More AZ Opportunity?

The 2008 -2010 hunt guidelines are on the G&F website . Study these proposals carefully. More G&F medicine for increased OPPORTUNITY. Go to a meeting to express your reasoned opinion.

http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hunt_guidelines.shtml

Propose up to 5 % of the whitetail tags as December. Last year the recommendation was to offer 5-10% in the late season. This year in 2007, about 9% of the tags are for December hunts in most units. So, let's cut December tag numbers in half, crowd the early seasons even more to decrease harvest and validate increasing tag numbers (ie opportunity) further.

Keep Whitetail units 6a, 23, 30b, 31, 36c for alternative management units to harvest older age class bucks with up to 30% of the total harvest during the late season.
In 36C, 12% harvest in Dec. In 2005 16% harvest was in Dec. In 6a for 2006 16 of 76 deer were harvested in December for 21% of the total harvest. Does this mean that permits will be shifted from Oct and Nov back to Dec to more approach 30%?

I was at the meeting in Flagstaff last night and there were alot of things talked about that should have all of us concerned. First off there were only 10 of us there!!!!!! All units except 1, 9, 10, 23 that currently have a Sept. archery bull hunt will now have a Nov. archery bull hunt consisting of 25 permits for the first year and then dependinng on 1st choice applicants for those Nov. hunts the permits will be adjusted accordingly to meet demand. I just can't imagine too many 1st choice apps for a Nov. archery bull hunt. All archery deer hunt units where the archery harvest totals more than 20% of the total harvest will go to draw hunts, units 7, 17A and 12A are just a few that are currenty over 20%. Dec. archery hunt to be removed from some units including 22. They want to make units 6A, 23, 30B, 31 & 36C the "Kaibab" coues hunts with higher buck to do ratios and more tags in the Dec. hunts up to 30% of the total harvest will be allocated with Dec. permits. With all other coues units in the state to receive NO MORE than up to 5% of all whitetail permits in Dec. Archery Javi hunts in the metro units may go to over the counter hunts. house Rock buffalo hunts to go to 365 day seasons. Fall and spring turkey hunts in some units to be offered to Jr's as over the counter hunts. Limited oppertunity elk hunts in select units to be offered as over the counter hunts. All elk units except 1, 9, 10 & 23 will be managed for a bull to cow ratio of 15 - 20 bulls per 100 cows thus allowing the department to offer more oppertunity with more tags and more hunters in the field killing more elk. They told us that the result from this will be a elk herd that has less older age class bulls and that the average size of bulls killed will drop, sounds like AZ is on the path to having a bunch of raghorns just like Colorado. The AZGFD is going to strech the resources as thin as they can and offer as much oppertunity as possible(TAGS) with hunts of lesser quality and in a few years it is going to show in the quality of animals taken. They informed us right off the bat that the main focal point of the department is now quantity NOT Quality except in the few units that will be managed as quality units. We were told once again that none of the changes have anything to do with $$$$$$$......BS!!!! It sounded to me like the days of AZ being one of the top trophy producing states in the nation are all but over, they are going to flood the hunts with as many tags possible to provide oppertunity for people to hunt not to make $$$$$. It seems to me that anybody concerned about oppertunity and quality would have been at the meeting last night but as I said there were only 10 of us there and with a turn out like that it pretty much allows the department to do whatever they want. All you archery deer hunters better get out there and enjoy it this year because next year if you want to archery hunt you may have to be drawn to do so.

Later,
Geoff