This annual booklet includes season dates, bag limits, hunt types, open areas, rules, regulations, drawing application details, and other requirements for the hunting of most big game, small game, other wildlife, and trapping in Arizona. Big game species covered in this regulation includes deer (mule deer and white-tailed deer), fall turkey, fall javelina, bighorn sheep, fall buffalo, fall bear, and mountain lion.

Whether you are an experienced, occasional or new angler, the Arizona Urban Fishing Program offers great fishing opportunities that you are sure to enjoy. There are 21 city park lakes currently participating in the Program, a partnership between the Arizona Game and Fish Department and 11 cities across the state. To ensure fishermen have a good chance of catching fish, plenty of ready-to-catch fish are stocked over a 10-month period from mid September through June; every two weeks! More than 4 million Arizona residents live within a 20-minute drive of a heavily stocked Urban Fishing Program lake. Close by and convenient, all the parks offer parking, restrooms and other amenities to make your fishing trip and park visit enjoyable.

Apache trout is a federally threatened salmonid native to headwaters of the Little Colorado, Black, and White rivers in east-central Arizona. Decline of Apache trout to threatened status was attributed to over-fishing, habitat degradation and negative interactions (predation, competition and hybridization) with introduced nonnative salmonids. Although over-fishing is no longer considered a threat, habitat degradation and negative interactions with nonnative salmonids continue to threaten Apache trout, and it is towards these threats that recovery actions are directed. While barrier construction began in 1979 and livestock exclusion began in the mid-1980s, the efficacy of these recovery actions at increasing Apache trout abundance and improving habitat condition had not been evaluated. We therefore initiated a study to evaluate the efficacy of riparian fencing and barriers.

This project consisted of multiple activities: Fish salvage, fish holding and repatriation, stream renovation, fish barrier construction and watershed stock tank renovations. Fish salvage and restocking operations were done in coordination and in conjunction with USFWS and a larger research project being conducted by NAU through separate funding. Brief information on methods and results from those efforts are provided. The Department, utilizing resources provided directly by USBR and via a grant from the FWS, implemented holding facility construction and operation. The Department coordinated the stream renovation with planning and implementation assistance provided by all the aforementioned partners. The USBR conducted all activities related to the fish barrier design and construction, details of which will not be included in this report.

This strategic plan identifies the management direction that the Arizona Game and Fish Commission has provided to the Department for the next six years. The plan discusses the most important issues facing the Department, including the recruitment and retention of hunters, anglers and shooting sports participants, and explains how the Department plans to respond to those issues.

Prior strategic plans focused on just one of the programmatic areas for which the Department is responsible; for example, Wildlife 2006 was solely a wildlife strategic plan. In contrast, Wildlife 2012 provides strategic guidance for all programs within the Arizona Game and Fish Department. It emphasizes wildlife management, which is the Department’s primary focus. However, Wildlife 2012 also addresses off-highway vehicle and watercraft recreation beyond their impacts to wildlife resources, as well as the administration of the Department.

This report summarizes the results of the first two meetings of the Arizona-New Mexico Jaguar Conservation Team (JAG Team) Research Committee and outlines future research that will guide the JAG Team in sound conservation management of jaguars in the United States. Research objectives were identified and approved by the JAG Team. These objectives are to describe and quantify (1) the current distribution and (2) habitat requirements of jaguars in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. The second meeting focused on selecting study methods to achieve these objectives.

After virtual extirpation from the Southwest during the mid-1900’s, jaguars have been rediscovered in portions of their former range in the United States, changing the way we think about their current status and distribution. However, we must look ahead and take the next step towards responsible jaguar conservation and apply serious, in depth and objective research on the jaguar in the borderlands region. We emphasize the unique situation of wild jaguars currently occupying portions of southeastern Arizona and recommend investigations to learn as much as possible on the specific habitat selection and habitat requirements of these jaguars while the opportunity exists. We propose a combination of studies. These would include noninvasive presence/absence surveys to determine the current status and distribution. Once jaguars are located, we recommend conducting detailed studies of their habitat selection and ecology using a combination of GPS telemetry and noninvasive monitoring techniques.