Boquillas Update

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Gamekiller

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The majority of the Boquillas is now CLOSED. I spoke with the Navajos this morning. They said it was a joint decision between the Ranchers and the Navajo Nation. They said too many people are abusing the ranch with trash, etc.. The fence crews are there now posting everything. Looks like the beginning of the end. Gamekiller....
 
Would hate to be one of the 50 Trophy Tag holders who have used all their bonas points for a tag and end up having to hunt the little dab of National Forest north of Williams or else the subdivision north of Ash Fork, not to mention the 1800 rifle tag holders or the 300 archery tag holders or the 700 deer hunters. Might get pretty ungly before it's over.
 
I smell something fishy with this deal and there timing on this close. Mark my words, the Navajos and the Lessee are up to something.. Landowner Tags? Leasing the land to Outfitters? I smell big money behind this deal......
 
Gamekiller,
Have not received your PM but I get the idea you are as frustrated about this crock as I am...
 
Gamekiller: I did some nosing around last friday but could not come up with much in the way of "What the Nation is doing". I spoke with Tim Penders and sent some emails around to some people. I know AZGFD has been attempting to negotiate access rights and are willing to perform around 100,000 dollars in improvements. I wish someone close to the Nation would get me a name and I bet between various conservation groups we could come up with a system/payment/lease that would work for both parties. If you know someone involved in the negotiation process let me know......... Thanks, Allen Taylor......
 
Allen, the Land Management / Agriculture department of the Navajo is in charge of this situation. A guy by the name of Arvin Trujillo is the head guy, and Fritz is under him. I spoke with Fritz. Apparently a guy by name of Deitrich, with Cholla Land and Cattle is behind all of this. He and the Navajos feel it is the hunters who are causing the damage and trash. I think Detrich is using this as blackmail to convince the AZGF to give landowner compensation tags. Gamekiller
 
This is a REAL problem. I know G&F is still hopeful that they will be able to work out a solution but..... Of all the things that have been going on lately, this one turns my stomach the most.
 
Is the Boquillas part of the reservation or just privately held by the Navajo tribe? If it's privately held they would have to open it to all that would pay the access fee to hunt If I remember correctly if they get landowner tags they can limit access. Somebody correct me on this if I'm wrong. Discrimination laws are applicable in some form on this.
There was an issue with the ORO selling antelope tags or access many years ago and when they found out they had to open it to all that would pay they locked her up. This was a long time ago and many things have changed since then including who owns it today.
But I agree with chef I smell a big rat and one with perfect timing.
 
Boskee, I am pretty sure in Arizona there are absolutely "no landowner tags". The big ranches have been lobbying for some time to get "compensation" tags for predation damage. My guess is that is exactly what is happening here. Think about it, the AZGF is weary right now, we are on the eve of hunting season, this is simply the time the state and hunters are most vulnerable. The ranchers are simply hoping to blackmail the state, thats my take. As far as being private or reservation, the land is private (and checkerboarded with State land), not soveriegn reservation. The post above is right on with respect to locking gates. Bottom line, the area they are closing off is the prime elk hunting area in the unit. I am writing the AZGF president now. You guys in AZ should be hammering on this issue as much as, if not more, than your tag issue. What good is fighting for a tags if you can't hunt the best areas because of closures. My two bits on the subject.
 
Well I just throw out my little $.02. I was up on the ranch during the anual trash clean up and was absolutely shocked at how few people were there. There were about 130-150 people that showed up. How many people in this state hunt that unit or this particular ranch for that matter? THOUSANDS!!! It's a disgrace that hunters won't show up for one little weekend to help keep the ranch open other than the few devoted ones. I know of several big name outfitters that use this ranch for most all of their hunting and I didn't see but one of them there, this being Don Martin and this isn't a plug for him. We know who the others are. I met people there that don't even hunt the unit and some that weren't even hunters. I met some hikers there and even some people that use the unit for hang gliding, which surprised the heck out of me.

After spending an entire day driving everywhere on that ranch I will say that that is one clean ranch and that's even before we got there. I'd say that more than half of the garbage that was picked up was old rancher trash. Meaning old rusted buckets, fencing, barbed wire, old tires, trashed drinkers and feeders etc. The most actual real litter I saw was along the Supai highway and it was mostly beer bottles and cans and we know that 99% of that stuff doesn't come out of hunters' vehicles. In my opinion the trash on the ranch isn't even the issue here. It was the cleanest place I think I've ever spent a weekend and I do a lot of hunting around this fine state. If this does close to hunting and they say it's cause of the trash, you folks who didn't even lift a finger to help clean up a little don't even waste your time typing here cause you've got no room to talk.

