Tim Provan - for the past five years the director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources - resigned today. In an interview with the Deseret News, Provan listed two reasons for the resignation: After five years the job has worn him down; and after five years he's lost his effectiveness.
www.deseret.com
"Provan will not leave the agency but will filter down into what will likely be a management position. He will the the third director to leave the politically volatile post in the past 10 years.
Douglas Day was fired by then-Gov. Scott Matheson in April of 1984. Then in 1988, Bill Geer was fired by then-Gov. Norm Bangerter."
So let's hear the story Lumpy.
This is unedited and I’m too lazy to proof read it. Also, I’ll leave it up to you to figure out how and why Central Utah caused Utah to hate anter restriction regulation since 1984.
In 1982 Utah sportsman killed 82,000 buck mule deer. In 1983 the DWR published its data report, the buck to doe ratios for the Central Utah Units reported a ratio average of 4 buck per hundred doe with some areas count as low a 2 buck per hundred. As controversial as it was, the Central Utah BLM and US Forest Service biologists where conducting their own counts. This angered the DWR because the DWR believed the Federal Agencies were infringing on their State’s rights. While the Feds never published their counts, they claimed their data showed similar numbers or worse. It was actually the Federal biologists and their supervisors that alarmed the sportsman and caused the Central Utah sportsmen to demand change. Over 600 hunters showed up at Monroe High School’s gymnasium. ( Remember over 200,000 hunters bought deer tags during these years. Deer hunting was a huge event every year and of hyper active interest, so in those days sportsmen attended anything mule deer hunting related in large After over three hours of heated discussion Dwight Bunnell, the Big Game Department Manager, a true gentleman, came to the podium and made this state. “The Utah Department of Wildlife Resources will manage it mule deer herd anyway the sportsmen of this State want us to, but please know and understand this, there are trade-offs for anything we do, and you should know what those trade-offs are before you decide if that’s what you want.”
After that meeting local sportsmen, belonging to the The Utah Wildlife Federation ( the States most influential outdoors group, prior to the advent of the Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife) began to collect data from sportsman regarding how the States sportsmen/hunter wanted mule deer managed. Lots of coffee shop discussions as well as State and Federal meetings and interaction where was spontaneously held. During the months prior to the 1983 Wildlife Board hearing to establish the regulations and the seasons for the 1984 deer hunt, I got a phone call from DWR Director Doug Day. He asked if we could talk about the direction the sportsmen were beginning to lean regarding mule deer management.
A few weeks previous to his call, a respected sportsman here in Central Utah had published in the local newspaper, a list of approximately 15 things that could be put in place by either the Utah DWR (Utah Big Game Board and/or the BLM and/or the USFS ( These three, as a group. were then known as the Utah Interagency Committee). The newspaper article asked that anyone interested to list their choices of things to be done, in order of preference and mail the article to the local chapter President of the Utah Wildlife Federation Clubs. Among those questions were choices like: Seasonal road closures, Shorter hunting seasons, Antler restriction seasons, Changing current season dates, Habitat improvements, Antlerless harvest restrictions, Closing all archery hunts, Closing all any weapon hunts, Shutting all seasons down on some units for three to five years or longer….depending on mule deer reaction to the closures. There were other question that don’t come to mind anymore. At the end of the list sportsmen were asked add any comments they wished to share.
Hundreds of people responded. Sportsmen outside of Central Utah cut the article out of the paper and began placing copies in sporting goods stores across the entire State and soon responses were getting mailed in from every corner of the State.
About a week after the article was published, I got a phone call from Director Doug Day. By this time he and I were on a first name bases. I can’t say we were best buds, but there was mutual respect between us by then. We visited about the current state of mule deer affairs for a few minutes but I could tell this was not a social call. Eventually the newspaper article survey came up. We discussed the volume of responses and one of us, I don’t recall which one of us said, “Let’s talk about Dwight Bunnell’s statement regarding the DWR doing anything the sportsmen wanted, as long as the sportsmen understood what the trade offs were going to be.” The Director proceeded to enlarge on the statement. In a way he was empathetic to hunters concerns. I became to get the sense that he might be becoming open to supporting making some changes to mule deer management, based on the State wide hunters reaction and response to the survey that was coming out of this small, insignificant, community in Central Utah.
Eventually he said what he had really called to say……… “DeLoss, I am going to make this perfectly clear. Here is what I need you guys to know and understand. As Director of this agency I have a heavy responsibility, both to sportsmen, wildlife and the men and women who work for this agency and I am absolutely loyal to both my job duties and equally loyal to the people who work here. To the best of my ability I will protect the lively hoods these families, their husbands, wives and children. If sportsmen push me and this agency to make changes the have a negative monetary impact on this Department, that would require me to put any one of them, out of a job, or prevent us from equipping the Department according to its needs, I will aggressively oppose it”. He asked, “Do you understand that.” I said, “Yes Sir, Director Day. I understand, I appreciate that, and to the best of my ability I will try to make certain that we never ask you to do that. It is not nor ever had been our desire to harm anyone in the Agency, our only goal to protect our mule deer and protect our hunting traditions. I promise I will do all I can to hold to those objectives.”