Utah Legislature: Limited bighorn sheep hunt debated for Antelope Island

SALT LAKE CITY — As lawmakers scramble to come up with money, some are proposing to open up a limited hunt of bighorn sheep on Antelope Island State Park.

The taking of two trophy rams — permits easily sell for $120,000 — would generate more money for the park to assist in conservation efforts and habitat improvement.

The state park board is adamantly opposed to the idea, however, and says two surveys of park visitors shows they prize wildlife viewing at the island above all else — not as a place for recreational hunting.

The island has been home to a "nursery herd," since the animals were transplanted there in 1997. Since then, the herd has grown to about 80 animals.

Members of the herd are routinely transplanted elsewhere in Utah to augment other populations and as a way to control numbers.

A long-standing agreement between the state parks board and the Division of Wildlife Resources acknowledges hunting as the last step to be taken in herd management, and only if all other efforts have failed.

"It is a concern of the board and state parks the public outcry we will have if we have a hunt out there," said Scott Parson, a long-time chairman of the board who recently stepped down.

The park, he stressed, is the sixth most-visited park in the state, attracting 261,000 visitors in the last fiscal year.

Those visitors prize wildlife viewing opportunities at the island, not as a place to hunt, he stressed.

When lawmakers at a recent committee meeting pointed out that bison hunting is allowed and they saw little difference in a limited hunt of bighorn sheep, park officials said they were essentially "roped" into allowing the bison hunt and it takes place over a very limited time period.

Additionally, Karl Bentley, the state park board's current chairman, said the hunt is a viable and practical way to thin the herd of the "biggest, meanest and orneriest animals" that can't be corralled.

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