Attend or watch tomorrow's Wildlife Board meeting

A

Amy

Active Member
Messages
263
The Utah Wildlife Board is meeting tomorrow (Thursday, Dec. 1) at 9 a.m., and there's a lot on the agenda, including proposed changes to the statewide elk management plan and the recommended big game hunts and season dates for 2023-24.

If you're interested, you can watch the meeting online or attend in person. (It will be held at the Eccles Wildlife Education Center, located at 1157 South Waterfowl Way in Farmington.)
 
This WB is a complete wild card - eliminating the multi-season elk tag on any bull units without any public input is pretty jacked up.

eliminating the Paunsaugunt archery any bull hunt is a head scratcher as well. The unit literally has the most turned back tags of any hunt - open it to any bull and kill the elk. It will help the deer herd there as well, so why not let the killing of elk happen?!?!?
 
elkhunterUT said:
This WB is a complete wild card - eliminating the multi-season elk tag on any bull units without any public input is pretty jacked up.

eliminating the Paunsaugunt archery any bull hunt is a head scratcher as well. The unit literally has the most turned back tags of any hunt - open it to any bull and kill the elk. It will help the deer herd there as well, so why not let the killing of elk happen?!?!?
Click to expand...
Oh they'll get killed by gun hunters, it will be general to muzzy and rifle. Complete removal of the LE archery elk, and not added for the archery general hunt.
 
Bigwiffy said:
Oh they'll get killed by gun hunters, it will be general to muzzy and rifle. Complete removal of the LE archery elk, and not added for the archery general hunt.
Click to expand...
I didn't phrase that well - I agree with you completely. The elk are going to get killed by general muzzy and rifle hunters. Why remove archers completely if the objective is to kill elk? Spread the chance across all weapon types.
 
Poor Dax has been through the ringer with all these RACS and the Elk committee.

0FA801E7-7C8A-48F8-BF8A-3300A0AC5DFE.jpeg
 
elkhunterUT said:
I didn't phrase that well - I agree with you completely. The elk are going to get killed by general muzzy and rifle hunters. Why remove archers completely if the objective is to kill elk? Spread the chance across all weapon types.
Click to expand...
Reasoning was the conflict with archery deer hunters that have waited years to draw their Pauns archery deer tag, which I understand. But to completely remove the archery bull hunt is asinine.
 
Bigwiffy said:
Reasoning was the conflict with archery deer hunters that have waited years to draw their Pauns archery deer tag, which I understand. But to completely remove the archery bull hunt is asinine.
Click to expand...
That reasoning is complete BS and opens pandora's box for other similar situations (e.g., what about guys that wait years to draw their LE muzzy elk tag, but have to contend with general season muzzy deer hunters?)
 
They're only proposing to eliminate it for a couple years. The motion says they'll revisit it once the anticipated crush of general hunters has subsided.
 
I missed the meeting today….

Can I still shoot a dam cow on a spike general archery tag? Or do I need to buy a cow tag now?
 
Assuming they passed moving limited entry rifle elk from 9 to 5 days then? Thought I caught the tail end of that but wasn’t sure if that was approved!
 
How did the split season go on the any bull rifle. Is there a cap on the second season or is it unlimited?
 
The wildlife board ignores the DWR and public's recommendations way too often and just does what it wants. A couple things passed that hadn't even been brought up as issues in local meetings or input. The RAC meetings and DWR are the ones who should be crafting the decisions not a panel of individuals who don't listen to anyone but themselves. The wildlife board members shouldn't be able to simply take whatever their personal want that wasn't ever even discussed publicly and craft it into a proposal on the spot. The DWR and the RAC's and committee came up with a good plan that should have largely been left completely alone.
 
It's absurd how the Any bull multi-season tag went from "we don't want them hunting both rifle hunts" to 30 seconds later "eliminate it all together" Even though the public.....DWR.....no public comments, etc. had mentioned that in the slightest. And just like that they just poof.....did whatever the hell they wanted.
 
Bigwiffy said:
I motion to dissolve the wildlife board, can I get a second?
Click to expand...
2nd........local RAC's and the DWR crafted a good plan that balanced everything in the best way they could. This elk plan is one of the best plans and processes I've seen the DWR do, and to watch a handful of individuals just do what they wanted was just gross.
 
Oneye said:
2nd........local RAC's and the DWR crafted a good plan that balanced everything in the best way they could. This elk plan is one of the best plans and processes I've seen the DWR do, and to watch a handful of individuals just do what they wanted was just gross.
Click to expand...
I watched every RAC meeting and am absolutely astounded at how little most of the RAC people know about the stuff they are voting on. I definitely would not want them deciding the fate of hunting in the state.

