I read your article reporting governor-mandated cutbacks in the Division of Wildlife Resources to save about $500,000. To read the politically appointed administrator's comments, it was merely a realignment to increase efficiency and to cut unnecessary or duplicated efforts. I have to disagree.
Dismemberment of the big-game-animal research program and elimination of the revegetation studies that aid in maximizing stocking rates of big game, small game and nongame species will not result in increased efficiency in the DWR. The DWR has been under fire by hunters who expect to pay little and continually harvest trophy animals when there are far more hunters than big-game animals. The DWR has been under fire from rural legislators in southern Utah who insist that there are too many big-game animals at the present time that take away forage from their cattle and sheep on open and private ranges.I am sure that some of these hunters and legislators can manage their own interests very well without basic knowledge garnered from research, but I am not sure that the big-game animals would be managed in the best interests of the public at large. I also find disconcerting the governor's efforts to incapacitate the DWR.
Last year's budget cuts were very difficult to handle and still provide acceptable services. This year's move looks to me like the governor is really taking out his feelings on the DWR for its allegations that the Leavitt fish farms introduced "whirling" disease into Utah's fishing waters. I am not an environmentalist in the "bleeding heart" sense, but I feel that continued abuses by our legislators and governor will open a door for undesirable federal involvement.
I feel that the DWR needs to be accountable to the state of Utah, but it needs a significant degree of autonomy to avoid pandering to special interests in this state in order to remain operational.
If budget moneys are the real issue (which I doubt), I would like to suggest that there is $500,000 lost every year from Weber State's academic funds to support the football program. I am also reasonably sure that similar moneys are lost on other campuses funding similar athletic programs. Is the "education" of a few athletes and their entertainment of some thousands of fans more important than the responsible handling of Utah's wildlife and their habitat?
Joseph Papenfuss
Fountain Green