Presentation by Jim Goughnour, AZGFD Commissioner
Jim Goughnour, one of the five AZGFD Commissioners, was our guest speaker at our October meeting. The following are excerpts from his comments:
The AZGFD:
The Commission was established in 1958 by the state legislature under Title 17-231.
The Commission has 5 members that serve five-year terms: Bill Brake, Chairman and in his final year, Todd Geiler, James Goughnour, Clay Hernandez, and Kurt Davis who is finishing his 2nd term. The Commission meets 10 times a year in a public forum and has 2 workshops each year that are open to the public.
The Commission is responsible for the following:
A $130 million budget for fiscal 2022. 70% of the funds is from hunting and fishing license sales, discretionary funding. The other 30% is from the Federal Government, grants, etc. There are no AZ state appropriations, zero tax dollars, given to the Commission. However, the AZ state budget includes the Commission’s budget because the Commission is a State Agency. The 2019 appropriations for the Commission was not approved because certain state budgets were not approved because of COVID-19. $2.5 million of fish hatchery improvements were postponed until the 2021 budget.
The Commission is responsible for the management of all AZ wildlife. The AZ wildlife belongs to the State and the title to the wildlife is held by a public trust.
The Commission’s priorities:
Increase sport fishing opportunities which includes stocking 750,000 pounds of fish annually in the lakes and streams. Look for new fish stocking areas.
Make fish hatchery improvements by completing at least 60% of the hatchery goals annually.
Increase fish habitat structures. AZGFD owns and manages 500 structures on 67 different properties for a total of 48,000 acres. The Commission buys and sells property on an as needed basis.
Manage 6 natural water flow fish hatcheries. The current drought conditions make this priority quite challenging.
Continue issuing fishing and hunting licenses. In 2020, 1 in 5 residents in AZ got fishing licenses, record numbers, and 1 in 6 or 7 residents got hunting licenses. The outdoor recreation activity in AZ represents approximately $1.5 billion in revenue to the state annually.
Monitor the Species Status Assessment (SSA) process; e.g. the round tail Chubb which resides in many streams in AZ.
James G. summed up his presentation with the following:
He believes that cold and warm water fishing is the best he has seen in AZ in years.
He hopes that AZ will be excluded from the 30 X 30 initiative as AZ has about 37% of its land already managed by the federal government. The initiative is now known as “America the Beautiful”.
Curt Gill has been promoted as the State’s native fish program manager for the AZGFD. Curt reports to Julie Carter.
The USFWS has approved the AZFGD’s 2021 to 2031 sport fish stocking program. Gila trout are included in new waters in the program.
AZFGD purchased the Cold Spring Ranch which will be converted into a recreational Gila Trout broodstock facility and will take up to 5 years to get functioning after planning and infrastructure changes are made. A huge step forward for Gila Trout!
He stressed the need for AZTU to continue working with Julie Carter at AZFGD on strategic planning. She is very excited to work with TU.
He supports the Community Fishing Program which will bring fish to the AZ communities. Communities are on a waiting list to get the CFP facilities and will pay for the fish.
He supports the Recovering America's Wildlife Act (RAWA) and thank you letters were mailed to the Senators for their support of the Act.
He noted the concern over uneducated people misusing the forests and recreational areas with off road vehicles designed for the sand dunes. The State Parks agency is responsible for this activity and have been writing volumes of tickets for violations.
He noted it was an honor to be a Commissioner for the AZGFD and noted that the bottom of the AZGFD website has the email addresses of the commissioners so that the public could correspond with them.
Audubon Groundwater Webinars
Audubon recently conducted 3 very informative webinars on ground water pumping. The links are here:
Future Guest Speakers
Steve Kandell, TU Staff, will speak on the 30X30+20 Initiative (America the Beautiful +20?) at the November 9, 2021 meeting. If you would like to participate, please contact Tom Osterday at publicpolicychair@zanegreytu.org .