I've not had a chance to watch today's meeting so I'm not going to comment on that at this time.
 
ridgetops said:
How did the split season go on the any bull rifle. Is there a cap on the second season or is it unlimited?
Click to expand...
There was quite a bit of discussion on it. They also discussed implementing a point restriction, but I want to say they left it unlimited until they revisit it in two years.....don't quote me on that though.
 
Bigwiffy said:
There was quite a bit of discussion on it. They also discussed implementing a point restriction, but I want to say they left it unlimited until they revisit it in two years.....don't quote me on that though.
Click to expand...
That is my recollection as well - some board members mentioned that putting a permit quota in place causes an unintended "Fear of missing out" so more people actually purchase tags in that scenario vs. an "unlimited" scenario. Will be interesting to see what really happens.?‍♂️
 
JakeH said:
I watched every RAC meeting and am absolutely astounded at how little most of the RAC people know about the stuff they are voting on. I definitely would not want them deciding the fate of hunting in the state.

I've not had a chance to watch today's meeting so I'm not going to comment on that at this time.
Click to expand...
So I would agree, but that's the public input part. The DWR does the majority of proposals and the outline of the plan with the committee. It makes no sense to then let the Wildlife Board come in and just ignore/disregard the public input, and the work the DWR and committee did. But then we watched the board bold face hand SFW the expo permits for 10 years when they were offering 25% less money to go directly back to wildlife than the other group bidding and tell the public you're welcome......so is it surprising our local wildlife dictator board does whatever it wants? Not really.
 
Last edited:
I thought that the board’s conjecture on point creep issue and the proposed archery cow tag was totally BS. They state without any evidence that archery hunters would not buy the cow tags, as if this was a fact. They also seemed to imply that they could only sell 600 tags or so, because the archery hunters only harvest about 600 bulls, which is bogus logic. It is bothersome to watch three or four people carve up a well-conceived management plan in 10 minutes, based on their own flimsy conjecture. This was a legitimate idea to try and reduce point creep on cow tags.
 
Another issue I have is the whining about a 10 year plan. Like.....you're going to "review" it in 3 years? Wildlife management is such a longer term game than having to look at things every other year and change a bunch of things. 10 years is reasonable and gives a plan a chance to give results and work. And as Division employees stated if there were a really pressing issue they can bring it to the board as a proposal immediately. We don't need the boards input that often.
 
gundog2 said:
I thought that the board’s conjecture on point creep issue and the proposed archery cow tag was totally BS. They state without any evidence that archery hunters would not buy the cow tags, as if this was a fact. They also seemed to imply that they could only sell 600 tags or so, because the archery hunters only harvest about 600 bulls, which is bogus logic. It is bothersome to watch three or four people carve up a well-conceived management plan in 10 minutes, based on their own flimsy conjecture. This was a legitimate idea to try and reduce point creep on cow tags.
Click to expand...
I enjoy archery cow hunting. I'd buy a multi-season spike tag and a cow tag and throw my cow points away. That whole conversation is ridiculous. Average wait time for a cow tag is 5 years? If you can cut a year off it and get some people out of the point system do it.
 
One piece I missed was if they are going to go ahead with the late season LE archery elk hunts? Was that discussed, or was that already passed?
 
The entire elk plan was accepted with the following changes:

- no general season archery elk hunt on the Paunz
- no more multi season general any bull tags
- general archery elk stays as an either sex tag
- a 1 year pause on opening up the deep creeks to a general unit to give time for more discussion with the local tribe out there

They will review trends in 3 years to see how the changes are working.

I was surprised these were the only major things the WB changed up on the elk plan recommendations, TBH
 
Anybody else having a problem accessing the video. I'm getting a 401 error. I caught parts but missed others.
Hard to follow but if it wasn't brought up in the the RAC or comments it pretty much passed as presented.
 
I was telling my kids on the way home from getting them from school how they won't be able to get a 3 season tag now and how that came about in the meeting. Then I complained how someone was driving like crap. One of my kids said "it's probably one of the wildlife board members." Now whenever someone does something stupid, the comment is "probably a wildlife board member." lol
 
Vanilla said:
A wise man once said, “I could explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.”

Good luck, wiffy!
Click to expand...
Thank you Niller. Good luck oh wise one. May your bullets fly true at lovesick, rut crazed bull elk. May the two point you shoot stand still long enough for you to hammer with your long range rifle......a wise man once said "we're not worthy, we're not worthy"

Screenshot_20221202_084200.jpg
 
Elkslayer said:
I'm surprised by the small amount of people that sent comments into the division. Seems people would rather complain instead of taking a few minutes to send an email or survey.
Click to expand...
A wise man once said....."you think it really matters Eddie?"
 
Bigwiffy said:
A wise man once said....."you think it really matters Eddie?"
Click to expand...
It might not, but people need to voice their opinions regardless.
There wasn't many archery guys speaking up either. I don't know if the archery community is pushing hard enough or just getting ignored and pushed aside? More tags need to be moved to archers.
 
