Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
 

Stop poachers

Posted Monday, June 23, 2003

The Utah Upland Game Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes, April 23, 2003

Opening

A meeting of the Utah Upland Game Advisory Committee was held on this date.

Present:

  • Todd Ballantyne
  • Suzette Fowlks
  • Jim Gaskill
  • Dean Mitchell (DWR Upland Game Program Coordinator)
  • Ernie Perkins
  • Tony Perkins (Secretary)
  • Jason Staley
  • John Staley (Chair)
  • Brad Townsend

Old business

Dog training on WMAs
The minutes from the last Upland Game Advisory Committee provoked a lot of debate within the Division, especially the parts about tying aspects of funding to dog training. The Division is currently taking a look at its policies regarding dog training on WMAs and the committee decided to shelve this topic until that was completed.

Suzette Fowlks, from the Division, is putting together a brochure to explain dog training on WMAs. She showed the committee a draft copy of it and asked for feedback.

Suzette needs some photographs to illustrate the brochure. If you have any hi-resolution photos of dog training that occurred within Utah, please email a copy to SuzetteFowlks@utah.gov.

Walk-in access
Dean met with the Director on April 8 about this program and had a long, cordial discussion. The Division is interested in pursuing a pilot program, starting in 2004. Dean suggested using the Northern Region for the pilot due to large tracts of private land and limited public lands. The program will require a full-time employee to coordinate and to pay landowners. The program will apply to upland game, big game, fisheries and waterfowl.

We may be able to use habitat funds and some money from Blue Ribbon Fisheries.

Dean will be presenting the proposal to the Leadership Team, the Habitat Council and the Blue Ribbon Fisheries Advisory Committee.

There was some concern about limiting the pilot to only one area, but the committee understood the financial limitations the Division is under and agreed that starting with only one area was preferable to not getting the program started at all.

Dean hopes to get the Walk-in Access Committee back together to determine where to go from here.

Chukar management plan
The plan is ready to go and the final version will be sent out to the RACs and the Wildlife Board starting May 1.

Sharp-tailed Grouse survey
The field work of the survey is almost completed. The (extremely) preliminary results are very good, especially considering the ongoing drought, and sharptail numbers seem to be up around 40 percent over last year. Additionally, more Hungarian Partridge are being seen as well. Several new leks have been found in the survey area.

Guzzler study update
Ernie and Dean are going out with Randy Larsen this Tuesday to some guzzlers in Box Elder County. We may be calling for volunteers to help perform surveys of the Box Elder guzzlers as part of this study.

Sage-grouse
The Division is looking at numerous landscape-scale sagebrush projects to benefit sage-grouse along with mule deer, sharptails, etc.

New business

Rules and procedures of committee meetings
There's been some concern that our past meetings have been a little too informal. This has led to some confusion about exactly what the committee has recommended and dissenting opinions have occasionally gotten lost.

In order to prevent this from occurring in the future, committee meetings will be formalized somewhat from here on out. Each topic of the meeting will go through a period of discussion and any actions or recommendations that come out of that discussion will need to be motioned and then voted upon. Exact wording of any action or recommendation must be decided upon prior to the vote.

If anyone wishes to have a dissenting opinion captured in the minutes, they just need to notify the secretary and it will be done.

The minutes will also capture whether a vote was unanimous or just a majority.

Hopefully, this will cut down on some of the confusion and miscommunication that has occurred in the past.

Turkey landowner incentive program
The Division has been working on a program to encourage landowners to tolerate turkeys and hopefully even get them to do some habitat work on their land. Much of the best turkey habitat in Utah is on private land.

There is interest from the existing CWMU operators for providing turkey opportunity on their units.

Walk-in access will help in this area as well.

There is another committee that is putting together a list of options for landowners to get turkey permits and other options for helping landowners view turkeys positively. Committee recommendations should be put together in time for the September/October RAC and Wildlife Board meetings.

Pygmy rabbits
Pygmy rabbits are listed as a Utah sensitive species. The Division is looking for help in surveying the number of pygmy rabbits in Utah. If you see a pygmy rabbit, please note the number of rabbits along with GPS coordinates (if possible) and send it to the Division.

Upland game on the Internet

You can get more Utah upland game information at wildlife.utah.gov/uplandgame/ including the past minutes for this committee, news, proclamations, and information about upcoming public meetings.

Agenda for next meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Thrusday, June 26 at 6:00 p.m. at the DWR State offices at 1594 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City.

Topics will be:

  • Walk-in access update
  • Planting chukars prior to the hunting season
  • Guzzler study update
  • Sage Grouse local working group update
  • Report on the chukar management plan
  • Sagebrush habitat initiative update

Everyone is invited to attend these meetings; it's an opportunity for you to get any issues you know about onto the table.

Let us know of donations, projects, etc., made by your group we want to publicize good activities!

If you know of other interested parties who should get copies of the minutes, and who are involved in upland game organizations or programs, please get us their name. If you want to make an electronic mail input, please send it to one of the following:

Respectfully submitted
Tony Perkins