Well BR, we could both call anyone of the three parties and ask but I don’t really think either of us care all that much……… but my assumption came from this statement in the article shared with the original poster.
“
This information is the result of a collaborative effort between the Division of Wildlife Resources, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, Rocky Mountain Elk, and
Brigham Young University. They wanted to learn why, when hunting season starts, Elk move from public lands to private lands.
“It had become a conundrum,” said Brock McMillan, a professor of wildlife ecology at
BYU.”
As a volunteer I worked on a couple of mule deer research projects with Dr. Brock McMillan and Dr. Larsen from BYU and Utah State. Both of the projects were contracted by Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources and paid for by matching funds from SFW (Sportsmen For Fish and Wildlife). I was told that by the DWR employees on the project as well as BYU and Utah State employees.
I’ve been told by others that many of these kinds of projects are funded this way because SFW and other conservation organizations are required to fund these kinds of projects, out of the revenues they raise by selling/auctioning hunting permits at their fund raising banquets, which include revenues raised at the Western Hunting Expo banquets. That is one of the requirements these orgs agree to as part of the conservation partnerships they have with the State of Utah.
I made the assumption this Elk Research Project, as foolish as it seems, was funded the same way. In what other way would SFW be involved, if not for funding, as they have been contracted to do.
That’s my story, but your’s is a viable as mine, what ever your story is.