Arizona Game and Fish Department

Esperanza school to sell commemorative bricks for its garden

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[Source: Coty Dolores Miranda, AZ Republic] – When Kyrene de la Esperanza fifth-grade teacher Sylvia Rios goes through the elementary school’s 2-year-old Discovery Garden, it’s a walk down memory lane. Lining the meandering pea-gravel path are engraved bricks honoring some of the students she has taught the past 14 years. Her two daughters – Gabriella, who attended Esperanza, and Liliana, a first-grader – share her pride in the garden and the engraved bricks that were first installed last year.

“As a teacher, it’s exciting for me to walk through and see the engraved bricks of former or current Esperanza families and staff members,” she said. “I’ve witnessed students in the garden and the first thing they look at are the bricks.”

In 2006, Esperanza applied to the Arizona Game and Fish Department for a $10,000 Heritage Fund grant, funded by Lottery ticket sales. The school received it in May 2007. The following spring, after construction of three new Esperanza classrooms, the Discovery Garden began taking shape with the help of parents, staff and community volunteers as well as $5,000 in private donations and another $10,000 of in-kind donations for plantings and landscaping.

Though other Ahwatukee elementary schools, such as Kyrene de las Lomas and Kyrene de los Cerritos, also have gardens, Esperanza’s is unusual with its 25-foot pond and pump to recycle water in a free-falling stream over rocks – a feature made possible with the assistance of Paul Holderman, Pond Gnome founder and creator of the Phoenix Zoo koi pond [to read the full article, click here].

Heritage Fund gives head start to Chiricahua leopard frogs

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[Source: AZ Game & Fish News Media, 2-23-2011] – Celebrating 20 years of conserving Arizona’s wildlife

One of the most beneficial sources of funding for Arizona’s wildlife and outdoor recreationists is the Heritage Fund. Two decades ago, Arizonans overwhelmingly approved the creation of the fund, which, among other things, directs money from lottery ticket sales to the Arizona Game and Fish Department to invest in conservation efforts like educating children about wildlife, acquiring critical wildlife habitats for sensitive species, and protecting and recovering many of the state’s imperiled wildlife.
  
One sensitive species benefiting from the Heritage Fund is the Chiricahua leopard frog.  This medium-sized frog was once abundant throughout the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. It has a green-brown skin color with numerous dark spots on its back, thus its name “leopard frog.”

Reductions in the frogs’ distribution the past few decades prompted their listing as federally threatened in 2002 under the Endangered Species Act. Reasons for declines of wildlife species are not always clear, and several interacting factors are often at play. Biologists generally agree that predation by introduced species, especially crayfish, American bullfrogs and sport fishes, and chytridiomycosis, a fungal skin disease that is killing frogs and toads around the globe, are the leading causes. Other factors have also contributed to their decline, including degradation and loss of wetlands, recent catastrophic wildfires, drought and contaminants [to read the full article, click here].

Future for Arizona’s endangered black-footed ferrets shines thanks to recovery efforts

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The future for Arizona’s endangered black-footed ferrets looks promising with two new exciting developments: the opening of a new breeding facility for the species at the Phoenix Zoo and the best-ever population survey results.

Fourteen years after they were first reintroduced to the state, black-footed ferret surveys conducted this fall by the Arizona Game and Fish Department show a record 96 animals in the Aubrey Valley population located outside of Seligman, Ariz. Because not all ferrets were captured and included in the fall survey count, the number of animals identified during the survey is a minimum population estimate, and the actual population could be larger.

Not only is the number of ferrets identified a record high for Arizona’s population, but it also exceeds the state’s objective that needs to be met in order for the species to be “downlisted” from endangered to threatened on the endangered species list. “Downlisting” means that the species has recovered to a point where its classification on the Endangered Species List has improved. All states with black-footed ferret populations are given state-specific recovery guidelines that lead to a larger national recovery effort. The national recovery guidelines must be met before “downlisting” the species can be considered.

“It’s a tremendous milestone for Arizona to surpass one of the draft guidelines for recovering black-footed ferrets and do its part to contribute to the larger national conservation effort,” says Larry Voyles, director of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “The ultimate measure of success for any endangered species recovery program is when our efforts are so successful that a species can be removed from the endangered species list. The growth of Arizona’s wild black-footed ferret population moves us closer to that ultimate goal, and with support from the Phoenix Zoo and the Heritage Fund, we will continue to work towards a full recovery for the species.”

Aiding the recovery of the species is the opening of the new Black-Footed Ferret Breeding Center at the Phoenix Zoo. With help from a generous donation from the Arthur L. “Bud” and Elaine V. Johnson Foundation, this new facility will enable the Phoenix Zoo to continue their successful breeding program.

The Phoenix Zoo has been an active participant in the conservation and reintroduction of black-footed ferrets since the opening of their first breeding facility in 1992. As one of only six facilities in the world that participate in the species’ breeding program, the Phoenix Zoo has produced nearly 400 ferrets, 85 of which have been released in the Aubrey Valley.

In 2008, the zoo’s black-footed ferret breeding program went on hiatus, as the ferret breeding facility was located in the footprint of the orangutan exhibit expansion. The zoo was concerned about the impact their absence would have on the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Black-footed Ferret Species Survival Plan® and the federal recovery program.

