Minutes from the Archery Committee meeting on Sept 22 meetin

[Buckmaster]

Summary of the Utah Archery Committee Meeting

Date: September 22, 2009
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Salt Lake Office 1594 W. North Temple

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss issues of concern that pertain to statewide archery and try to come up with ideas to resolve these issues.

Attendance: Anis Aoude (DWR), Kent Hersey (DWR), Roy Hampton (UBA), Ben Lowder (UBA), Michael Anderson (BOU), Tye Boulter (BOU), Brian Johnson (Southern Region), Russell Peterson (Southern Region), Bill Fenimore (Wildlife Board)

Discussion Items

Archers going to the Southern Region:

Reviewed data provided by DWR on the amount of public land in deer habitat per archer by region and data on residency of archery hunters compared to the region archers choose to hunt. After reviewing the data, the committee agreed that crowding in the Southern Region occurs due to all recreationists using the Forest in August (e.g., families camping, last weekend before school starts, ATV riders, etc.) Additionally, all committee members felt that crowding was not an issue if you got off of a road. The point was made that crowding occurs in “hotspots” in every region.

Both Southern Region representatives indicated they spoke with numerous hunters who indicated this was only an issue on the opening weekend. Both reps indicated that they would rather see archers come to the Southern Region on the opening weekend and then go home rather than using a quota system which would force archers to hunt the same region for the entire season.

Conclusion: DWR will recommend returning to statewide archery for the entire season in 2010. This recommendation will be made at the November RACs and the December 3, 2009 Wildlife Board Meeting.

Archery Seasons for General Season Elk and Deer and Limited Entry Elk

Some concern was raised that deer and elk seasons starting on the same date may cause some crowding (real or perceived) issues. Also, concerns regarding LE Elk hunters overlapping with spike hunters and not getting to hunt the rut were raised. DWR reviewed a potential new hunt structure with the committee. The committee agreed that this structure could resolve the issues by starting general season archery on a calendar day (thus avoiding opening on a Saturday every 7 years) and improve LE elk archery hunting by moving it into the rut. This new hunt structure will be taken around as an informational item to the November RACs and the December 3, 2009 Wildlife Board Meeting.

Conclusion: Due to the timing of setting hunt seasons, the DWR’s new hunt structure could not be implemented until 2011. As such, DWR will recommend status quo for season dates for 2010, and after getting public comment on the new hunt structure, will look at recommending the new hunt structure for 2011.

UBA proposal to give youth unlimited archery tags

UBA raised concern that 1200 youth hunters did not draw a deer permit in the 2008 drawing. To solve this problem, UBA recommending giving unlimited archery tags. The committee discussed the issue and determined that if we gave all youth (12-18) unlimited tags, it could substantially increase the number of people going to the Southern Region in August and cause more crowding issues. The committee decided that the 12-15 year old group could be given unlimited tags without causing further crowding issues, but also recruiting youth hunters.

Conclusion: DWR will recommend that once all 16,000 archery tags sell out, all youth 12- 15 years old will be able to purchase an archery tag. This will be a completely separate recommendation from statewide archery.

Future Meetings: The committee felt that the issue has been resolved and at this time, there is no need for any further meetings.

[johnyutah5]

Thanks for the update BM. Statewide archery was one good thing that Utah had going for it. Great idea for the youth tags as well. My personal opinion is that the general tags(Archery or rifle) are the ones that should be made available youth no matter what.

[MuleyMadness]

Agreed, THANKS for the updates and information.

[Bowtech43]

Thanks for posting that, that was great information and all seem like great ideas to me. Especially changing the LE elk dates to the rut. Hopefully that really happens.

Brandon