Josh
 
I am sure they based tag #'s including the now closed areas. Plus added some tags. The now huntable areas are going to be hit hard, plus tag #'s will need to be reduced in the future. A lot more lost opportunity.
 
to me this info is seond hand. outfitters are setting up all over on the ranch. maybe they know what they have and want to make $$$$. i have seen trucks with g&f ranch passes on 66
 
Maybe the outfitters are setting up so there paying clients don't take any heat from the resident hunters? It would be a good move. It would just take one drunk wacko to cause problems.

j-dawg
 
I talked to a local rancher in the mohave county area and he tolda me that 56 ranches locked there gates on the same day. He said they are looking for game and fish to give them some type of compensation for letting hunters on the land and the cost of maintaning the roads and the water sources from dirt tanks to windmills. It sounds like the ranchers would like to have land owner tags that they could sell to pay for these items.
 
Good news, I just talked with the AG&F Region III supervisor and the Big Boquillas ranch is back open as of today. The only area that remains locked up is the area around Rosewell where significant water damage has occurred from the summer rains. This is great news for anyone that has drawn a tag in this area or would like to spend some time archery deer hunting, to be able to hunt the ranch. I hope the differences of opinion between the ranch and the AG&F will remain limited so the ranch will remain open. Now is the time to tell everyone involved thanks getting this situation resolved.
 
Yeehawww.. There were several people involved in getting this resolved including Pender, Don Martin, the div. III guy (Posey), and the Navajos. Let's all make sure everybody is on there best behavior. This has certainly shed light on a situation that I never new existed. I would recommend that next year the clean-up be highly publisized everywhere, and I for one will definately be there.... Gamekiller
 
LVTHNT, that is great news, I drew my first ever bull tag this year and I ame really looking forward to it. I have cow hunted up there with family and friends for several years but hopefully this years hunt is a hunt of a life time. Thanks for then info and for anybody going up there to hunt or scout please take trash bags with you and take it easy on the roads.
 
This is an area that I have hunted for the past 30 years, so it is close to the heart. We just got lucky and got four bull tags on four different envelopes this year so we were sure lucky for once and then this happened. Bob Posey and Tim Pender should be congratulated along with everyone else involved in the process. I am just glad that it got resolved so quickly, as it didn't look like it was going to happen. Plenty of time to scout and get ready for the elk hunts now. I feel bad for the archery antelope hunters that are half way through their hunt already to have been locked out of the ranch for the first half of their hunt. I am sure they will make up for lost time in a hurry. This is an eye opener to everyone that ever hunts on private land or even accesses private land to get to public land, be on your best behavior and take nothing for granted.
 
Like a few others have mentioned, Mr. Tim Penders the AZGFD man that runs that unit needs to be given a great big THANKS TIM.......I know he worked with the Nation and all others to help get access and other stuff done to keep this area open........Thanks Tim.......... Allen Taylor......
 
I went up to the boquillas on sunday, I went in at picca camp. I made it past the camp headquarters but when I got about two miles back in I came to another gate that was locked. When we got to the gate the ranchers wife was there and she told us that the ranch is still completely closed per the navajo nation and that it would not be reopened until all the roads and shipping corrals are fixed. She did say that they are working on them now.
 
Tell me if I'm wrong but isn't that entire ranch checker-boarded? Can they legally close access to all the state land that is enclosed within the boundries of the ranch?

That's great to hear that it's back open though, good luck guys and keep them aluminum cans and bottles in the back of your truck where they belong and not in the bar ditch.

Josh
 
I just heard that the ranch is still closed. Any one else hear this too?

Josh
 
Muleybull, is this info you received within the last day? We have been lobbying the indians and the ranchers hard for the last couple of weeks. Many people and sportsmens groups have been on it. The last we heard, the gates at Pica and Hoffman were open, but gates were locked a few miles back in again. The middle of the ranch (basically everything below Rose Well and north of the Aubry Cliffs, was still closed. I havn't called anybody this week so maybe things have changed. Do you have other info?
 
I spent most of the day on Saturday in and around the Boquillas. Most of the main roads from the south are all closed, making access more difficult than normal. I talked with Bob Posey he tells me that the ranch is still closed even though it should not be on all state land access points. There is a meeting on Thursday afternoon to get further information from the Navajo Nation?s decision makers to find out what they want from the G&F and or the sportsman. We should know more come Thursday. This could turn into a messing deal if it continues past Thursday. Hopefully this will get resolved.
 

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