Title: What is the Point of Arizona’s Trail Camera Ban? 

My take: This is over simplified but I feel that AZGFD should place a season on trail cameras from Aug 10th – Nov 27th  on all trail cameras directly placed on or trails leading to (250 yds away or more)  water sources and allow trail cameras everywhere else like pinch points, travel corridors, saddles etc. The main we are having is a people problem in the high profile hunting areas 13a&b, 9 etc. and the main issue is that guys are checking cameras without regard for fellow hunters who may be sitting that water. The guys running cameras in the south desert units are not having these issues and the guys running cameras off water sources are not having these issues.  Don’t punish the whole state for these albeit high profile but isolated areas.  We can solve this issue with a compromise that both benefits the hunter and the animals. 

Show Notes:

If a sportsman doesn’t understand a rule, then they’re not going to follow it, says Kip Adams from the National Deer Association. We sit down and talk about the different ways hunters and wildlife biologists use trail cameras, and how the Arizona trail camera ban addresses both a social and a scientific problem. What I really want to know is: Is it really going to make a positive difference on wildlife conservation?

I didn’t get serious about using a trail camera until the early 2000s, but I just mostly used them for scouting and inventory. I wanted to see what was out there. There are already rules regarding Will Call Hunting, which says that you can’t run dogs and tree a lion, and then go get a client to come shoot the lion. But in the spirit of Fair Chase, do trail cameras give an unfair advantage to hunters?

There are at least five other states that have restrictions on trail cameras too. Kip gives me an outside perspective on how other states are dealing with cell phone pictures and cameras. My concern is that if every hunting issue is dealt with state by state, hunters’ rights will be chipped away in every state because we won’t see the bigger picture. We’ll think that turkey hunting in Wyoming doesn’t have anything to do with us.

What’s Inside:

• 3 out of 4 hunters are hunting some species of deer, but they’re not working together on deer-related policy issues.

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Short Description:

For an outsider’s perspective on the Arizona trail camera ban, I talked to Kip Adams from Pennsylvania. With a background in wildlife biology, and as an avid hunter himself, Kip understands both hunters’ frustration with this ban and the concern of conservationists. 

Tags:

Ethics and hunting, will calling hunting, trail cameras in hunting, ethics of hunting, spirit of fair chase, deer hunting, hunting and conservation, trail camera ban