Photo Credit = Todd Newport

Welcome to the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Kofa National Wildlife Refuge wildlife management webpages. The primary purpose of these webpages is to provide information about the Department’s efforts (in conjunction with its U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partner) to restore and sustain the desert bighorn sheep herd residing in the Kofa Mountains Complex.

The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is the critical center of the Kofa Mountains Complex bighorn population and represents both a unique wildlife resource and a significant long-term wildlife management challenge to which the Department is committed for the long haul.

Wildlife are the birthright and property of all of Arizona’s citizens. It is Arizona Game and Fish Department’s mandate and responsibility to actively manage that resource so as to ensure future generations of Arizonans are able to enjoy the full richness of the natural heritage with which this state has been blessed.

Most of what you find here represents the results of the coordinated efforts of the Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but the site also reflects the fact that the Department’s responsibilities, and the complex herd dynamics of the bighorn population, extend far beyond the boundaries of the refuge.

It is our hope that those visiting this site will find it an informative source of current information and a useful repository of reference materials specific to the Kofa. Equally, it is our hope that you will help us populate the site with photos, questions, and comments. All Web sites are a work in progress, and this one is no exception. It will become more useful the more it is used and the more its users take the time to critique and suggest.

We are the Arizona Game and Fish Department. We are unabashed advocates for wildlife, the sportsmen and women who cherish it, and those who simply take pleasure in its appreciation. We see these as mutually interdependent values and, while the various wildlife interest groups and individuals present differing perspectives, we are committed to maintaining healthy wildlife populations and building bridges between these values.