Arizona areas covered by federal wilderness bill

By Cronkite News Service

Here are areas of Arizona that will be protected under legislation signed Monday by President Barack Obama:

_ Agua Fria National Monument: 71,000 acres of desert, grassland and forest along the Agua Fria River about 40 miles north of Phoenix.
_ Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument: More than a million acres of canyons, mountains and buttes in the Arizona strip north and west of the Grand Canyon.
_ Ironwood Forest National Monument: 129,000 acres of Sonoran Desert featuring ironwood trees northwest of Tucson about 20 miles west of Marana.
_ Sonoran Desert National Monument: 487,000 acres noted for its extensive saguaro cactus forest along Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend.
_ Vermillion Cliffs National Monument: 294,000 acres featuring sandstone cliffs and the Paria Plateau in the Arizona Strip starting just west of Page.
_ Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area: 23,000 acres along the Gila and San Francisco rivers and Bonita and Eagle creeks about 20 miles northeast of Safford.
_ Las Cienegas National Conservation Area: 45,000 acres of grassland 45 southeast of Tucson.
_ San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area: 57,000 acres along the San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona stretching from the border to St. David.
_ Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail: Marks the route used by the Spanish explorer to travel from present day Mexico through Nogales and western Arizona and all the way to San Francisco in the late 1700s.
_ 47 wilderness areas, including Fossil Creek near Payson.
_ Two wilderness study areas.

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Sources: Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.