Arizona Game and Fish Commission will have a meeting on Friday April 14th and Saturday April 15th, beginning at 8am at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #2 located at 12851 N. 19th Avenue in Phoenix. If you have your taxes done, please take the time to attend the meeting on Saturday and support a seasonal ban on recreational shooting of Gunnison's Prairie Dogs, found in northern Arizona. One of the colonies near Williams is where the black-footed ferrets have been reintroduced...and where unlimited shooting continues. The issue of concern is agenda item #2,"Hearing on Proposed Commission Orders 11-18 for 2000-2001 Hunting Season" which will establish seasons, bag limits, etc. for various animals. If you are busy with taxes, please send a short letter or email to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, 2221 W. Greenway Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85023-4399. You can fax letters to (602) 789-3299 or email them to all Commissioners c/o [log in to unmask] Prairie dogs are key to the health of many ecosystems including short and mixed-grass communities. Without prairie dogs, the biodiversity of these grassland areas is significantly threatened. Where prairie dogs occur there is greater plant diversity, higher numbers of small mammals and predators such as ferrets, badgers, and foxes, as well as greater bird species diversity and abundance. Unregulated recreational shooting appears to pose an increasing threat to the prairie dogs (and associated species) and until we know more, it seems logical that we should be conservative with the management of prairie dogs, especially in light of their reduced numbers. The Commission should act now to place some limits on the recreational shooting, and at a minimum these animals should be allowed a period during the year when they can rebound from hunting and maintain their numbers. Please ask the Commission to act now to establish a seasonal ban on shooting of prairie dogs between April 1 and June 30 when they are raising their young. A season is especially critical in the Aubrey Valley where the Game and Fish Department is working with others on re-introduction of Black-footed ferrets. You might also mention something about wasted game, as most prairie dogs that are shot are left in the field. You may also want to insist on the Commission imposing a low bag limit (the number of animals that shooters can have in possession). Though many may not agree with hunting at all, by providing a "season and bag limits" on Gunnison's Prairie Dogs, at least some protection would be given to them outside the shooting season, and a low bag and possession limit would ensure that sitting on ones ass shooting them from afar is not an all day affair, and it would eliminate contests that revolve around seeing who can splatter the most prairie dogs....if it were enforced. If the Commission sets such a rule, the Department personnel are duty-bound to enforce it. For those of you who do not abide hunting, please also write a letter saying why. The Commission needs to recognize your concerns. Thanks to Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club for putting out this alert, although I have taken the liberty of embellishing it with more WDR ideas. And thanks to you all who can come to the meeting or write the Commission. Nancy Zierenberg, Wildlife Damage Review [log in to unmask] For more information on Arizona legislation go to the web page http://www.azleg.state.az.us. If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your legislator's office toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 542-3559 (Senate) or (602) 542-4221 (House). Correspondence goes to 1700 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890. To email legislators use first initial + 7 letters of [log in to unmask] --- end forwarded text -- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Rex L. Bavousett Photographer University of Iowa Our old name: University Relations - Publications Our new name: University Communications & Outreach - Publications 100 OPL, Iowa City, IA 52242 http://www.uiowa.edu/~urpubs/ mailto:[log in to unmask] voice: 319 384-0053 fax: 319 384-0055 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]