Board sets quotas for choice hunts

The Utah Wildlife Board has, with few exceptions, approved recommendations by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources with respect to the state's most coveted hunts — those with limited permit numbers and those given out once in a hunter's lifetime.

The big winners were archers and muzzleloaders with respect to limited entry elk permits. The board approved a 30 percent increase and most of the new tags will be going to primitive weapon hunters.

Reasons for the increase focused on three factors:

• Elimination of the AR 301 archery hunt, which gave archers broad hunting opportunities. This freed up some of the special permits.

• The age class of elk on some limited units is above management objectives, meaning the average age of elk being taken is older than it should be. This means more permits can be issued.

• And the board decided last year it was going to simplify the regulations by making permit distribution more uniform. Under the new directive, 25 percent of the limited entry tags will go to archers, 60 percent will go to rifle hunters and 15 percent will go to muzzleloaders.

"In the past, many of the permits went to rifle hunters," said Jim Karpowitz, big game coordinator for the DWR. "Distributing the permits the same way across all units has reduced the number of rifle permits slightly but has increased the number of archery and muzzleloader permits."

There will be 1,269 limited entry elk permits, which is up from 966 available last year. The additional permits will be for archers and muzzleloaders.

Karpowitz said the reason the permits were distributed the way they were was, "Because archery and muzzleloader hunters take fewer animals, (thus) the number of bulls in the herds should increase, and that should result in more elk permits in future years.

"Spreading hunters more evenly over three hunts will also reduce pressure during the rifle hunt and provide rifle hunters a better hunting experience."

While elk permits went up, the number of limited entry buck deer permits went down by about 10 percent.

The reason, said Karpowitz, is that the new deer management plan, "calls for a 25 to 35 bucks per 100 does ratio on limited entry deer units, and most of the units are not meeting that objective."

The board increased the number of antelope, Rocky Mountain goat and moose tags. Antelope tags went up from 394 to 411, goat tags from 36 to 43 and moose tags from 96 to 114.

The number of buffalo and bighorn sheep permits decreased. Buffalo tags dropped from 63 in 2003 to 43 this year, Rocky Mountain sheep from 10 to nine and desert bighorn sheep permits dropped from 38 to 35.

Applications for limited entry and once-in-a-lifetime were due into DWR offices by Jan. 20. Results will be posted on the DWR's Web site by April 28.

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