The Arizona Senate has an opportunity to support deer hunters throughout Arizona as they consider the latest 2026 bills. One of the bills, HB2147, fundamentally alters the way that deer hunting works in the Grand Canyon State by creating landowner deer tags. It removes opportunity from hunters, takes Arizonans’ resources away from the public trust, commercializes wild game resources, and removes strong science from the management of wildlife. As a deer hunter, I strongly oppose HB2147, and I urge the Arizona Senate to reject this bill. 

This bill presents a statewide problem for Arizonans. Arizonans are especially enthusiastic deer hunters with more than 37,000 licenses issued annually. The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) manages this enthusiasm well with their current deer hunting licensing system. The AZGFD follows the ideals of the North American Wildlife Conservation model to balance hunting, deer population, and environmental protection. Four pillars of the model are important for this bill.

First, hunting opportunities should be available to all Arizonans as equally as possible. Next, wild game resources should not be unregulated commercialized commodities. Third, all wildlife in Arizona is held in the public trust; that is, Arizonans collectively own wild game resources that AZGFD manages on behalf of the public. Finally, wildlife science and scientists should guide wildlife policy decisions. HB2147 contradicts these vital wildlife principles.

AZGFD uses a lottery system to determine who gets to hunt. Hunters enter the lottery, hoping that AZGFD draws their name and issues a “tag.” The tag allows the hunter an opportunity to harvest an animal. Last year the Arizona Game and Fish Department issued 37,050 total deer tags in drawings. Exactly 113,112 applicants entered the lottery system for tags, about three entrants per available tag. Not everyone gets a tag, but everyone has an equal chance. 

HB 2147 radically changes this model by issuing a new form of tag. These tags, which the bill calls “landowner permits,” would allow landowners to apply for tag holders to harvest deer on private lands they own for depredation and “sporting purposes.” If adopted, this would place Arizonans in a bad position. 

Arizonans who rent or own deerless land wouldn’t get these tags.  This bill favors a small fraction of privileged Arizonans at the cost of Arizonans who – like me – live in cities and hunt in the wilderness. That’s not fair and doesn’t provide equal opportunity for all Arizonans. To source these new tags, AZGFD would have to reduce the number of tags available via the public lottery system. Making a new kind of tag doesn’t make more deer. Any landowner tags issued would steal opportunity from the landless or deerless. 

Even more troubling, though, is how this could commercialize deer hunting in our state. One of the greatest benefits to our current system is that it presents deer hunting as an egalitarian, “everyone has a shot” way to fill a freezer with affordable meat. All hunters have the same basic cost to hunt deer – $58 for in-state residents. That money goes directly to support Arizona conservation. 

HB 2147 could turn this system on its head. In other states with landowner tags, large landowners sell them to the highest bidder, sometimes for thousands of dollars. One example is New Mexico’s EPLUS program, which allows these authorizations to be “bartered, sold, or traded to hunters.” This money makes the wealthy wealthier instead of helping conservation. This bill creates a slippery slope that could end up leading to the same result in Arizona. Landowners remove a resource from the public trust without reimbursing the public for the resource’s value.

The basic idea of HB2147 is bad in another, more fundamental way. The legislature is the wrong place for a discussion of deer tag management. Legislators, by and large, are not wildlife scientists or biologists. AZGFD manages tags in Arizona by existing law. They remain the correct agency to manage the issue of any and all deer tags. 

Ignoring the North American Model of Conservation creates bad wildlife management policy. HB2147 violates four of the tenets of that model. Making landowner tags a requirement would create an unfair opportunity for landowners, commercialize wildlife at the public’s expense, and sell publicly held deer to the highest bidder without compensation. This isn’t a sound way to regulate deer in Arizona. The Arizona Senate should reject HB2147 to keep the system working and fair. 

Leland Hart is a hunter, conservationist and resident of Sierra Vista, Arizona.