The Arizona Game and Fish Commission took action yesterday (Nov. 19) that will facilitate continued efforts toward ensuring hunter access and cooperative wildlife management in Hopi Trust Lands located within Game Management Units 4A, 5A and 5B.
The commission voted unanimously to accept the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s recommendation to amend the hunt guidelines for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 hunting seasons with language that would authorize the department to enter into a reciprocal agreement with the Hopi Tribe. This agreement, which would need to be approved by both the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Hopi Tribe, would allow hunter access by the general populace to Hopi Trust Lands within those units for the 2010 elk and antelope hunts, and would allocate an equitable proportion of applicable big game permits in those units to Hopi tribal members based on the proportion of habitat and estimated wildlife populations within those habitats. Deer permits may be considered in the future.
As was described in the department’s Nov. 17 e-news communication providing background information, the Hopi Tribe in 1997-98 purchased several private ranches in Game Management Units 4A, 5A and 5B in accordance with the Congressionally approved Navajo-Hopi Settlement Dispute Act of 1996. About 160,000 acres of that land went into Trust Status in December 2008. Trust Status, for all practical purposes, makes these sovereign lands similar to reservation lands. These Hopi Trust Lands are interspersed with about 157,000 acres of checkerboard Arizona State Trust Lands.
The department has been in discussions with the Hopi Tribe regarding cooperative management of wildlife and hunter access on Hopi Trust Lands, which has led to the draft Cooperative Agreement. Department and Hopi staff have been developing estimates of equitable allocations to Hopi tribal members. As an example, based on the draft hunt recommendations that will be presented to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, about 3 percent of the general/juniors/archery elk tags (105 of 3,195 tags), 20 percent of the pronghorn tags (14 of 70 tags), and 50 percent of the limited opportunity elk tags (138 of 275 tags) in these units would be allocated to Hopis under the agreement. The permit numbers in the hunt recommendations have not yet been approved by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission but will be considered in public session at the Dec. 5 commission meeting in Phoenix.
The proposed agreement stipulates how revenue would be shared between the department and Hopi. An amount equal to the revenue from the tags and one-half of the resident hunting license fee would go to Hopi to aid their wildlife management. This would equal approximately $36,500 in the scenario described above. Hunters from the general populace would have access to Hopi Trust Lands under the draft cooperative agreement.
Under the agreement, the Arizona Game and Fish Department would conduct the draw for these hunts, and all state statutes, commission rules and commission orders, including fees, would apply to all hunters. All hunters on these lands would need to be properly licensed and have drawn the appropriate tags. A portion of the tags would be allocated for Hopi hunters, and these would be handled similarly to how the department handles hunts on military lands. Hunters interested in applying would have to contact the Hopi Wildlife Program to get the hunt number to apply.
The Hopi Tribal Council is scheduled to meet on Nov. 24 to vote on giving the Tribe the authority to enter into this agreement with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
The department’s proposed hunt recommendations to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission for the 2010 elk and pronghorn hunts (including the proposed tag allocation for Hopi tribal members) will be presented to the commission for consideration at its Dec. 5 meeting. The hunt recommendations will be posted Nov. 23 at www.azgfd.gov/huntguidelines.