“We worked extremely hard across zoo departments to make plans and raise funds for a new breeding center,” says Ruth Allard, executive vice president of conservation and visitor experiences for the Phoenix Zoo. “Just over two years later now, we were joined today by representatives from state and federal wildlife agencies in dedicating the new black-footed ferret breeding center. We trust that our new ferrets will settle in and breed well in this beautiful new building dedicated to the preservation of their species in the wilds of North America.”

The new building is located just behind the Johnson Foundation Conservation Center.

In addition to the zoo’s group of nine ferrets retired from the breeding program, an additional 21 black-footed ferrets have been welcomed to the zoo’s collection. Seven males and 14 females traveled from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in Carr, Colo. All of the new males and eight of the females make up the zoo’s breeding population, while six of the new females have joined our existing group of nine ferrets retired from the breeding program.  The “retirees” cannot be released to the wild, usually for health reasons, so they will live out their remaining years in the zoo’s care.

“Endangered species recovery works. It’s a long haul up a slippery slope, but the Phoenix Zoo’s breeding program and Arizona Game and Fish’s steadfast reintroduction and monitoring efforts provide the traction needed to restore viable ferret populations. The offspring of these animals are thriving where the species once was locally extinct,” says Pete Gober, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s black-footed ferret recovery coordinator.

The draft recovery plan for black-footed ferrets suggests that 74 animals are needed in the wild in Arizona to change the species’ classification from endangered to threatened. The draft plan is due out soon for public comment. The plan also suggests that Arizona needs 148 animals living in the wild as part of the national recovery effort in order for the species to be removed entirely from the Endangered Species List.

Game and Fish’s black-footed ferret program is supported by the Heritage Fund, a voter-passed initiative that provides funding for wildlife conservation through Arizona Lottery revenue.

Biologists feared the black-footed ferret was extinct in the late 1970s, but then discovered approximately 120 of the animals in Wyoming in the mid-1980s. In 1985, after two disease outbreaks had killed nearly all of the remaining ferrets, the last 18 individuals were captured to start a breeding program. The descendants of these 18 ferrets have now been introduced into 19 reintroduction sites in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, including Aubrey Valley. Before reintroduction, the last black-footed ferret in Arizona was found in 1931 in an area between Williams and Flagstaff.

Black-footed ferrets are related to weasels. While they resemble domestic pet ferrets, black-footed ferrets are a different species and are the only ferret native to North America. They can grow to be up to 2 feet long and can weigh up to 2 ½ pounds. One ferret can give birth to three to five kits each year.

The Arizona black-footed ferret reintroduction program is a joint effort of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Phoenix Zoo, Hualapai Nation, Navajo Nation, Arizona State Land Department and the Cholla Cattle Company.

Arizona Game & Fish’s Heritage Fund celebrates 20 years of conserving Arizona’s wildlife

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If you voted in Arizona in 1990, chances are you voted in favor of the initiative that created the Heritage Fund. Arizonans showed their overwhelming support for wildlife by passing the measure by a 2-to-1 ratio.

For the past 20 years the Heritage Fund has made a difference not just to wildlife conservation efforts, but also to the state’s economy, public access, environmental education and outdoor recreation.

Notable accomplishments of the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Heritage dollars over the past two decades include:

  • Contributing to local economies through the awarding of more than 640 grants totaling nearly $13 million dollars across all of Arizona’s counties.
  • Supporting the award-winning and nationally-recognized Bald Eagle Nestwatch Program, which has been key in helping the state’s bald eagle population grow more than 600 percent over the past 30 years.
  • Reintroducing black-footed ferrets, California condors and black-tailed prairie dogs, which had disappeared from the state.
  • Recovering Apache trout to the point where the species could be downlisted from “endangered” to “threatened,” allowing fishing opportunities for this native species.
  • Managing the conservation of more than 600 species, including threatened and endangered species like the Sonoran pronghorn, desert tortoise, Chiricahua leopard frog, and Mount Graham red squirrels.
  • Supporting representation of Arizona’s interests with regard to wildlife conservation, land use and water policy decisions.
  • Providing funding to acquire nearly 18,000 acres for public enjoyment and wildlife recreation, including wildlife areas at Becker Lake, Whitewater Draw, the Verde River, and Sipe White Mountain.
  • Constructing barrier-free fishing piers to increase angler access at Woodland, Mittry, Patagonia, Kaibab, Riggs and Rose Canyon lakes.
  • Development of the award-winning Urban Fish Stocking program to provide urban recreational opportunities to the public.
  • Creation of schoolyard habitats for student learning that have been awarded the “Governor’s Pride” and Westmarc’s “Best of the West” awards.
  • Securing public land access to more than 2 million acres in the state.

“Sometimes voters approve a measure, and they don’t know what happens after that,” says Larry Voyles, director for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “We want to make sure Arizonans know this money went to the cause they chose and help them see the far-reaching effects it has had not only on Arizona’s precious wildlife, but also on the economy, especially in rural communities, and their local area.”

The Heritage Fund gives money from lottery ticket sales to conservation efforts like protecting endangered species, acquiring habitat for the benefit of sensitive species, providing access to outdoor recreational opportunities, and educating children and adults about wildlife.

The Heritage Fund constitutes 12 percent of Game and Fish’s overall budget and is a critical funding source for leveraging federal grants for even greater conservation benefit. The department does not receive any of the state’s general tax revenues. It’s funding for wildlife conservation and management comes primarily from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses, federal excise taxes on certain hunting and fishing gear, and a couple of other key sources such as the Heritage Fund.