The Arizona Game and Fish Department has been given approval by Gov. Jan Brewer’s office to pursue several rulemakings exempted from a freeze on state agency rulemaking activities. 

Agency rulemakings had been frozen by House Bill 2008 (Laws 2009, Third Special Session, Chapter 7, Section 28) for the remainder of fiscal year 2009-10. The legislation exempted from the freeze rulemaking that meets specific criteria including, but not limited to, rulemakings that address the state budget, are deregulatory, eliminate or replace obsolete language, implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or impact the critical public peace, health and safety functions of an agency.

The rulemakings being pursued are:

• The Department proposes to establish a new rule, R12-4-309, to provide the Department with necessary proactive regulatory measures designed to address issues involving the use of drugs on wildlife. Individuals administering improper amounts of drugs to wildlife may cause unintended mortalities to occur. Thus, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission has determined that certain criteria and standards must be achieved by anyone requesting authorization to use drugs on wildlife in order to ensure the protection and preservation of Arizona’s wildlife resources.
  
  
• The Department proposes to amend R12-4-318 to allow individuals to possess a non-hunting handgun for personal protection during archery-only and muzzleloader-only seasons. The Department believes that it is necessary to allow individuals participating in these seasons to possess a non-hunting handgun for their own personal protection. The amended rule clearly stipulates that a non-hunting handgun is a handgun with a barrel length of six inches or less that does not have a scope or any type of electronic sight.
  
  
• The Department proposes to amend R12-4-601, R12-4-610, and R12-4-611 to reflect the department’s current address.
  
  
• The Department proposes to amend R12-4-802 to clarify restrictions and conditions for use of commission-owned wildlife areas and to more clearly identify wildlife areas.
  
  
• The Department proposes to amend R12-4-803 to add wildlife area boundary descriptions for newly acquired Department properties; Cibola Valley Conservation and Wildlife Area and new properties located within the Arlington Wildlife Area.

The Commission will review these recommendations at the upcoming commission meeting scheduled for Feb. 5 at the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s headquarters at 5000 W. Carefree Highway in Phoenix.