Category Archives: Phoenix

Be a hero for wildlife – your donations will help the AZGFD Wildlife Center

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PHOENIX — You can help sick or injured wildlife on Giving Tuesday.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Wildlife Center treats sick, injured or orphaned wildlife. Some can be released to the wild, but those that can’t require continued care, either as “wildlife ambassadors” for educational presentations at local schools and community events, or for placement in a zoo or wildlife sanctuary. The animals pictured above have all been rescued during the past year.

The department receives no Arizona tax dollars to operate, and the cost of feeding and caring for these animals often outweighs the available funding.

We’ve set a goal to raise $10,000, and there are two easy ways you can donate. Text CRITTER to 41444 or clicking on the image above will take you to the web site.

Your generous donation will help the Wildlife Center in accomplishing its mission of caring for these animals. Thank you for your consideration!

SR 67 to North Rim of Grand Canyon will close for winter Tuesday

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PHOENIX ‒ State Route 67 between Jacob Lake (US 89A) and the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park is scheduled to close for the winter season on Tuesday, December 5.

ADOT doesn’t clear snow from SR 67 during the winter since North Rim visitor accommodations are closed. The highway reopens each spring, usually around mid-May. US 89A remains open during the winter.

ADOT reminds motorists heading into snow country to drive with caution and follow this advice:

  • Don’t let GPS and navigation apps replace common sense. When a highway is closed, a suggested alternate route involving an unpaved, unplowed road can lead you into danger.
  • Pack an emergency kit, a fully charged cellphone, extra clothing, water and snacks.
  • Slow down. Drive defensively. Be patient and allow additional time for your trip.
  • Never pass a snowplow.
  • Leave sufficient space between your vehicle and those ahead of you. Give yourself plenty of room and time to stop or to avoid hazards.
  • Make sure your vehicle has plenty of fuel.
  • Check weather and road conditions before you travel. Let someone know your route.
  • Bring a small bag of sand (or cat litter) for wheel traction.

Additional information on winter driving is available at azdot.gov/KnowSnow.

Before heading out on the roads, drivers can call 511 or visit ADOT’s Traveler Information Center at az511.gov tp get the latest highway conditions around the state. The website features camera images along state highways that give drivers a glimpse of weather conditions in various regions.

When a freeway closure or other major traffic event occurs, our free app available at ADOTAlerts.com will send critical information directly to app users in affected areas – where possible, in advance of alternate routes.

2017 wildlife photo contest winners announced

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PHOENIX — Sometimes things happen when you least expect them. “I came upon this brave cactus wren taking on the cholla cactus,” said Pamela Parker of Mesa, explaining how she got the winning shot of this year’s wildlife photo contest. “I loved how the wren was framed by all the needles and had to take the photo.” She kept a watchful eye, taking several shots and capturing the bird surrounded by the cactus.

Parker used a handheld camera because she likes to be “on the same level as my subjects.” She caught the photography bug in 2014 after receiving a camera as a gift from her husband. After taking a photography class, she started visiting local parks to practice her new obsession. When Parker took her first photos, she “stood in amazement and awe. I will never forget that feeling.”

More than 250 photographers entered this year’s wildlife photo competition. Thirteen winning images are published in a full-size 2018 wildlife calendar in the November–December 2017 issue of Arizona Wildlife Views magazine, which will be on sale for $3 starting this week at all Arizona Game and Fish Department offices.

In addition to Parker, the other 12 winning photographers are:

  • Greg Collins, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.: Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep
  • Timothy Cota, Mesa: brown vine snake
  • Joshua Esquivel, Sedona: rufous hummingbirds
  • Gary Michael Flanagan, Gilbert: great blue heron
  • Eric Heaton, Gilbert: bull elk and harem
  • Donal Hill, Flagstaff: Abert’s squirrel
  • Bryan Keil, Scottsdale: green heron
  • Peggy Kniffin, Chandler: burrowing owl
  • Bob Reisinger, Tempe: drake gadwall
  • Kathy Ritter, Happy Jack: white-tailed deer
  • Tam Ryan, Mesa: coyotes
  • Bruce D. Taubert, Glendale: American badger

Given the strength and diversity of this year’s 600-plus entries, the judges singled out 38 more images from 32 talented photographers for honorable mention. These photos also are featured in Arizona Wildlife Views magazine. The names of honorable mention photographers are posted on the photo contest’s Web page, www.azgfd.gov/photocontest.

Arizona Game and Fish welcomes new subscribers to Arizona’s award-winning magazine about wildlife and outdoor recreation. The regular price is $8.50 for six issues (one year), but through December 31, subscriptions are on sale for $7 for seven issues. They can be purchased online here.

Those who subscribe by December 31 will receive the calendar issue showing this year’s winners and honorable mentions.

