Arizona Game and Fish Department

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.

Game and Fish to buy Horseshoe Ranch next to Agua Fria Monument

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[Source: Joanna Dodder Nellans, The Daily Courier] – The Arizona Game and Fish Commission has unanimously agreed to buy the Horseshoe Ranch, sealing a deal to keep the 199-acre inholding surrounded by the Agua Fria National Monument in public hands. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management had wanted to buy the ranch ever since the surrounding lands became a BLM monument in 2000, but couldn’t come up with the money to maintain it in the future, explained Monument Manager Rem Hawes. So Game and Fish stepped in with the help of grant and lottery money.

The historic ranch features two homes, bunkhouses, a large barn, storage buildings, ancient rock art and a half-mile of the Agua Fria River in southeastern Yavapai County. “This is a significant riparian corridor,” said Angie Lohse, land and water program manager for Game and Fish. The agency plans to use the ranch for outdoor and wildlife educational activities, she said, much like way it uses its Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area near Springerville [to read the full article click here].

Number of Breeding Bald Eagles in Arizona Grows

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[Source: Gateway to Sedona] – With the bald eagle breeding season in Arizona coming to a close, the state’s population continues to flourish, according to the Arizona Game and Fish Department. For the 2010 breeding season, three new active breeding areas were identified bringing the total number of occupied breeding areas in the state to 52. The total number of breeding adult bald eagles also grew to 104, which is the highest on record.

This year, under the careful watch of the Arizona Game and Fish Department and a coalition of 22 other partners that make up the Southwestern Bald Eagle Management Committee, 44 eaglets also reached the critical point of taking their first flight, an important milestone for a young bird’s chances of survival.

Bald eagle numbers over the past 30 years have grown more than 600 percent in the state.

“Identifying three new breeding areas in the state is a positive sign that our population of bald eagles continues to grow and do well,” said Kenneth Jacobson, Arizona Game and Fish Department bald eagle management coordinator.

The breeding season for bald eagles in Arizona typically runs from December through June, although a few bald eagle pairs at higher elevations nest later than those in the rest of the state.

The bald eagle program is supported by the Heritage Fund, a voter-passed initiative that provides funding for wildlife conservation through Arizona Lottery revenue [to read the full article click here].

State wants to change Becker Lake fishing rules

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[Source: Karen Warnick, WMIcentral.com] – Kelly Meyer of the Game and Fish Department presented information at a public hearing at the Eagar Council chambers on changing the status of Becker Lake to catch and release only. The meeting was held Sept. 21 and about 30 to 40 people attended. The proposal by Game and Fish will be sent to the Game and Fish Commission in early October for a vote.

History of Becker Lake –“Becker Lake was created in 1880 by constructing a dam at the head of an old oxbow of the Little Colorado River,” according to Game and Fish. “The lake was used principally for irrigation purposes. However, a fishery did exist there. In 1973, the Becker family sold 338 deeded acres to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission which included the lake of approximately 100 surface-acres. In that year, the Commission directed the Arizona Game and Fish Department to manage Becker Lake as a quality trout fishery. Since that time, the Department has managed the lake as a ‘Blue Ribbon’ fishery with special regulations, such as motor restrictions, bag and possession limits, restricted methods of take and seasonal closures. In January 2002, the Department purchased an additional 291 acres of adjacent private land utilizing the Department’s Heritage Fund to protect and enhance stream and riparian habitat along the Little Colorado River for wildlife species of special concern.” [to read the full article click here].