Elkslayer said:
It might not, but people need to voice their opinions regardless.
There wasn't many archery guys speaking up either. I don't know if the archery community is pushing hard enough or just getting ignored and pushed aside? More tags need to be moved to archers.
Click to expand...
I agree with you on that.
 
Elkslayer said:
It might not, but people need to voice their opinions regardless.
There wasn't many archery guys speaking up either. I don't know if the archery community is pushing hard enough or just getting ignored and pushed aside? More tags need to be moved to archers.
Click to expand...
Go watch the RACs and past WB meetings. There’s many members that are very anti archery opportunity. They don’t believe a specific weapon type should be catered to… yet moments later start defending the LE rifle rut elk hunts. They’ve made it very clear archers have had more than their fair share of specialized opportunities. I’m shocked we still have what we do, but I am certain it will be ending in the future. That Brock clown at the central RAC wants the OIL archery hunts eliminated all together and the tags thrown back into the ALW pools.
 
Shiras said:
They don’t believe a specific weapon type should be catered to…
Click to expand...
They are correct.

Shiras said:
They’ve made it very clear archers have had more than their fair share of specialized opportunities.
Click to expand...

They are correct.

Shiras said:
That Brock clown at the central RAC wants the OIL archery hunts eliminated all together and the tags thrown back into the ALW pools.
Click to expand...

They are correct.
 
Vanilla said:
They are correct.



They are correct.



They are cocorrect.
Click to expand...
"Archers" don't have specialized opportunities to go hunting. Anyone can be an archery hunter the fact they choose not to take advantage of the opportunity should not be a reason to limit that opportunity. It's a fact that archery could be used to vastly increase the number of people in the field without having a negative impact on quality. But because a bunch of people refuse to archery hunt the DWR feels they need to cater to those people.

They made it a point in the meeting to point out that the majority of the hunters rifle hint. That is fine, that is their personal decision. Just because you give more tags to archery hunts does not mean you are taking tags away from rifle hunters. They have set the number of tags they feel they can give to rifle hunters. Now set the number of tags that archery hunters can have without having a detrimental effect on herds, or experience. I personally feel they could double the amount of archery tags they are currently giving out on LE units and not hurt anything.

Instead because the rifle guys feel the need to be catered to the dwr feels like they can't give that opportunity to EVERYONE, (like I said just because you choose not to use that opportunity does not mean it's not available)

They should not be setting tag numbers based on the % of people that use each weapon type. Figure out what you can give without hindering the recource and let people choose what they want to hunt with.
 
Elkslayer said:
It might not, but people need to voice their opinions regardless.
There wasn't many archery guys speaking up either. I don't know if the archery community is pushing hard enough or just getting ignored and pushed aside? More tags need to be moved to archers.
Click to expand...
I agree with you other then the verbiage you used. We do not need to move anything to the Archery hunts, just give them the tags they can have without negative effects on the herd. The rifle hunts have the number of tags they have. Now give the archery hunts the number that can be given, no give and take is needed and we need to stop phrasing it that way.
 

Member Gallery Photos and Videos!

IMG_4394.png
Monster Mule Deer
Giant Rutting Mule Deer Buck
Only 38 Inches Wide!
20210913_084628.jpg
IMG_3665.jpeg
B81029BC-EAF5-4386-A144-E30598218B6F.jpeg
IMG_20171023_205043_777.jpg
STC_0170 - Copy.JPG
elk2.jpg
P1250169.JPG
Lots of points going on!
Bearpaw Outfitters

Experience world class hunting for mule deer, elk, cougar, bear, turkey, moose, sheep and more.

Wild West Outfitters

Hunt the big bulls, bucks, bear and cats in southern Utah. Your hunt of a lifetime awaits.

J & J Outfitters

Offering quality fair-chase hunts for trophy mule deer, elk, shiras moose and mountain lions.

Shane Scott Outfitting

Quality trophy hunting in Utah. Offering FREE Utah drawing consultation. Great local guides.

Utah Big Game Outfitters

Specializing in bighorn sheep, mule deer, elk, mountain goat, lions, bears & antelope.

Apex Outfitters

We offer experienced guides who hunt Elk, Mule Deer, Antelope, Sheep, Bison, Goats, Cougar, and Bear.

Urge 2 Hunt

We offer high quality hunts on large private ranches around the state, with landowner vouchers.

Allout Guiding & Outfitting

Offering high quality mule deer, elk, bear, cougar and bison hunts in the Book Cliffs and Henry Mtns.

Lickity Split Outfitters

General season and LE fully guided hunts for mule deer, elk, moose, antelope, lion, turkey, bear and coyotes.

Back
Top Bottom