Game and Fish Commission to meet December 1-2 in Phoenix

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PHOENIX – The next meeting of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission will be December 1-2, 2017, at the AZGFD headquarters at 5000 W. Carefree Highway in Phoenix. The public can attend in person, view the meeting on a webcast at https://livestream.com/azgameandfish, or (Friday only) watch the meeting on streaming video from any regional office statewide.

Those who wish to speak to the commission may submit “speaker cards” (blue cards) in person at the meeting or from any Game and Fish office (Friday only). The ability to speak to the commission is not available for those viewing the webcast.

The Friday, Deccember 1 portion of the meeting begins at 8 a.m. Among the items on Friday’s agenda are:

  • Consideration of a hunting and fishing license reciprocity memorandum of understanding with Nevada.
  • An update on state and federal legislation.
  • Consideration of a Notice of Final Expedited Rulemaking amending rules within Article 11 addressing aquatic invasive species.
  • Consideration of rulemaking recommendations for Article 3 regarding the taking and handling of wildlife.
  • Hearings on license revocations for violations of Game and Fish codes, and civil assessments for the illegal taking and/or possession of wildlife (time certain at 10 a.m.).
  • A briefing on recent bald eagle telemetry efforts to improve data gathering for management recommendations.
  • An update on department activities and involvement with resource management planning and other major actions on federal lands in Arizona.
  • Consideration of a new commercial public records request policy concerning the release of personal identifying information.
  • Request for acceptance of a perpetual access easement dedicated by the South Eastern Arizona Sportsmen Club to the department.

On Saturday, December 2, beginning at 8 a.m., the agenda includes:

  • Consideration of proposed Commission Orders 3 (pronghorn), 4 (elk) and 26 (population management) establishing seasons and season dates, bag and possession limits, permit numbers or authorized limits, and open areas for the 2018 and 2019 fall hunting seasons.
  • Consideration of the proposed hunt-permit tag application schedule for the antelope and elk 2018 hunts.

To view a copy of the full meeting agenda, visit www.azgfd.gov/commission and click on the “commission agenda” link.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission is a five-member, policy-setting board that oversees the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Governor’s Office of Highway Safety grant boosts ADOT crash-data gathering

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PHOENIX – A grant from the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is helping the Arizona Department of Transportation collect fuller and more accurate vehicle crash data that, in turn, will help transportation engineers, law enforcement and researchers examine trends and causes of fatalities and serious injuries.

The $389,520 grant provides critical financial support for ADOT’s Crash Records Unit, including annual licensing fees to use Traffic and Criminal Software (TraCS), a data collection and management tool. Through this grant money, ADOT provides access to TraCS to Arizona law enforcement agencies at no cost.

“TraCS is considered to be one of the best software platforms in the nation for managing electronic forms associated with traffic stops and crash reports,” ADOT Director John Halikowski said. “Support from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety and Director Alberto Gutier is invaluable to collecting crash data and identifying trends, helping make Arizona’s roads safer.”

ADOT is responsible under state law for compiling crash data and creating comprehensive reports that government agencies, nonprofit groups and other entities statewide use to improve traffic safety. That includes annual Arizona Motor Vehicle Crash Facts reports.

The Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is the focal point for highway safety issues in Arizona. The cabinet agency provides leadership by developing, promoting and coordinating programs; influencing public and private policy; and increasing public awareness of highway safety.

For more information about the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, please visit azgohs.gov.

For more information about ADOT, please visit azdot.gov.

Arizona launches Traffic Incident Management website for responders

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PHOENIX – A new website will help make traffic incident response more efficient and vehicle travel safer for motorists in Arizona.

Created by the Arizona Department of Transportation and Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Arizona Traffic Incident Management website – tim.az.gov – debuts this week with the goal of being the go-to resource for Arizona TIM responder training.
TIM freeway

“Effective Traffic Incident Management keeps the public safe, emergency responders safe and traffic moving,” said Derek Arnson, ADOT’s Traffic Management Group manager. “It’s important that everyone who responds to a traffic incident, from law enforcement to tow truck operators, are working together and following the same practices.”

Traffic Incident Management (TIM) is the coordinated practices, responsibilities and cooperation of emergency responders, which includes law enforcement, fire departments, medical services, transportation crews and tow truck operators, at traffic incidents. These coordinated efforts help keep crash victims and emergency responders safe, while restoring traffic flow.

A primary focus in building the website was to create a central location for all of Arizona’s incident responders to sign up for and receive TIM training.

While the website is geared toward emergency responders, tips for the public can be found there, too, including videos and infographics related to Arizona’s “Move Over” law, “Quick Clearance” and work-zone safety.

A plank road was once the way between Yuma and San Diego

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Arizonans think nothing of a quick weekend drive from Phoenix to San Diego’s beaches in about six hours. But a century ago, that trip could take the better part of two days across primitive roads and nearly impassable sand dunes.

