Sinema secured Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes $20 million in her bipartisan infrastructure law
Northern Arizona University is one of three Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes
WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema led members of the Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico Congressional delegations in calling on the administration to distribute this year all $20 million secured for the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs law – led by Sinema.
“We are writing to request that the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service distribute the full $20 million identified in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes (SWERI) in Fiscal Year 2022… SWERI provides critical services that protect our public lands and at-risk communities from catastrophic wildfire while creating high quality jobs that build forest restoration capacity in the rural Southwest,” wrote the lawmakers.
The Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes (SWERI) is a Congressionally-chartered entity established in 2004 under the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act. SWERI works with USDA Forest Service to mobilize and monitor forest restoration and fuels reduction projects using science and stakeholder collaboration. Comprised of three applied research institutes – the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at Northern Arizona University, the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) at Colorado State University, and the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute (NMFWRI) at New Mexico Highlands University – SWERI provides essential technical services to federal, state, and tribal land management agencies and stakeholders working to protect America’s forests and water.
The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs law – led by Sinema – secured $20 million for the three Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes. In their letter, the lawmakers called on the administration to release all $20 million this year, as Congress intended.
Click HERE to read the letter.