Local Sportsmen’s Group Grant Program

The Local Sportsmen’s Group Grant Program, established by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission in 2007, aims to support local sportsmen’s groups focused on wildlife conservation. This initiative fosters collaboration between these groups and the Arizona Game and Fish Department, preserving outdoor recreational traditions and ensuring sustainable funding for wildlife management. With $75,000 available, the program exemplifies a user-pay model that does not utilize state taxpayer funds, promoting active participation in conservation efforts across Arizona.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission (Commission) created the annual Local Sportsmen’s Group (LSG) Grants Program in 2007 to assist and support local sportsmen’s groups dedicated to wildlife conservation. Through this program, local sportsmen’s groups and the Arizona Game and Fish Department (Department) are working together to preserve traditional outdoor recreational activities and continue the current funding model for wildlife management and conservation through the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (NAMWC), which is primarily funded by the sale of licenses and tags in Arizona and nationally. The program is a response to declines in hunting, angling, trapping, and shooting participation nationally.
The LSG Grant program is an element of the Department’s strategy for addressing recruitment, retention, reactivation (R3) and preserving these traditions (hunting, angling, shooting, & trapping – HAST). Local sportsmen’s groups have played a meaningful role in wildlife conservation, including their role in eliminating market hunting (self-regulation) at the end of the 19th Century, and in the 1930s for dedicated funding from Congress for research and wildlife management programs for state wildlife agencies through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Act.
There is no cost to Arizona taxpayers for this grant program. The Arizona Game and Fish Department does not receive any of the state’s general funds, and operates on a user-pay, public-benefit model. The Local Sportsmen’s Group Grant Program is funded from the sale of licenses and is an investment in the continuance of wildlife conservation efforts and outdoor recreation participation in the state of Arizona.