The Arizona Wildlife Federation was born 100 years ago out of a need to keep politics out of wildlife and public lands management — that hasn't changed. We want to keep you informed, especially when sportsmen's' and other outdoor enthusiast's interests are under attack. When bad bills come up, we work tirelessly in our communications with decision-makers and collaborate closely with other groups and organizations to defeat those bills. But your voice is a particularly powerful one — we need our legislators to hear it. 

Check out the bad bills we're tracking in 2024 below.

Background Information on bills and memorials:

HB = House Bill

HCM = House Concurrent Memorial.

A note about the memorials in question — these five memorials are not actionable items. Instead, they are official statements to the White House and to our congressional leaders. Do you want a fringe group of our state legislators sending a message to the administration that Arizonans don't value our public lands and would prefer that they be taken away from us? With every one of these memorials, a stronger and stronger case for the privatization of our public lands is being made.

Anti-Public Land Bills Defeated: HB2021, HB2022, HB2376, HB2377, and HB2572

This spring, 600 of you helped us advocate for Arizona’s public lands and it’s clear that those efforts made a difference. In this legislative session, AWF focused much of our advocacy efforts on ten harmful public lands bills and memorials. Of these ten, five memorials, including one asking for the repeal of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument and another asking for 30% of Arizona’s federal public lands to be handed over to the state, passed along party lines and were transmitted to the Secretary of State (see the memorials that were transmitted below). While that outcome was undesirable, memorials are not actionable items; they are statements to our administration.

Fortunately, four of the five bills in this package, including two anti-conservation easement bills, failed to pass. One final bill, HB2376, did make it all the way through and was transmitted to Governor Hobb’s office. We have been in contact with her for a bit now urging a veto and are pleased to say that she did veto on June 21st, 2024. 

Thank you once again to those who used their voice for conservation and contacted our state’s representatives and senators — your voice made a difference for Arizona’s public lands.

The following memorials passed along party lines and were transmitted to the Secretary of State.

HCM2004: Primarily Sponsored by AZ Representative Smith

This resolution calls for the federal government to give land or payments to counties or the state whenever the federal government acquires or withdraws access to acres of federal public land.

HCM2006: Primarily Sponsored by AZ Representative Griffin

Calls for Congress to enact legislation that requires the express authorization of Congress, the state, and each county affected before any additional federal land may be declared in Arizona.

HB2376, HB2377, HCM2004, and HCM2006 ignore the economic benefits of public lands and view them only through the myopic lens of property taxes. Arizona’s public lands support a 12-billion-dollar outdoor recreation economy and provide over 106,000 direct jobs. Scroll down to see examples where small transfers of private land to the Federal Government provided access to tens of thousands of acres of public lands for outdoor recreation.

HCM2007: Primarily Sponsored by AZ Representative Biasiucci

Urges the President to repeal the recent designation of the Grand Canyon Footprints National Monument in Northern Arizona and oppose any such designation in the state of Arizona in the future. 

HCM2008: Primarily Sponsored by AZ Representative Gillette

Calls for the Antiquities Act of 1906 to be repealed or amended to reaffirm that entire landscapes, animate life, such as birds and mammals, and common plants and vegetation are not considered “landmarks, structures, or objects” under federal law. In 1950, Congress amended the Antiquities Act to provide an exemption for the state of Wyoming, which requires the “express authorization of Congress” to declare any additional national monuments in that state. HCM 2008 calls on Congress and the President to extend the exemption to all Western States.

HCM2007 and HCM2008 call to repeal the newly designated Grand Canyon Footprints National Monument (which explicitly calls out hunting and angling as activities to be protected) and the Antiquities Act that was used to create it. If these resolutions were to come to fruition, it would leave Arizona’s greatest wilderness and one of the world’s finest mule deer herds without protection from the consequences and habitat fragmentation of uranium mining and energy development like solar and wind farms. Further, repealing the Antiquities Act, which has been used by eighteen past presidents (nine Republicans and nine Democrats) would leave us without a powerful tool in the effort to conserve our wildlife and habitat for future generations.

HCM2005: Primarily Sponsored by AZ Representative Smith

This resolution urges Congress and the President to pass and sign legislation transferring 30% of federally protected public lands to their respective states by 2030. 

HCM2005 is a misguided rebuttal to the 30X30 Initiative. The 30X30 initiative is no threat to Arizona’s private land owners and is not an attempt to obtain more federal lands in our state. It’s rather an initiative that aims to conserve 30% of our nation’s wild places. An attempt to transfer 30% of our lands — the same lands that we hunt and fish on — to the state that is mandated to profit from them can only be seen as an outright attack on, and complete disregard for, Arizona’s hunting and angling community.