Hunter's Opinions Needed on Gathering Antlers, Hunting Cougars

The DWR wants your input and ideas

Gathering antlers that drop off the heads of deer, elk and moose can be a fun and rewarding outdoor activity.

Because it’s so fun and rewarding, more people are starting to gather shed antlers in Utah. And that’s causing problems for the state’s big game animals and the places they live.

Members of a committee assembled by the Division of Wildlife Resources have an idea that they believe will lessen the problem. DWR officers and biologists want to know what you think about the committee’s idea.

They also want your thoughts about recommendations for Utah’s upcoming cougar hunt.

Learn more, share your ideas

All of the DWR’s proposals are available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/public_meetings. Once you’ve read the proposals, you can share your thoughts and ideas one of two ways:

RAC meetings

Five Regional Advisory Council meetings will be held across Utah.
Citizens representing the RACs will take the input received at the meetings to the Utah Wildlife Board. Board members will use the input to set rules and permit numbers for Utah’s 2008 - 2009 cougar hunting season, and for other hunting and trapping seasons in the state.

You can participate and provide your input at any of the following
meetings:

Southern Region
July 8
7 p.m.
Panguitch Triple C Arena
50 E. 900 N.
Panguitch

Southeastern Region
July 9
6:30 p.m.
John Wesley Powell Museum
1765 E. Main St.
Green River

Northeastern Region
July 10
6:30 p.m.
Uintah Interagency Fire Center
355 N. Vernal Ave.
Vernal

Central Region
July 15
6:30 p.m.
Springville Junior High School
165 S. 700 E.
Springville

Northern Region
July 16
6 p.m.
Brigham City Community Center
24 N. 300 W.
Brigham City


E-mail

You can also provide your comments to your RAC via e-mail. E-mail addresses for your RAC members are available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/public_meetings.

The group each RAC member represents (sportsman, non-consumptive, etc.) is listed under each person’s e-mail address. You should direct your e-mail to the people on the RAC who represent your interest.


Shed antler gathering

A committee is looking for ways to make late winter and early spring easier for deer, elk and moose.

That’s the time of year when people swarm over the animal’s winter ranges in search of antlers that dropped off the animals’ heads during the winter.

The DWR assembled the committee. Now the division wants to know your thoughts about the committee’s ideas. They’re also interested in any new ideas you may have.

“Late winter and early spring is a critical time for big game animals,” says Mike Fowlks, chief of the DWR’s Law Enforcement Section. “It’s a time of year when the animals are usually stressed and weak. It’s also a time when the habitat the animals rely on can be easily damaged.

“We like the committee’s ideas, but we’re open to other ideas too.”

The committee is proposing the following:

- Requiring written authorization from the DWR to gather shed antlers in Utah from Jan. 1 - May 15. Written authorization would be given after the person completed an ethics course at the DWR’s Web site.
The course would provide tips on how to gather antlers in a way that doesn’t disturb big game animals or damage their habitat.

- Those who wanted to gather antlers after May 15 would not be required to complete the course.

- The director of the DWR could close shed antler gathering, on an emergency basis, in any part of the state where the practice was harming wildlife.

The Shed Antler Gathering Committee is undecided on whether a fee should be charged to complete the course. The 10-person committee includes representatives from the Mule Deer Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, the Utah Bowmen’s Association and two at-large representatives. DWR staff have made themselves available to answer the group’s questions and provide them with information.

“Please let us know what you think about the committee’s ideas,”
Fowlks says. “We’re also open to any new ideas you may have.”

After gathering public input, the committee will put its final recommendations together. The DWR will present those recommendations at a series of public meetings in November.

Cougar hunting

About 300 cougars would probably be taken in Utah under proposals the DWR is recommending for the state’s 2008 - 2009 hunting season.

That number would be similar to the past four seasons in Utah. Hunters took an average of 306 cougars during each of those seasons.

“From the mid 1990s through the early 2000s, an effort was underway to reduce the number of cougars in certain parts of Utah,” Bunnell says. “The goal was to bring cougars and the deer, bighorn sheep and other animals that cougars prey on into better balance.”

Bunnell says it appears the effort worked.

“Over the past couple of years, the number of cougars in Utah has started to stabilize,” he says. “Now we’re working to find the proper balance between cougars and their prey. We think the proposals we’re recommending are another step in that direction.”

The number of hunting permits the DWR is recommending for Utah’s limited entry units, and the total number of cougars to be taken on the state’s harvest objective units, are almost identical to last year.

For more information about the meetings, call the nearest Division of Wildlife Resources office or the DWR’s Salt Lake City office at (801) 538-4700.