Wenima Wildlife Area

Game and Fish seeks public input at meeting on Heritage Fund wildlife areas

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[Source: Karen Warnick, White Mountain Independent] – Five large wildlife management areas in Apache County are owned and operated by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Four of the areas are Heritage Fund sites: Becker Lake Wildlife area, Wenima Wildlife area, Sipe Wildlife area, and the Grasslands area. The fifth is the Springerville Marsh Wildlife area.

Employees of Game and Fish held a public meeting March 6 at the Eagar Town Hall for a property management review and to encourage the public to comment on the next six years of operation in the five areas.

Arizona Game and Fish to restore river bed

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[Source: WMIcentral.com] – The Arizona Game and Fish Department is implementing a water quality improvement project along the banks of the Little Colorado River on its Wenima Wildlife Area located just north of Springerville. 

The 355 acre property is managed for native wildlife, and includes 2.5 miles of the Little Colorado River.  Some of the river’s stream banks are very unstable, and large amounts of soil is washed downstream when water levels rise.  The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality funded a water quality improvement grant to address these eroding banks. The Department originally purchased this 355 acre property in 1993 with the aid of the Heritage Fund, which utilizes Arizona lottery monies to protect habitat for threatened and endangered species.  Since the 1993 acquisition, the habitat within the Wenima Wildlife Area boundaries has greatly improved, but a few sections of the river continue to experience excessive erosion events during spring run off and after large monsoon rains.

The Department applied for and was awarded a water quality improvement grant administered by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. [to read the full article click here].