Outdoor notes

ELK FESTIVAL SET SATURDAY

HYRUM — Utah's annual Elk Festival will take place Saturday at the Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area east of Hyrum.

The festival is free of charge. Nature-related activities will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will include taking a free wagon ride, painting pumpkins, turning balloons into antlers, shooting pellet guns at targets, archery and exploring for aquatic bugs.

You can reach the ranch by traveling 18 miles east of Hyrum on state Route 101.

Whether visitors will see some elk on Saturday is still in question.

"Elk have not come out of the mountains and into the meadow yet," Marni Lee, assistant manager of the Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area, said last week. "With this cooler weather and snow, hopefully they will come down by the time the festival starts."

Visitors are encouraged to bring some binoculars and to dress for all types of weather.

For more information, call the Wildlife Management Area at 435-753-6206.

FIVE AREAS SHORTEN HUNTS

When the general rifle buck deer hunt opens Oct. 17, rifle shots won't be heard on five hunting areas in Utah.

Why? The rifle hunt on those five units doesn't start until Oct. 21.

The hunt on the units, which have a buck-to-doe ratio that falls below the minimum objective, has been shortened to reduce the number of buck that deer hunters take. Instead of a nine-day season, the season will run for only five days — Oct. 21-25 — on each of the following units:

Central Utah — Central Mountains (Nebo), Oquirrh-Stansbury

Northeastern Utah — South Slope (Vernal)

Southeastern Utah — LaSal (LaSal Mountains)

Southern Utah — Monroe

For more information, call the nearest Division of Wildlife Resources office or the DWR's Salt Lake City office at 801-538-4700.

CHANGES MAY BOOST FISHING

Anglers should catch more fish more often when they visit Utah's community fishing waters next year.

And while it might take a year or two to notice, perch fishing at waters across Utah should become more consistent, too.