Kill the Trail Cam Bill

Bocephus

Active Member
Messages
682
Don't care to debate on this thread, but those of you who enjoy running your cams and are sick of government overreach may be interested in signing the below petition. It's gaining some steam.


 
Hey Bo!

Careful with the Term OVER-REACH around here!

I Don't Run Trail Cams in the Woods or on the Mountain!

But I Do have a few Tools & Card-Readers!:D

Why The Hell would I Need to set any Trail-Cams out?
 
I signed and appreciate the link for others who chose to do so. The fact that SFW is backing it scares me as well.

Here are some graphs from the UT state mule deer plan. I'm not seeing how banning trail cameras is going to help this 30 year data set.

Screenshot_20210214-083122_Drive.jpg


Hunting has become such a high dollar, competitive past time. Social media hasn't helped as it's easy to see all the magnificent animals taken each year. In turn, when someone finally draws a coveted tag the expectation is that since they waited x amount of years they to should harvest a big scoring animal. When that doesn't happen, the complaining begins.

Everything comes down to the health of the herds. It's easy to point at technology, such as trail cameras, and say they are to blame for the decline. Because at the stroke of a pen they can be banned. But what about the fact that critical winter habitat has been destroyed, migration routes cut off or vehicle fatalities, introduction of wolves, etc.? Those have a much larger impact to healthy animal herds, but they're also harder to solve. So trail cameras get banned, those complaining feel good for a period of time, then the realization that things are still tough. So they look for the next piece of legislation to "fix" the problem.

In my short hunting time line, I've gone from being able to buy a deer tag every year over the counter for large regions to waiting upwards of 4 years to hunt small units. Each time these changes were made it was to increase the health of the herds and hunter opportunity. Yet, years later here we still are.

Yes, I feel better after that rant.
 
I would really like my grandson to see several mature bucks during and after the deer season is over. Every little bit helps - - - One vote for the mature buck here. I WON'T BE SIGNING IT.
 
Several threads on this subject...copying and pasting...

The biggest issue with HB295 is that it has been brought by a single state legislator based only on his opinion on the matters. Zero data, zero research...in fact, no mention of what goal is trying to be accomplished (harvest reduction? wildlife harassment? we literally have no idea) with the bill and impending law. Not only that, but the bill purposefully sidestepped the normal process for wildlife regulations in this state, the RAC committees, meaning no public input was allowed.

I am not at all automatically opposed to trail cam regulations and/or baiting bans, but all of us as hunters should demand better...even if you agree with this particular issue and would like to see cameras and/or baiting gone, that's just fine, but the process should not work this way. A single legislator should not be able to bring and push a bill based solely on his own personal agenda. What happens when the next legislator doesn't like trapping, or doesn't like the idea of hounds for lions or bears, or any other number of "controversial" outdoor-related issues? Slippery slope.

Do a little reading on Casey Snider's "reasoning" for bringing the bill and you will see nothing but one man's opinion. Zero data. Do cameras, cell or otherwise, increase harvest statistics? I don't know. Possible they do, but having that info available (among other data points) as part of this would be a nice start, no?

This SL Tribune article has zero fact, only opinion, hearsay, and hyperbole at best (outright lies at worst). To say there is not a single water source in the state without "dozens" (Casey has used "a half-dozen" at times as well) is not true at all. Implying that hunters are getting a text message that a deer is at the apple pile and killing it 5 mins later is a pretty damn broad brush to paint with, but any non-hunter that reads that article will likely agree (as many of us would) that a scenario such as that is wrong. Problem is, again, there if very little (more like any) proof this is actually happening outside of an isolated incidence here and there, someone's brother-in-law's buddy did it type of thing.

Read the article. Read some of Casey's posts online about the bill.

 
Don't care to debate on this thread, but those of you who enjoy running your cams and are sick of government overreach may be interested in signing the below petition. It's gaining some steam.


As someone who has had his hunt messed up by people "Just checking our cams" on opening morning of the LE Rifle hunt at 7:30 am I think they should be illegal during the hunts. This group was riding around messing up hunts and chasing off bulls as members of their group had Muzzle loader tags. They used the checking their cams excuse to make it ok.
 
That really sucks! I've had several setups blown up by dedicated hunters "scouting for the muzzy/rifle hunts" I feel your frustration.
 
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