Delivering Water to the Backcountry Isn’t Cheap
Maintaining these catchments is not cheap, requiring thousands of dollars to operate trucks and trailers hauling water to wildlife every day. Many of the catchments are so remote that trucks can’t reach them, and they instead require helicopters to fill them. In an average year, it costs AZGFD $250,000 in helicopter fees alone to maintain the catchments, which can hold anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 gallons of water. Last year, AZGFD spent $500,000 on helicopters alone. In 2018, the total budget for the catchment program was $690,000. (Neither the catchment program nor the AZGFD itself gets tax dollars, but is funded by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and donations.)
