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Sunday, 16 January 2011 16:42 |
On Dec. 2, the Utah Wildlife Board made a landmark mule deer management decision. The exact meaning and future consequences of that decision are anything but certain. The impact of the decision on deer and deer hunting depends on decisions and actions yet to come.
All that we know for a fact at this point is that the Wildlife Board has set a new statewide buck/doe objective of 18-25 bucks per 100 does on all general season units. The DWR estimates a reduction of 13,000 permits will be necessary to achieve that objective. Effective 2012, all deer hunters will be required to hunt by unit.
Beyond these facts lies uncertainty. There are diverse opinions, ignorance, confusion between biological concerns and social concerns, speculations and magical thinking. Magical thinking is the belief that something is true simply because we want it to be true or that something will happen simply because we say it will happen.
If we continue to set aside all biological data, as was clearly done in this decision, then we have little else to guide us in future management decisions except magical thinking and the same type of emotionalism that has invalidated anti-hunter activism.
While we are disappointed to lose the statewide deer hunting opportunity that we have worked so hard to preserve, it isn’t the end of the world…far from it. But if we are complacent and allow magical thinking to guide future developments in unit management, it will be the end of the world for Utah’s mule deer.
As we have always done, BOU supports the management principles of the North American Wildlife Conservation Model and we call for a return to those principles. We call upon all hunters and the Utah Wildlife Board to be guided by this model in an ongoing development of unit management that will indeed benefit mule deer.
The North American Wildlife Conservation ModelEndorsed by the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
The 7 Basic Principles
(The Seven Sisters)
- Wildlife is a public resource.
- Markets for wildlife must be eliminated.
- Wildlife must be allocated by law.
- Wildlife can only be killed for a legitimate purpose. “The Code of the Sportsman”
- Wildlife is an international resource.
- Science is the proper tool for the discharge of wildlife policy.
- Hunting must be democratic
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Last Updated on Sunday, 16 January 2011 18:37 |
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