Today is a pretty special day for sportsmen in Utah.  The Wildlife Board is having their August meeting to decide on quite a few hunting related issues and the United Wildlife Cooperative has a proposal on the agenda.

It seems that back in about 2005 (don’t hold me to that year) several non-profit organizations convinced the wildlife board to give up 200 tags that would otherwise have been included in the drawing pool for big game and turkey hunting.  The thought was to help these organizations draw a big crowd to their outdoor expo in Salt Lake City.  The tags are offered at $5 p/chance and a person could apply for as many as they wanted to apply for.  Of course the odds are pretty slim that you will draw any of the tags, but still as chance is a chance.

As it turned out, the expos have drawn a LOT of money not only for the tags being offered, but with vendor sales, hotel and motel accommodations, restaurants, gas stations, bars etc.  I have no clue as to the total amount of money that these expos have drawn but it has to be in excess of several million dollars.

So, in a nutshell, the expo is a good thing for boosting the economy locally and giving people a chance at drawing a tag for what might otherwise not happen in their lifetime.  As slim as that chance is.

But, and this is the big BUT, the wildlife board did not put any restrictions on the non-profit organizations as to what they could or could not do with the $5 charges they sold the chances for.  Each year thousands of people put in their $5 for chances, many put up several $5 bills for chances at the coveted tags of choice and collectively millions of dollars were raised and divided among the two or three organizations that pulled the expo off.

One can only imagine that there are other special privileges offered to these same organizations as well, which makes them smile all the more and keep their interest in pulling off the expos in future years.  What those special things are is anyones guess.

So, without any accountability for the millions of dollars reaped by the sale of chances for tags that actually belong to you and me, Utah sportsmen and hunters, these organizations grin big old grins and pocket the money that should actually be poured back into making things better for Utah big game animals.

Well, the UWC as I mentioned has drafted a very good proposal with all the references back to Utah rules and regulations and a whole lot of dotted “i’s” and crossed “t’s” and presented it to the wildlife board for consideration.  The bottom line of this proposal is to make these organizations accountable to put the monies they receive for the sale of chances of these tags back into programs that will benefit our wildlife.  Some call this being transparent and it will be that if the organizations follow the guidelines of this proposal.

The proposal calls for:  For every dollar received from the sale, 30% will go directly back to the DWR, 10% will be retained by the organizations and 60% has to be earmarked for approved programs directly related to the species of animal for which the tag was given.

It only makes sense and why didn’t that be addressed on day one?  Well if it was it got shuffled under the rug and we sportsmen have been shafted big time.  Can you feel the pain in your rear end?

Wapiti, Edjukateer and I are going to be in attendance at this meeting today to show our support for this proposal and hopefully we will be given a chance to voice it if they open it up for public comment.  My hand is up and I want to speak!

Bears Butt

August 16, 2012

Post Meeting notes:

As far as meetings go, this has to be placed in among the top 10 in my lifetime.  The attendance was very good with close to 100 people in attendance, maybe even more.  People were civil and respectful and there was a lot of public comments, not just about the proposal but about the topics in general.

I got a text message about 10 a.m. saying it looked like the proposal might hit the table before the lunch break.  That put Wapiti, Edjukateer and I in rush mode.  We made it there about 11:15 or so.  When we walked in we were met by one of the UWC guys who handed us each a comment card which we promptly filled out and offered our 3 minute time limit to an attorney named Jason who really worked a lot on the proposal.  Later in the day we found out we could not allocate our time to anyone and either we were going to speak or not.  I chose to speak, while Wapiti and Edjukateer said they were in support of the UWC proposal but did not want to speak.  That was at least two more people on the side of the UWC and it was noted by the wildlife board as such.

The oddity of the meeting was when they began agenda item 10, accounting for moneys received from the expo, they made a comment in their presentation stating that they wanted the conservations groups (Mule Deer Federation and Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife) to give them annual accounting information on monies received from the expo.  Something that was not written into the contract from several years ago that would have to be worked out.

An attorney from the Attorney General’s Office later (during agenda item 12, the UWC proposal item) cautioned them about altering a binding contract in the manner in which they were proposing.

I won’t go into all the details of the meeting partially because I can’t remember all of it, but in general, the UWC proposal woke the Wildlife Board and the DWR head into realizing some accountability was needed on the part of the conservation groups in charge of the expo.  A no brainer to me from the start.  One of the public speakers commented that in the beginning the accountability factor was discussed back in 2005(?), voted on and passed by the Wildlife Board but then later dropped because the people in charge of this from the DWR was confused as to what was meant and so it was not followed up on.  HMMMM.

Ok, so back to the topic at hand.  It seems that from now on the conservation organizations are going to voluntarily present an accounting of monies taken in through the tag sales and present that to the DWR after the expo’s through 2015, which is the time line for the current contract.

The DWR is going to meet with the conservation groups Mule Deer Foundation, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and the United Wildlife Cooperative to make sure everyone is on the same page as to definitions of key words in the UWC proposal, such as “transparency”, “accountability” and “the use of money received through the sale of chances of big game tags that actually belong to the sportsmen of Utah”.  After that, or those, sessions, the UWC will be excused from future meetings discussing the contract between the DWR and Mule Deer Foundation.

It’s not hard to understand that UWC has no business between contract agencies.

When a new contract is issued after the 2015 date, it will have specific details as to accountability, transparency and disposition of funds received from the sale of chances at big game tags.

On behalf of the Mule Deer Foundation and Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife I must say they have done a tremendous amount of work in favor of Utah’s wildlife, access to otherwise un-accessable places for handicapped people, work with the children to make them realize the importance of hunting, fishing and the out of doors and a bunch of programs I am not aware of.  Millions of donated hours and dollars have been spent by these organizations over many, many years.

It’s time that everyone realize no ONE organization has all the answers even if they are the largest in the group of organizations.  No ONE organization can do all it takes to help our wildlife.  And conservation is a bigger picture than just planting food sources for deer or elk.  I see the UWC playing a much bigger role in the future and I see them joining ranks with the other conservation organizations that exist and future ones that will come along in helping our wildlife.  More hands make for less work overall.

I have said it before, I encourage everyone reading this to join the United Wildlife Cooperative organization. The people in charge of this relatively small organization have their hearts and souls in the right place and are conducting business right down the ally for the good of the outdoors people of Utah and for Utah’s wildlife.  A great group of guys dedicated to the max.  I know you will like them when you meet them.

http://www.unitedwildlifecooperative.org/_MEMBERSHIP.html

Bears Butt

August 17, 2012