It's time for a kinder, gentler policy for Utah's wildlife, and several groups are working hard to provide it. Among the top priorities of some groups are an end to hunting sandhill cranes, bear and cougars.
Jim Platte, the force behind the anti-crane hunt group called "Project: Spiral Sky Dancer," wrote to DWR director Tim Provan, pointing out the strong public opinion against the crane hunt. He suggested Provan call together a group of concerned citizens to discuss the changing relationship between people and wildlife, and the creation of a Utah Wildlife Fund.The fund would help reimburse farmers or ranchers for losses due to cranes or other wildlife damage.
"I see the gathering as informal, open, flexible and creative," Platte wrote. "No ax-grinding, philosophizing, intellectual domination, or political intimidation. A gathering with more questions than answers, plenty of common sense and, hopefully, a full measure of understanding."
One of those he suggested for the gathering is this columnist. I'd have to decline, as I don't mind pontificating in print but wouldn't want to be involved in the policy decisions. But the meeting is a great idea.
Darrell Nish, the DWR's assistant director, said of the letter, "I don't have any response right now. We've been so involved with the deer hunt, we haven't had time to sit down and decide just how to respond to that.
"We don't reject anything out of hand. We respect the opinion of those who do not agree with the crane hunt; we also respect the opinions of those who do."
In addition, he pointed out that the DWR already had a post-crane-hunt meeting with some conservationists.
That meeting went badly, said George Nickas, assistant director of the Utah Wilderness Association. The group is one of those present at the DWR meeting.
"People just didn't really want to talk about ways of justifying the sandhill crane hunt with the DWR," he said. The conservationists were flatly against the hunt, but as far as the DWR was concerned at that time, "there just wasn't any room to discuss that."
Undaunted, the conservationists held their own meeting about two weeks ago in Hyrum, with about 30 participants including wildlife professors, people who work for the U.S. Forest Service but were there as interested individuals, hunters and animals-rights groups.
"We got together just to discuss how a non-consumptive wildlife program might be developed," Nickas said. "It was phenomenally successful."
Of those invited, about 90 percent drove to Hyrum on a weekend for the meeting. And despite the great variety of approaches to wildlife, he said, "we were able to put those kinds of differences aside and begin developing a program that everybody felt would be helpful to wildlife and nonconsumptive use of wildlife."
Another meeting is planned later in November. Out of the meetings, a proposal should be developed to let non-hunters contribute money to the wildlife program, he added. This would probably include a larger contribution from the state's general fund.
In the past, the fund provided 14 to 16 percent of the division's budget. The rest came from hunting licenses, making the division heavily dependent on hunters.
"Well, that 14 to 16 percent has been whittled away and whittled away and whittled away by the Legislature until it's down to 4 to 6 percent," he said. When you consider the importance of nonconsumptive uses of wildlife to most Utahns, including hunters who enjoy watching bald eagles, for example, this kind of use is badly underfunded.
A bill is planned for the January 1990 session of the Legislature to give the division a better funding deal.
Another idea kicking around is to set up wildlife reserves, where animals can live without being hunted. Another proposal is to close areas of the state to hunting on a rotational basis so people who don't hunt can get out to the mountains in October, "the nicest time of the year" in the wilds.
"People who dislike hunting or just don't want to dress up like a pumpkin stay out of the mountains in the fall," because of hunters, Nickas said.
Some of these plans have a good chance of success. The division is "obviously sending a lot of signals that they're interested in doing more for non-consumptive wildlife use," he said.
Last week I said I would tell you whether the Division of Wildlife Resources reacted in a reasonable way to the new ideas about managing animals. Well, the answer is a tentative yes.