State Senator Frank Antenori Delivers Results for Hunters and Sportsmen

“All in all, this is truly a positive step for all of us to better enjoy and participate in Arizona’s outdoor heritage and our Southwestern birthright.”—Gary Hovatter, Deputy Director Arizona Game and Fish Department.

The first benefits of SB 1334, sponsored by state Senator Frank Antenori, are being realized.

The new law takes effect on July 20^th and brings safe hunting opportunities to a greater number of Arizonans by allowing hunting on open uninhabited lands within municipal boundaries as determined by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission.  Antenori said “I sponsored this bill to eliminate the confusion of where sportsmen can safely and legally hunt.”  He added “Arizona’s municipal boundaries have grown significantly and this bill was enacted to ensure that uninhabited areas continue to be open for hunting subject to the Game and Fish Commission.”

This law goes into effect just as the 2011 Dove Hunts are set.  According to Game and Fish Deputy Director Gary Hovatter, “Many of those areas of undeveloped public land that will become open to hunting once this new law takes effect July 20, were the subject of past municipal annexations reaching far out into open and mostly uninhabited lands. An unintended consequence of such annexations was the impacts to hunting,”

There is a newsletter from the Arizona Game and Fish Department attached at this link if you would like to read more about the new law.  [Link to PDF of the newsletter here]