D
deserteagle500
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Sep-20-07 AT 01:08PM (MST)[p]this was the letter that i recieved back from a very repectful gentleman with the DWR. i was glad to be able to write and revise my first post and collect more accurate thoughts. i really enjoy his explanation of management and his take on it.
the only thing i am still sceptical on is: if we reduce the number of muley tags (and i don't mean by a drastic measure) but reducing them by 5-6000 over ther whole state, how would that make hunting end? that is my last question.
relpy from DWR:
Mr Kearl, I am glad to address your concerns with regard to deer hunting in Utah. You have made some good points and some that may have stemmed more from frustration than any factual basis. The Utah Division of Wildlife puts more resources into mule deer management than you give us credit for. Some great bucks get harvested every year on general season public land units. You have accused the division of lining its pockets with elk proceeds. Limited entry elk permit revenue is minuscule when compared with our general season deer hunt permit revenue. We have so few limited entry elk tags in comparison. We are one of the smallest wildlife agencies in the west and we operate on a very tight budget. The perception that we are getting rich of any wildlife species is a false one. The main reason that we do not have more deer in the state is not hunting but the lack of quality deer range. We are currently in our fourth year of a habitat initiative to improve mule deer habitat. Through this program we have spent multiple millions of dollars to improving mule deer habitat. No other state in the west can claim that. Most hunters seem to think that the health of the deer herd can be improved by hunting fewer bucks. Nothing can be further from the truth. Every buck that survives the deer hunt will compete with fawn rearing doe on winter range. I agree with you, if we decrease the number of tags we would have more and bigger bucks but that is not necessarily a good thing when looking on a population level. Decreasing the number of tags would also mean fewer people can hunt. This will eventually lead to the end of our hunting culture. Young people have so many things competing for their time these days if we do not provide them with continuous opportunities to hunt they will lose interest and drop out of hunting altogether. The future of our sports depends on providing opportunity to hunt not a big buck every 2 to 5 years. Those hunters that are only interested in getting a big buck have that opportunity on our limited entry units. Those that want to get out and hunt can do that too. Colorado has cut their buck tags in half to achieve what you call quality. Some of their units are not much better than our general season units. Their herds are no healthier and they continue to struggle with slow growing deer herds. Colorado has many more elk than Utah and most of the displaced deer hunters still have an opportunity to hunt elk. Utah only has few elk, if we displace deer hunters we just loose those hunters. In closing I would like to thank you for providing us your comments. I urge you to think about this issue not just with a short term solution to a big buck problem but a long term solution to maintaining our hunting culture and heritage. In the end the UDWR will do what the public wants be it god bad or indifferent. Anis AoudeBig Game CoordinatorUtah Division of Wildlife ResourcesPO Box 146301Sal Lake City, Utah 84114801-231-2568 (cell)801-538-4777 (office)801-538-4709 (Fax)
beat this
the only thing i am still sceptical on is: if we reduce the number of muley tags (and i don't mean by a drastic measure) but reducing them by 5-6000 over ther whole state, how would that make hunting end? that is my last question.
relpy from DWR:
Mr Kearl, I am glad to address your concerns with regard to deer hunting in Utah. You have made some good points and some that may have stemmed more from frustration than any factual basis. The Utah Division of Wildlife puts more resources into mule deer management than you give us credit for. Some great bucks get harvested every year on general season public land units. You have accused the division of lining its pockets with elk proceeds. Limited entry elk permit revenue is minuscule when compared with our general season deer hunt permit revenue. We have so few limited entry elk tags in comparison. We are one of the smallest wildlife agencies in the west and we operate on a very tight budget. The perception that we are getting rich of any wildlife species is a false one. The main reason that we do not have more deer in the state is not hunting but the lack of quality deer range. We are currently in our fourth year of a habitat initiative to improve mule deer habitat. Through this program we have spent multiple millions of dollars to improving mule deer habitat. No other state in the west can claim that. Most hunters seem to think that the health of the deer herd can be improved by hunting fewer bucks. Nothing can be further from the truth. Every buck that survives the deer hunt will compete with fawn rearing doe on winter range. I agree with you, if we decrease the number of tags we would have more and bigger bucks but that is not necessarily a good thing when looking on a population level. Decreasing the number of tags would also mean fewer people can hunt. This will eventually lead to the end of our hunting culture. Young people have so many things competing for their time these days if we do not provide them with continuous opportunities to hunt they will lose interest and drop out of hunting altogether. The future of our sports depends on providing opportunity to hunt not a big buck every 2 to 5 years. Those hunters that are only interested in getting a big buck have that opportunity on our limited entry units. Those that want to get out and hunt can do that too. Colorado has cut their buck tags in half to achieve what you call quality. Some of their units are not much better than our general season units. Their herds are no healthier and they continue to struggle with slow growing deer herds. Colorado has many more elk than Utah and most of the displaced deer hunters still have an opportunity to hunt elk. Utah only has few elk, if we displace deer hunters we just loose those hunters. In closing I would like to thank you for providing us your comments. I urge you to think about this issue not just with a short term solution to a big buck problem but a long term solution to maintaining our hunting culture and heritage. In the end the UDWR will do what the public wants be it god bad or indifferent. Anis AoudeBig Game CoordinatorUtah Division of Wildlife ResourcesPO Box 146301Sal Lake City, Utah 84114801-231-2568 (cell)801-538-4777 (office)801-538-4709 (Fax)
beat this