Horses were more reliable for traversing sand dunes until enterprising road builders came up with a boardwalk for motorcars in 1915.

That’s right. Early adopters of horseless-carriage technology built a road of wooden planks across seven miles of sand west of Yuma in California. Arizona notably did not follow California down the path of building wooden roads.

The Plank Road and the Colorado River bridge at Yuma, completed in April 1915, were key steps forward for motorists traveling across the Southwest deserts in the early 20th century. Those advancements also were factors in competition between San Diego and Los Angeles to be the western terminus for a cross-country highway along a southern route.

The Colorado River State Historic Park in Yuma has a Plank Road display with a Model T automobile. There’s also a preserved section of the Plank Road at the Bureau of Land Management’s Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area south of Interstate 8 on the Gray’s Well Road about 12 miles west of Yuma. That’s where this Bureau of Land Management photo was taken.

Plank Road skeptics like civil engineer Joseph Lippincott, an Auto Club of Southern California consultant, pegged the wooden highway as “the most asinine thing he had ever heard of,” according to a San Diego Tribune report at the time.

But the road, despite its flaws, carried traffic for more than a decade until it was replaced in 1926 by an asphalt road that became US 80 and more recently Interstate 8.

One Yuma merchant praised the Plank Road. “It is no ride across the Sahara Desert, but rather a pleasure trip anyone can enjoy,” the man said, according to B. Johnny Rube in his 1996 book A Wooden Road Through the Hollow of God’s Hand.

Initially, the Plank Road was boards laid in parallel tracks to provide a path for adventurous drivers. In 1915, the California Highway Commission took over the Plank Road, installing 12-foot by 8-foot wooden sections on the dunes west of Yuma.

The knock on the one-lane Plank Road was that it forced drivers traveling in opposite directions to use pullouts every 1,000 feet to pass each other. Maintenance was a constant problem as horse-drawn scrapers were used to clear the sand, which damaged the planks and made for a rough ride. Sand drifted across the planks and drivers would “lose” the road and end up stuck in the sand. That created commerce for the Fort Yuma Quechan Indians whose horses served as the tow trucks of the era, pulling cars out of the sand and back onto the Plank Road, said Tina Clark, historian of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area.

The Plank Road was an extension of previous methods early motorists used to get through sand dunes and other difficult terrain.

In 1910, the National Highway Association employed a pathfinder named A.L. Westgard to explore cross-country routes from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles. He’s been described as the “Marco Polo of the Motor Age.”

While scouting a route called the Trail to Sunset , Westgard used rolls of canvas on the sand to get across the Yuma dunes. He later carried wooden planks on his vehicle to get across sand or mud flats, according Arizona Highways, published by the Arizona Department of Transportation.

ADOT and its plows are prepared for winter weather. Are you?

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PHOENIX – With winter on the horizon, the Arizona Department of Transportation has spent months preparing for snow and ice that storms will dump on the state’s higher elevations.

ADOT has 375 certified snowplow operators ready to operate the agency’s nearly 200 snowplows, which are stationed around the state to keep people and commerce moving when snow falls on highways.

Now it’s time for drivers to do their part, starting with following essential safety tips available at azdot.gov/KnowSnow to prepare themselves and their vehicles for winter travel. That includes slowing down, leaving extra room behind the next vehicle, taking along warm clothing, blankets, food and water, and packing an emergency kit.

Your preparations should include staying apprised of weather conditions and being ready to postpone travel so ADOT’s snowplows can clear roadways. A highway takes much longer to plow when it’s jammed with vehicles that had no business traveling on a roadway that’s slick with snow and ice. That happened last Christmas Eve, when a powerful storm dropped inches of snow per hour, closing a long stretch of Interstate 40 in a tangle of crashes and stranded vehicles that took many hours to clear.

A snowplow can’t clear a highway if it’s pulled out of service when another vehicle hits it. That happened several times last winter, fortunately without significant injures. Every vehicle, from semis to passenger cars, needs to give snowplows room to work – a minimum of four vehicle lengths to allow room to stop.

Avoid passing a snowplow that’s clearing a highway until the driver pulls over to let traffic pass. Never assume a snowplow operator knows your vehicle is nearby. If you can’t see the plow driver, there’s a good chance the driver can’t see you.

Always remember: The safest place on a highway when it’s snowing is behind a snowplow.

Heading to sled and throw snowballs? Do that in designated areas away from highways, not parked on shoulders, which are for emergencies only. Parking on a highway shoulder to play in the snow distracts other drivers and can interfere with first responders who may need to use the shoulder. If that isn’t reason enough, keep in mind that a snowplow can hurl large amounts of snow and ice well away from a highway.

ADOT recently installed signs along a stretch of US 180 northwest of Flagstaff reminding drivers that parking on the shoulder is for emergencies only.

