more new approaches in Arizona to public education.

Specifically, doing more with less. Consider that state government is providing less money per student in Arizona than it has in more than a decade while at the same time pushing greater requirements on schools along with ideas to reshape and reform public education.

Few would argue that the educational system doesn't need improvement, even wholesale reform in many aspects.

Yet we must ask if the fiscal moves will reverse our societal philosophy of more than a century’s standing that we invest in public education as part and parcel of our national fabric. Public education has claimed a high place in society and has been a key driver of economic improvement at nearly all levels.

Now come new ideas: Do more with less; do more individually and not collectively; do for yourself and let others do for themselves.

These shifts in thinking are having an impact on American society and specifically on public education.

Political leaders in Arizona are espousing ideas that would fundamentally alter the public education system by spending less and less on it, by letting individuals decide how the money for their children's education should be spent and, basically, by moving toward privatization.

Is it the right or wrong direction? That doesn’t matter, because it is the direction Arizona is headed.

Whether you agree with that move or want a public education system that stays public, you need to get in on the conversation.

NEW SCHOOL YEAR: NEW AND OLD CHALLENGES

posted by Michael Chihak

Nearly 1.1 million young people, literally, started school in K-12 in Arizona in the last two weeks. Arizona Week on Friday will look at the opportunities and challenges that the new academic year brings from the perspective of administrators and principals.

We will look at academic standards and how they are changing, how students and teachers are rising to the challenge of meeting the standards and how state budget cuts may be hampering those efforts.

We also will explore the impact of charter schools on state education, how schools are faring with the AIMS test and specifically how math proficiency can be improved. Four in 10 Arizona students didn't pass the AIMS math test last school year.

On the interview list so far:

• Gabriel Trujillo, principal of Trevor Browne High School, and Kate McDonald, principal of Metro Tech High School, both in Phoenix.

• Nicholas I. Clement, superintendent of the Flowing ells School District, in Tucson.

• Paul Felix, principal of Nosotros Academy charter school in Tucson.