The Arizona Game and Fish Department has unveiled the 2023-28 hunting guidelines after accepting and reviewing public comment on the proposal. Extreme anti-hunting organizations sought to intimidate the department into implementing several hunting bans, including on bears, mountain lions and bobcats. Thankfully, the department refused to give in to these demands.

You can review the new guidelines at https://www.azgfd.com/hunting/guidelines/. This proposal will be presented to the Game and Fish Commission at their April 1 meeting in Phoenix.

Please note, this isn’t the end of the process, but the beginning. The next steps are:

• June: The Commission will provide their own input and changes on the proposal.
• July: A public comment period will open on the commission’s changes.
• August: The department will release their final proposed guidelines that will also be open to public review.
• September: Final proposed guidelines will be presented to the commission for adoption.

“Sportsmen’s Alliance is continuing to monitor this issue and will provide updates to our members and supporters as the process rolls on. In the meantime, we encourage all sportsmen to provide input by emailing AZHuntGuidelines@azgfd.gov,” said Dillon Barto, Manager of State Services at the Sportsmen’s Alliance. “We applaud the efforts of the sporting community to support the department in resisting attacks from activists trying to ban hunting.”

About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research.  Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.