AZGFD Program: Habitat Partnership Committee

Transcript for Partners in Wildlife Habitat Conservation

Speaker 1: Wildlife depends on healthy habitat. And in the state of Arizona, people forming partnerships are a key to ensuring it exists.

Speaker 2: This is our commitment—the Arizona Elk Society’s commitment to the Forest Service to come in here and do some really good work for wildlife.

Speaker 1: It’s a Saturday morning in July, and about 150 volunteers have gathered to help the Arizona Elk Society repair a critical ecosystem in the Coconino National Forest, north of Payson.

Speaker 2: In this area, you have more threatening endangered species than just about anywhere else in Arizona—in this 73,000 acres. So, while we’re here for elk, we’re benefiting all those other wildlife at the same time.

Speaker 1: Habitat projects are not unusual. All across Arizona, sportsmen’s groups like the Elk Society, are constantly working for wildlife.

Speaker 2: We are conservationists. That's what we are. That's what we're doing out here—we're conserving wildlife habitat.

Speaker 1: Game and Fish is doing the same. Thanks to outdoor enthusiasts who generate revenue for the department every time they buy hunting and fishing licenses or equipment. But there’s so much to do and limited dollars to do it. So in 1992, Game and Fish established a program focused on forging partnerships with other states and federal agencies, public and private landowners, and wildlife conservation groups like the Elk Society.

Commissioner John W. Harris, Past Chair, Habitat Partnership Committee: It's a true partnership. In fact, we meet three times a year.

Speaker 1: Commissioner John Harris is talking about the Arizona Habitat Partnership Committee [HPC].

Male Speaker 1: When this project came in...

Speaker 1: It sets priorities for habitat projects statewide, based on input from a dozen local habitat partnership committees across Arizona.

Male Speaker 2: HPC wise, we've put at least 40 in.

Speaker 1: They all have a seat at this table, along with conservation groups and other interested parties.

Brian Wakeling, Arizona Game & Fish Department: The local Habitat Partnership Committees look at the priorities; they recommend their local priorities—comes back to the state organization and it's give and take. It can be fairly heated at times, but ultimately everybody's looking at wildlife conservation—how can we do the best for wildlife.

John Harris: There's always more projects unfortunately than we have money, but we look at the priority and see where we need to put the money on the landscape.

Speaker 1: The money is raised at events like this.

Auctioneer: 1,700. Thank you, sir!

Speaker 1: It's the Arizona Elk Society's Annual Fundraising Banquet.

Auctioneer: 103,000 for back and be.

Speaker 1: A huge event that's always packed with hundreds of outdoors men and women who are bidding on valuable items—everything from guns to furniture to animal art. But the premiere prize is a special elk tag provided by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission.

Steve Clark, Arizona Elk Society: The special tag gives the buyer 365 days to hunt. So, he can hunt in any open unit throughout the state for 365 days.

Male Speaker 3: The Antelope Foundation has requested two tags.

Speaker 1: Each year, the commission awards these highly coveted tags to nonprofit wildlife conservation organizations and the Arizona Big Game Super Raffle.

On screen:
Arizona Antelope Foundation
Arizona Big Game Super Raffle
Arizona Bowhunters Association
Arizona Deer Association
Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society
Arizona Elk Society
Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conservation
Arizona Wildlife Federation
Mule Deer Foundation
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
National Wild Turkey Federation
Safari Club International - All Chapters

Male Speaker 3: Elk would go to the Arizona Big Game Super Raffle, the Arizona Elk Society, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Speaker 1: Three special tags are issued for each of the 10 big game species.

Male Speaker 4: Thank you for the opportunity for these tags!

Speaker 1: Then, the groups that get the tags raffle or auction them off to the highest bidder.

Auctioneer: $100,000.

Speaker 1: In 2013, the Arizona Elk Society sold its special elk tag for $210,000.

Auctioneer: ...sold right here tonight at the Arizona Elk Society.

Brian Wakeling: And the amazing thing about that is they don't get to keep any of the money—zero. 100% of it comes back to the state of Arizona.

