Key actions and decisions affecting management of Arizona’s wildlife and outdoor recreational opportunities don’t occur just within our state. Forces are also at play from outside the state – at regional, national and international levels. These reports discuss some of the issues and provides a broad overview of representative accomplishments and activities for the year.

Wildlife 20/20 provides broad strategic guidance for all department programs. It is intended to be a living document that conveys policy direction that the Arizona Game and Fish Commission has provided to the department to guide its work into the future. It will be complemented by additional plans designed to provide more specific direction, as needed.

This document contains laws related to wildlife in Arizona, from statehood in 1912 through 1962. This is a supplement to “Bringing Back the Game: Arizona Wildlife Management, 1912–1962,” a book of wildlife management history published by the Arizona Game and Fish Department in 2012.

Included are those bills passed by the Arizona State Legislature between 1912 and 1962, signed by the governor and incorporated as “Game and Fish Law” under the Arizona Revised Statutes. Other initiatives, referenda, and statutes pertaining to wildlife (including predatory and noxious animals) are also included, thereby providing an accessible resource for those interested in the history of Arizona’s wildlife laws.

This document is neither exhaustive nor complete. Some bills that are arcane or repetitive, or that served a housekeeping purpose, are not included. Some legislation is summarized with annotations by the author and not presented verbatim. The purpose is illustrative only and not intended to either replace the actual laws, or be taken as current law.

Arizona’s CWCS is a document that plans for the conservation of species and their habitats. Working at large and small landscape scales, the plan first develops conservation actions to address stressors to habitats. This approach is meant to benefit all wildlife, including both vulnerable and common species, by managing for the habitat and resources upon which they depend. An example of this type of conservation action would be to identify important wildlife movement corridors and protecting them to minimize habitat fragmentation. To facilitate conservation of many species acting at different scales, Arizona’s CWCS uses a multi-scale approach to classifying habitat types within Arizona.

Identifying the primary managers of wildlife habitat can provide one useful type of information for development of Arizona’s Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. This can contribute to satisfying at least three of the required elements: #4 (conservation actions and priorities), #5 (monitoring plans), and #7 (coordination). This can be particularly useful in the prioritization of actions and resources.

Toward that end, The Nature Conservancy has compiled relevant information and conducted new analyses from our recent statewide efforts to map and analyze two natural communities, grasslands and forests, and a species group, native fish. The results are presented in three sections, with appendices describing data sources.