Game & Fish

International conservation program brings endangered wild-born jaguar to Phoenix Zoo

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[Source: wmicentral.com, AZ Game & Fish Department] – – After years of planning, an endangered jaguar made its way from Sonora, Mexico to Arizona recently.  On loan from Mexico, the young male cat will call the Phoenix Zoo home for at least the next year before returning to a zoo in Mexico. The loan was orchestrated by the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the zoo as a way to provide needed medical care to the animal. Illegally captured, the jaguar damaged its canine teeth while in an inadequate enclosure, which precludes it from ever being returned to the wild. The Phoenix Zoo agreed to provide the necessary dental surgery. “The arrival of this jaguar in Arizona is exciting for so many reasons,” said Arizona Game and Fish Department International and Borderlands Program Manager, Francisco Abarca. “Not many people realize that the jaguar is native to the United States, so to work in cooperation with Mexico and the Phoenix Zoo to bring it here provides us with an important chance to learn more about a virtually unstudied population segment of the species.” [Note: to read the full article click here.]

Game and Fish panel reaffirms commitment to wild wolves in Arizona

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[Source: Arizona Capitol Times, Bill Coates] – – The Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted to continue supporting the state’s role in managing the Mexican wolf-recovery program, which has cost some $18 million since its inception 26 years ago.

“We absolutely appreciate how expensive this program is,” Terry Johnson, the Game and Fish Department’s endangered species coordinator, told the commission in a presentation covering the history of the wolf reintroduction and recovery program. Arizona has borne some $4.6 million of that cost – about half of the state’s share coming from federal funds. New Mexico, a partner in the wolf-recovery effort, has paid a tenth of that toward wolf recovery – some $540,000.

Reintroducing a predator that was wiped out in Arizona has long been a matter of working with people as much as wolves. Environmental groups and ranchers have often clashed over the program’s management. The wolf’s recovery area is largely in public lands open to grazing.
The program is run under the umbrella of the Active Management Oversight Committee, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, the U.S. Wildlife Services and the White Mountain Apache Tribe.

Discussion prior to the Oct. 10 vote touched on trying to get New Mexico to contribute more toward the program, but a speaker told the panel that that state was hampered by a lack of funding sources. “New Mexico does not have all the non-game funding we have,” Stephanie Nichols-Young, president of the Animal Defense League of Arizona, told the commission. Arizona has the Heritage Fund and other revenue sources for endangered species and other wildlife. That money can be leveraged to bring in more federal dollars as well. With wolf recovery, some of the money is used to make sure game and wildlife officials are available to respond to complaints about wolf attacks on livestock. But ranchers say that is not enough.

Greenlee County Supervisor Chairman Hector Rueda told the commissioners: “We currently believe the program is under-funded.” He added the program – as it’s being run – was headed toward failure. Doc Lane, executive vice president of the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association, echoed Rueda’s statements. Among other things, ranchers want federal compensation for wolf depredation of livestock. The commission voted to pursue such funding.

In a phone interview, however, Sandy Bahr of the state Sierra Club chapter, said ranchers shouldn’t be compensated for “being bad stewards.” She cited incidents of depredation on cattle grazing in areas we they are not permitted. Bahr also spoke to the commission prior to the vote. At the meeting, Rueda objected to lifting a rule that currently confines wolves to a defined area within the Blue Range of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Wolves found outside that area are relocated. Bahr, however, told commissioners: “We don’t support having artificial boundaries in place.”

In a prepared statement on the vote, the commission said it recognized the Mexican gray wolf as a “component of a larger ‘metapopulation.'” It went on to state that creating this larger population – presumably by allowing the wolves to go outside the current recovery boundaries – would go toward creating a self-sustaining population. The objective has been to achieve a population of at least 100 wolves in the wild. But the population has rarely risen above 60. There are an estimated 50 wolves now.

Johnson said the department will have a more precise figure after the end-of-the-year count. Among other things, that will involve tracking wolves wearing radio collars from aircraft using radio telemetry. “We need to grow this wolf population,” Johnson told the panel.

In its vote, the commission – among other things – directed the agency to increase the genetic diversity of the wolf population. All of the wolves come from three genetic lines established through five original wolves from Mexico. The five-member commission met in the spacious auditorium at its new headquarters on the Carefree Highway in north Phoenix.

Commentary: Our State Parks are in trouble

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[Commentary by Don Farmer, Scottsdale, President, Arizona Heritage Alliance Board] – – Our Arizona State Parks are in trouble. It seems the current down economy and resulting state budget meltdown has led our elected legislature to strip out most of the State Parks funding and redirect it to more “important” needs. The direct result of this action is the drastic reduction of the services and programs our State Parks provide us. You do not have to be a State Park visitor to be impacted by this loss. The Arizona State Parks Agency manages 27 parks and natural areas located around the state. They also oversee our State Trails system; manage the Outdoor-Related Grants Program, the State Historic Preservation Office, and the Off-Highway Vehicle Program. The folks at Arizona State Parks have been managing all of these lands and programs in an under-funded condition for years as the legislature chose to sweep one revenue source after another from them. Just one year ago, the situation at State Parks was dire; now with the current loss of funding, the entire agency is threatened with catastrophic collapse.

For whatever the reasons, state budget shortfalls, re-allocation of State Park funding, ignorance towards State Park values or other funding prioritization, it is indefensible that the legislature is strangling the growth and maintenance of assets within the State Parks system. What is next? Are we going to start selling off agency assets to satisfy the state budget needs? The selling of State Park assets certainly is an outrageous notion but is it any less so than the un-funded agency shell that has been left in the wake of the last legislative session’s budget process. What about next year’s budget? From most all accounts, the next few budget years will not show much improvement and the existing funding streams for State Parks will remain mostly empty or undependable.

The Arizona State Parks agency has a solid record of operating-on-a-shoestring a statewide park system, funding for local community historic preservation efforts, and providing assistance to counties, tribal communities, cities and towns towards their own parks and recreation systems. Indeed, Arizona State Parks is the “granting” agency that allows all citizens to enjoy a higher quality of life in Arizona’s communities.

The funding mechanism for Arizona State Parks is broken and we need to implement immediate changes that will ensure an adequate, dependable and increasing funding stream that provides a robust and well maintained State Parks system.

Recently, the Arizona State Parks Board, the citizen commission overseers of the State Parks agency, recommended to Governor Napolitano the formation of a Blue Ribbon Committee, “whose charge would be to determine the present and future needs of the State Park System and explore new revenue sources”. This Committee would recommend new funding strategies and a re-positioning of the agency that will secure a healthy future for the Arizona State Parks.

As individuals, organizations, businesses, counties, cities, towns or tribal entities, we support and use State Park facilities and programs in our community or elsewhere around the state. As such, we should applaud Governor Napolitano for her implementation of this Blue Ribbon Committee. This citizen/governmental task force will provide answers and options to the tough policy and financial questions that currently have our State Parks agency hamstrung and without many options for a healthy future.

Arizona has been blessed with natural beauty and abundant natural resources and we have the luxury to visit and enjoy our State Parks most anytime we choose. If we wish to maintain this lifestyle, a new leadership vision is needed; one that will preserve the best of our natural treasures, plan for open spaces, enhance recreational opportunities and even protect our water and air quality while planning for our future. This new idea seems a worthy goal for our State Parks system, a goal that cannot be achieved by removing that agency’s acquisition and operational funding.

We all share this vision of balancing smart growth with natural and cultural resource protection. The Arizona State Park system, properly funded, is the appropriate agency to connect the various facets of this worthy goal.