Male Speaker 5: On that project, also...

Speaker 1: The Habitat Partnership Committee manages the money and makes sure every cent is spent on wildlife. It can be used to translocate animals into areas with dwindling populations, to build watering holes, or modify fences that impede the movement of wildlife. HPC dollars can also help pay for prescribed fires designed to enhance habitat.

John Harris: Every dollar that goes back to the species that the actual tag went for. So, we really do recover the money and put it back on the landscape.

Speaker 1: In 2013, all 30 special big game tags generated a total of nearly $2 million. It's a nice chunk of change that will get even better.

On screen:

2013 Special Big Game Tag Revenue

Antelope	$92,980
Bighorn Sheep	$389,750
Black Bear	$12,795
Buffalo	$65,880
Elk	$705,225
Javelina	$7,915
Mountain Elk	$12,765
Mule Deer	$571,140
Wild Turkey	$22,110
Whitetail Deer	$73,920
	$1,954,480

Brain Wakeling: The amount of money that it's raised—it grows tremendously. We're often able to match those dollars with federal dollars. We're able to get other organizations to pony up and throw in some additional funding to get work done.

People on the field: So, we want to start building the bottom line.

Glen Dickens, Arizona Antelope Foundation: Habitat partnership not only creates the opportunity with the private landowner or the public agency; but more importantly in our case, it allows us to partner with the Mule Deer Foundation.

Speaker 1: HPC funds help the Arizona Antelope Foundation improve grasslands for pronghorn in southeastern Arizona.

Glen Dickens: We paid to solarize a well. And actually have three different drinkers that come out from that well that favor both mule deer, whitetail, and pronghorn. We've also partnered with the Mule Deer Foundation and taken volunteers and gone and modified fences that also affect mule deer in the proximity of where we're doing our antelope work.

Speaker 1: Game and Fish used HPC money to acquire a 40-acre parcel in this area, making it possible for the Arizona Elk Society to acquire and retire the associated grazing permit in 2009. Since then, the Elk Society has been working to repair this fragile riparian ecosystem at Buck Springs.

Tom Runyon, Coconino National Forest: This is an example of a wet meadows system, and it provides some really unique habitat.

Speaker 1: This meadow used to act like a sponge, soaking up rainwater and slowly releasing it. But the ground is drying up due to the loss of native grasses and other vegetation. As a result, there's little left to absorb rainwater, and instead of slowly seeping into the ground, it rushes across the landscape, making the meadow erode.

Tom Runyon: That increased runoff has energy that can destabilize the meadow, actually causing head cuts to form and the meadow to erode away. This is an example of a head cut, which is an area of active erosion, and these head cuts typically advance upstream.

Speaker 1: The Elk Society is helping the Forest Service stop the erosion by stabilizing head cuts with rocks and logs that will also slow the flow of water.

Speaker 2: Dissipate it out across the lands, so it can soak in at a slower rate.

Male Speaker 6: If we put rocks in there, it could be like in the soil.

Speaker 1: It's a huge job that will continue for years to come, and it likely wouldn't get done without volunteers.

Stephen Patten, Volunteer: This is the first time we've volunteered, and it's the first time we've done anything with the Elk Society.

Speaker 1: Stephen Patten and his nine-year-old son William have been removing barbed wire fences that get in the way of wildlife.

Stephen Patten: We like working and we like nature, and we know that in this day and age, it takes work to make nature work. And it's just doing a good thing for the forest—give them back.

Speaker 2: To leave an area like this and know that you've done some good that will last for years to come especially for wildlife—to me—is very important. We can grow more elk, we can grow more deer, but we can't make new habitat. What we have to do is come back and repair and restore what we have already.

Male Speaker 7: Let's try lifting what we got.

Speaker 1: And by working together, forming partnerships, we get a lot more done and do a lot more good for Arizona’s wildlife.

Speaker 2: We focus on elk, but we're benefiting all wildlife. It just flourishes in these riparian bottoms. It's just a phenomenal area for wildlife in the state of Arizona.