The Arizona Game and Fish Department has received inquiries from constituents regarding its announcement last Friday about two agenda items that have been added to this Thursday's (Nov. 19) meeting of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. Those agenda items are:

• An informational briefing on a draft Cooperative Agreement with the Hopi Tribe to facilitate cooperative management and continued elk and antelope hunter access on sovereign Hopi Trust Lands in Game Management Units 4A, 5A and 5B (the agreement includes allocation of permits to Hopi tribal members based on suitable habitat).
  
  
• Consideration of proposed amendments to the hunt guidelines governing the 2010-11 and 2011-12 hunting seasons in Game Management Units 4A, 5A and 5B to reflect the proposed permit allocation in the Hopi Trust Lands Cooperative Agreement. The commission may vote to take action or provide the department direction on this item.

(For a complete meeting agenda, visit www.azgfd.gov/commissioncam and click on the link to the Nov. 19 agenda).

The department offers the following additional background on this issue:

In 1996, Congress passed the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act to resolve long-standing issues regarding Navajo families living on Hopi partition lands. Among the provisions in this act was authorization for the Hopi Tribe to purchase up to 500,000 acres of ranch lands in northern Arizona and put them eventually into trust status. The act also authorized the Secretary of the Interior to, by condemnation, acquire State Lands lying within the private lands purchased by the Hopi Tribe and compensate the state at fair market value with funds provided by the tribe.

In 1997-98, under the authority of the act, Hopi purchased five ranches (Clear Creek, Hart, 10X, Drye and Aja) in Game Management Units 4A, 5A and 5B, covering approximately 173,000 acres of deeded land with a comparable amount of interspersed “checkerboard” State Land. Up until December 2008, these ranch lands were treated as any other ranch. In December 2008, about 160,000 acres of these deeded lands were placed into federal trust status for the benefit of the Hopi Tribe. Trust status, for all practical purposes, has the effect of making the Hopi Trust Lands become part of the Hopi Reservation as sovereign land.

There are about 157,000 acres of interspersed checkerboard State Land within the Hopi Trust Land boundaries. There has been no change in the interspersed State Lands at this time. These interspersed lands make it difficult for either Hopi or Game and Fish to independently manage habitat, wildlife and hunting on these lands. The department has been working collaboratively with the Hopi Tribe for 10 years on these issues.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission was briefed on this situation last spring during a public meeting. Since then, the department has continued to work with Hopi on access, habitat and wildlife management issues. The proposed Cooperative Agreement provides for a process under which Hopi will be able to issue a certain number of permits for Hopis to hunt these lands. A separate Stewardship Agreement allows continued access to these lands for elk and antelope hunters during the 2010 season.

Keep in mind that the Hopi Trust Lands are sovereign lands, and continued hunter access is dependent on cooperative agreements such as this. Hopi has affirmed that the tribe values its relationship with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and the tribe and department will continue to work cooperatively on access, habitat and wildlife management issues.