Citizens Needed To Serve on Wildlife Regional Advisory Councils

Nominations must be received by April 1

You can make a difference in how wildlife is managed in Utah.

Recent resignations have created several vacancies on the state's five wildlife Regional Advisory Councils (RACs).

RAC members represent one of six interest groups: sportsmen; agriculture; nonconsumptive wildlife (people who don't hunt or fish); locally-elected public officials; federal land agencies; and the public-at-large.

To fill one of the vacancies, you must live in the region of the state you wish to represent. If you do, then you must contact the proper conservation group or organization in your region and ask that they nominate you to fill the vacancy you'd like to fill. For example, if you want to fill a sportsmen vacancy, you must contact a Utah sportsmen group and ask them to nominate you for the vacancy.

To learn about wildlife or conservation groups in your area, please contact the nearest Division of Wildlife Resources office.

Nominating groups and organizations must submit their nominations by April 1.

Interview Process

RAC nomination forms can be downloaded from the DWR's Web site at www.wildlife.utah.gov. To obtain a form, click on "Board/RACs," and then click on "Regional Advisory Council nomination form" under the More Information category at the bottom of the page.

You may also obtain a nomination form at any DWR office.

After the groups and organizations have decided who they'd like to nominate, they must submit their nomination forms via e-mail or by mailing them directly to the Board/RAC coordinator in the DWR's Salt Lake City office.

The candidates who are nominated go through a standardized sifting and interview process before being ranked and submitted to Mike Styler, the executive director of the Department of Natural Resources. Styler, in consultation with DWR Director Jim Karpowitz, will make the final appointments from the top five candidates for each vacancy.

Serving on a RAC

Each of the RACs holds about 10 meetings a year to listen to DWR wildlife management proposals. They also take grassroots public input about the proposals. The RAC meetings usually last three to five hours. The meetings are held in the evenings, usually on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night.

After taking the public input, the RACs vote on the DWR proposals. Then they report their findings and recommendations to the seven-member Utah Wildlife Board. The wildlife board makes the final decisions regarding the proposals.

RAC members are considered volunteers and are eligible to be reimbursed for the costs that result from their attendance at the meetings. Overnight travel is rarely required.

For more information, contact the nearest DWR office or Staci Coons, the DWR's Wildlife Board/RAC coordinator, at (801) 538-4718 or via e-mail at stacicoons@utah.gov