AZSFW rebranded and back for more tags!

This is a very serious issue for Arizona. Public land hunters need to stop the attempt to start a highest bidder permit allocation model in AZ. To date AZ is the beacon of public land hunting in the west. No private land permits and no outfitter set aside. If the SFW types get their foot in the door the path leads to a system like NM where half of all our elk permits are privatized and for sale to the highest bidder. And 10% of the remainder are set aside for outfitters. That 6% draw quota nonresidents think they get here? It's really 3% of overall elk permits after the private land permits are deducted. Contrast that with AZ were all permits (save a very very few auction permits-AZ is even conservative with their auction permit numbers) are in the draw, residents of AZ are awarded an honest minimum of 90% of all limited permits in the drawing. In NM residents receive 42% of all permits by draw. Does AZ want to go down this path? Kicking and screaming I would hope. AZ has figured out how to work with landowners and have some of the best hunting in the world without privatizing hunting permits. Hold the line!

If it is true that Chris Denham was associated with this effort I am sorely disappointed. I'm going to be asking him about it the next time a see him.

Chris Denham and Floyd Green were neck deep in AZSFW in 2012. Denham gave up the effort when the heat was turned up. I give him credit for that. The list of people that backed the 2012 attempt to take 350 tags and create an "expo" can be found with some effort.


Agenda Item 29, "Dedicated Funding for Outreach and Education." passed with a unanimous vote. They will create a committee and come up with ways to generate funds for the effort. That may or may not include raffle tags. The Item was passed with an amendment that no tags would be taken from the existing res/nr tag allotments.