Those heading to popular snow-play areas should be prepared to spend extended time in winter conditions, as traffic at day’s end is often heavy on highways including US 180 toward Flagstaff. In addition, highways can have extended closures from crashes and weather conditions.

Prepare for trips by visiting the ADOT Know Snow website (azdot.gov/KnowSnow), which has tips on making sure your vehicle is ready for winter driving, driving safely on highways with snow and ice, driving safely while snowplows work and packing supplies in case a vehicle becomes stranded. For example, a little cat litter or sand will provide traction if a vehicle becomes stuck along the roadway.

Before heading out, drivers can call 511 or visit ADOT’s Arizona Traveler Information site at az511.gov for the latest highway conditions. The website features real-time images along state highways that give drivers a glimpse of weather in various regions. ADOT’s Twitter account (@ArizonaDOT) and Facebook page (facebook.com/AZDOT) are sources of real-time information and interaction.

When a freeway closure or other major traffic event occurs, ADOT’s free app available at ADOTAlerts.com will send critical information directly to app users in affected areas – where possible, in advance of alternate routes.

Hunters get second shot at doves beginning Friday

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PHOENIX – Arizona dove hunters will be able to double their wing-shooting pleasure when the state’s “second” season begins Friday, November 24.

Unlike the 15-day season that begins September 1, the late season lasts 45 days and runs through January 7, 2018. There still is a 15-bird daily bag limit, all of which must be mourning doves. The possession limit remains 45 mourning doves after opening day, of which no more than 15 may be taken in any one day. As always, there is an unlimited daily bag and possession limit for the invasive Eurasian collared-dove.

Here are a few things to remember to make the most of the upcoming season:

A license for youth hunters ages 10 to 17 is only $5. Children 9 and under do not need a license when accompanied by a licensed adult (two children per adult). Licenses can be purchased from any license dealer, regional department office or online at https://license.azgfd.gov/home.xhtml. NOTE: All department offices will be closed Thursday, November 23, in observance of Thanksgiving. All offices will reopen 8 a.m. Friday, November 24.
Hunters 18 and older must purchase an Arizona migratory bird stamp for $5 from any license dealer, regional department office or online at https://license.azgfd.gov/home.xhtml.
Shooting hours are 30 minutes before legal sunrise until legal sunset. On opening day in the Phoenix area, legal sunrise will be 7:08 a.m. Figure up to nine minutes earlier for eastern areas and nine minutes later for western areas.
One fully feathered wing must remain attached to each harvested dove until it reaches the hunter’s home.
Keep in mind that dove hunters are responsible for cleaning up after themselves. Shell casings (shotgun hulls) and associated debris constitute litter and must be picked up and packed out. Littering while hunting or fishing are revocable violations, and a conviction can result in the loss of hunting privileges for up to five years.
For everything “dove,” visit https://www.azgfd.com/hunting/species/smallgame/mourningdove.

Dove hunters play an important role in conservation. Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR) funds are comprised of excise taxes collected on the sale of hunting and fishing equipment (including 11 percent on ammunition), the benefit of which comes right back to Arizona for habitat improvements, shooting ranges, boating access and more.

Here’s a fishing license deal ​​​​​​​you’ll want to gobble up

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PHOENIX — Happy Thanksgiving from the Arizona Game and Fish family to yours! At AZGFD, we are grateful for many things – especially you. Thank you for making Arizona’s outdoor heritage a part of your life.

To express our appreciation, between now and December 1, 2017, we’re offering a 25% discount on Arizona adult general fishing licenses and community fishing licenses purchased online. And as always, youth licenses (for ages 10-17) are only $5.

This is a great time of year to get outdoors, enjoy Arizona’s spectacular weather and scenery, and spend quality time fishing with family, friends and out-of-town visitors. Invite them to experience their own Arizona outdoor adventure!

Thank you for your loyalty, and may the upcoming holiday season be filled with happiness, BIG fish, and lots of outdoor memories.

FISHING LICENSES
General Fishing: Valid for take of all fish species statewide, including at Community Fishing waters.
Available to Residents and Non-residents Resident $37 Non-Resident $55
Community Fishing: Allows take of all fish species at Community Fishing waters.
Available to Residents and Non-residents Resident $24 Non-Resident $24

COMBINATION HUNTING AND FISHING LICENSES Resident $57 Non-Resident $160
Hunt/Fish Combo: Valid for take of all fish species statewide (including at Community Fishing waters), small game, fur-bearing animals, predatory animals, certain nongame animals, and upland game birds. A valid tag or stamp is required for the take of big game animals and migratory game birds. Using this license to hunt big game requires a permit-tag (obtained through the big game drawing), or a nonpermit-tag (obtained at any Game and Fish office or at a Game and Fish authorized license dealer).