Hunters Could Get Better Chance at Permit

If the Utah Wildlife Board accepts recommendations from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, hunters will have a better chance of drawing out on a cow elk, cow moose or doe pronghorn permits this year.

Increases are being recommended in all three areas.

The DWR’s proposals are available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/ public_meetings.

There will be five Regional Advisory Council meetings held to discuss the planned quotas. Information gathered at those meetings will be presented to the board for final decisions.

All five meetings will be April 29 at 6:30 p.m. Locations are:

— Northern Region at Brigham City Community Center, 24 N. 300 West in Brigham City.

— Central Region at Springville Junior High School, 165 S. 700 East.

— Northeastern Region at Western Park, Room 2, 302 E. 200 South in Vernal.

— Southeastern Region at John Wesley Powell Museum, 1765 E. Main in Green River.

— Southern Region at Snow College South, Administration Building, 800 W. 200 South in Richfield.

Comments can also be submitted by e-mail to www.wildlife.utah.gov/ public_meetings.

The recommendations are:

Doe deer — 1,730 (2007) and 1,170 (2008)

Cow elk — 7,931 (2007) and 10,529 (2008)

Doe pronghorn — 392 (2007) and 727 (2008)

Cow moose — 89 (2007) and 109 (2008)

Most of Utah’s doe deer permits are used to control the number of deer that live in and near urban areas throughout the year. However, on some units, such as the East Canyon and Chalk Creek units in northern Utah, the permits are also used to control the number of deer across the entire unit.

The East Canyon and Chalk Creek units are mostly private property. Sometimes the number of deer on the units can climb higher than the population objective for the units.

“It might be hard to remember, but before all of the snow fell this winter, Utah was starting to slide back into a drought,” said Anis Aoude, big game coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources.

“The drought conditions affected the habitat the deer rely on. As a result, the number of fawns that made it through their first year of life started to drop,” he said. “We want to reduce the number of doe permits on the East Canyon and Chalk Creek units, and a few other units, to allow the deer populations on these units to grow.”

While the number of deer in Utah has declined a bit, the number of elk continues to climb, which is the reason biologists are recommending 10,529 cow elk permits.

“Several of the state’s elk herds are getting close to their population objective. We want to slow their growth a bit so the herds don’t overshoot their objective. If they overshoot it, then we’ll have to offer a lot of cow elk permits in 2009. We’d prefer to increase permit numbers slowly rather than all at once,” he added.

Aoude said several herds are also at or over their population objective. “Raising the number of permits will help us keep these herds at or near their population objective,” he added.

Biologists have worked for years to reduce the number of pronghorn in the large herds on the Parker Mountains in southwestern Utah. Lots of hunting permits have been issued, and animals have been taken off the unit and transplanted elsewhere.

Biologists conducted an aerial survey of the unit a few weeks ago and found there’s still a large number of pronghorn on the unit.

They are recommending 350 doe pronghorn permits for the Parker Mountains.

The Parker Mountains are part of the Plateau unit.

The remaining 377 doe pronghorn permits the DWR is recommending would be split among the rest of the state’s pronghorn units to deal with depredation issues.

Utah’s moose herds, including those along the Wasatch Front, continue to flourish. For this reason, the DWR is recommending 109 cow moose permits for this fall’s hunts.

(c) 2008 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.