State Wildlife Action Plan

Arizona's Diverse Lands, Waters, and Wildlife

Known for its stately Saguaro cacti and the magnificent Grand Canyon, Arizona provides a variety of habitats ranging from near-sea-level deserts to high alpine tundra. The state ranks third in the nation for the number of native bird species, second for reptiles, fifth for mammals, and eighth in the nation for overall vertebrate diversity.

Arizona's Planning Approach

The Arizona wildlife action plan is built on the premise that the most effective way to conserve rare, declining, and common wildlife is to restore and conserve healthy areas to live. Consequently, the action plan focuses on habitat types, such as desert scrub, grasslands, forests, woodlands, and aquatic and riparian systems.

Primary Challenges to Arizona's Wildlife

Arizona's action plan identifies 70 priority stressors that operate in one or more of the habitat types in each region of the state. Many of these stressors are related to four statewide phenomena: a rapidly increasing human population, changes to water storage and delivery systems in the Southwest, alteration of communities by invasive nonnative, and the ongoing drought and warming trend.

• Download the Arizona Wildlife Action Plan

  (via AZ GFD)
• Summary of Arizona Wildlife Action Plan (.pdf, 253 KB)
• Arizona Game and Fish Department Wildlife Action Plan Web Site