Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
 

Stop poachers

Posted Thursday, September 4, 2003

Meeting minutes, June 26, 2003

Opening

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

Present:

  • Jim Gaskill
  • Dean Mitchell (DWR Upland Game Program Coordinator)
  • Ernie Perkins
  • Tony Perkins (Secretary)
  • Hal Smith
  • Mark Smith
  • John Staley (Chair)
  • Brad Townsend

Old business

Walk-in access
Dean, John and Ernie had a meeting with representatives from Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (Byron Bateman), Salt Lake County Fish & Game Association (Dan Potts), Utah Wildlife (Jerry Mason), Trout Unlimited (Allan Matheson) and the Farm Bureau (Sterling Brown) to discuss the Walk-in Access program. They were able to garner support from every group.

They will next meet with the Habitat Council and Blue Ribbon Fisheries to try to get funding for the three-year pilot program in the Northern Region. The DWR leadership will revew the program on Aug. 13.

The goal is to have the program up and running by the start of the 2004 hunting season with an atlas of participating lands out in mid-August.

Chukar transplant
The Division will be using a new grower this year from Nephi. Birds will be put out between Sept. 15–19, one week prior to the hunting season.

800 birds per region will be released.

Guzzler study update
The study is still in the process of expanding into Box Elder County. All 12 guzzlers have been baselined and birds have been seen around the guzzlers. There's still a bunch of standing water around, which may be cutting down on the usage.

Chukar are also being seen in the Keg Mountains, including quite a few chicks.

Adult turkeys are using the guzzlers, but no poults have been observed.

Ernie has been in contact with Nevada DWR personnel who have been doing an aerial survey of chukars the last two weeks. Out of 506 guzzlers, they observed chukarat 350 of them. Nevada is convinced that adult chukar are using the guzzlers, not just chicks.

The cameras for Box Elder County have not arrived yet, but they should be here soon.

Chukar Management Plan
The plan has been presented to all five RACs. No major comments were received. It will go in front of the Wildlife Board on Aug. 12.

The plan is on the DWR web site. — (PDF format)

Sagebrush habitat improvement
The Division has beefed up its efforts to stimulate land management agencies (e.g. BLM, Forest Service) to promote sagebrush.

This winter saw three major areas of sagebrush die (in the Northeast, Southeast and South). These massive die-offs have been caused by the ongoing drought (five years now), very cold winters in some areas and an infestation of cutworms. There's a lot of work to do to help sagebrush recover.

Dog training on WMAs
A volunteer from USU is going to collect data on this issue statewide. Dean is collecting a list of gun dog organizations in Utah so that they can be surveyed as part of this study.

If you know of a gun dog organization, please e-mail Dean at DeanMitchell@utah.gov with the contact information for that organization.

Dean currently has contacts for the following groups:

  • German Shorthair Pointer Club of Uta, hLehi
  • German Shorthair Pointer Club of Utah, Bluffdale
  • German Wirehair Pointer Club of Utah, Salt Lake City
  • Great Salt Lake Retriever Club, Murray
  • Labrador Retriever Club and Rescue of Utah
  • North America Versatile Hunting Dog Association, Riverton
  • North America Versatile Hunting Dog Association, West Haven
  • Northern Utah Retriever Club, Layton
  • Utah Springer Spaniel Club, Ogden
  • Viszla Club, Draper
  • Viszla Club, Salt Lake City
  • Wasatch Front Brittany Club, Bluffdale
  • Wasatch Hunting Retriever Club, Hooper

New business

Sage Grouse local working groups
Dean presented some information about the Sage Grouse Local Working Groups that have been established statewide to help sage grouse populations. The state has been divided into 13 areas, each of which currently has a working group or soon will have one.

This program started in 2001, with each group tasked to come up with local plans to increase sage grouse.

The program is making extensive use of people from the USU Extension Services.

As an example, the Strawberry Valley area has transferred 38 birds from the Parker Mountains; many of the hens have successfully mated with the local cocks. This area has also seen extensive predator control on red foxes and ravens. Ravens have been decimating nests; one test put out pheasant eggs in the area, in two days over 90 percent of the eggs were eaten.

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 Tuesday, September 9 at 6:00 p.m. at the DWR State offices at 1594 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City.

Topics will be:

  • Guzzler Study Update
  • Chukar Foundation Organization discussion (Travis Proctor)
  • Chukar Release
  • Walk-in Access Update
  • National Hunting and Fishing Day event at Lee Kay Center, Sept 27 — looking for volunteers

The following meeting (on a to-be-determined date in October) will cover:

  • Sharp-tailed Grouse Study Update
  • Sage Grouse Study Update
  • Turkey Study Update
  • Prioritize Upland Game Species Management Plans
  • Youth Pheasant Hunts — Update and any problems to be worked

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