There would still only be 200 total tags at the Expo. Same 5 year commitment. Just a minor tweek to make it work better.
Here is the situation.
Because of small units, small number of permits, and rounding off issues, non residents were NOT given 10% of the permits in the 2008 Utah state offered draw. It is the Utah policy - NOT law to try and get Non res. 10%.
However Non Residents get 0% of the public draw tags on CWMUs.
For Example, for Rocky Mountain Bighorn permits, there are two on the Newfoundlands, 3 on the North Slope, 1 on Timp, So Non Residents would never get a tag on these units - until they reach ten on the unit with normal rounding calculations.
IN 2008, there were 23 Rocky Mountain bighorn tags, Non residents got 1 in state draw, 1 short.
36 Desert Bighorn tags, 2 non residents, 1 short for the 10%.
Goats 91 tags, 7 to non residents, two short
Moose 184, 16 to Non residents, 2 short.
Bison 172, 17 to non res. right amount.
So, since the state draw didn't produce the correct non res. allocation, the proposal to the RAC/Board would be to take one permit of each species and offer it to Non Residents only at the Expo.
5 tags would be removed from tags already allocated, so total stays at 200.
One other option Expo partners are considering, depending upon the outcome, we might just add five other tags - moose hunt in Canada, dall sheep hunt in Alaska, etc. to the drawing and see how that goes. This would have nothing to do with the 200 state tags, just an enhancement to the Expo draw.
The reality is that because herds are expanding - won't try and convince anyone why that is happening, you believe or you don't - the new permit could come from future growth, not be "taken" from anyones draw pool in the future.
The real question is 3 choices. 1. Don't address the rounding issues and Non Res. get what they get - typically a tag or two less. 2. Go ahead and figure out a way to address the rounding issue in normal draw. 3. provide the extra non resident tag to those who attend the expo.
Some other information, because of the neraly $1 Million in habitat investment in the Henry Mts. the Bison herd has been allowed to expand from 260 to 310 Bison, and the SFW goal is to do more work and get so 400-425 head can be sustained. That will be about 20 sustainable extra bison tags a year - 200 tags over 10 years for henry mts. alone. Book Cliffs if transplant is done could add 30-40 tags a year, every year.
Also, SFW is working on getting the RMP and other issues resolved so that the DWR can start a new herd and have 300 or so Bison in the Book Cliffs
ON wild Sheep, nobody said a word this last go around when the State cut 4 Desert Sheep tags from the San Rafael in 2008. SFW and FNAWS did, and there will be probably $100,000 spent down there over the next few months - already have invested $550,000 in San Rafael - to find out what is the problem, what is the solution, and what can be done to increase the herds and increase tags for the future. Until someone comes up with the money to find the problem and fix it, San Rafael tags will be 4 tags short a year, and if there is a die off or predation issue that isn't fixed, that could lead to 10 tags a year gone for ten years, that is 100 tags lost to ##### about.
I am not going to get into a point counter point debate on this one.
I pointed out the problem, and our proposed solution to non resident license draw issue.