Worries that Sanpete doesn’t have enough big game

02-21-2019

It is my worry that we do not have enough wildlife here in Sanpete. I notice when I frequently go up on the Manti LaSal mountains that there are not as many buck deer as there are females. Which is good cause that means more fawns can be born.

But my point is that we give out too many deer and elk tags. I know hunters come from far and near to get these elk and deer. And it takes a long time to get an elk tag; it took my dad 18 years to get a tag. And when people wait that long don’t you think they want to get a good one? Not just something small? All the older people I know have said that 25 years ago you could find trophy bulls and bucks everywhere you went.

Now we barely have some small bucks and bulls. I know people aren’t going to like this but I propose that we cut off all elk and deer hunts for 3-5 years depending on how fast they come back. It’s what we need here, we need to get the population back up and keep it up by giving out no more than 20 buck and bull tags a year depending on where you live. This is a very small amount but it is so desperately needed I would also not allow spike elk hunts anymore because they’re the future bulls.

If this need becomes a reality everyone will see that it will be greatly appreciated. The county will see bigger elk and deer along with a healthier population. But with population comes the need for more food.

With that I would let people run sheep during that time span up on these mountains to take down all the shrubs we have ( because elk and deer don’t really eat bushes and larkspur) and let them eat away at it. When these “shrubs” are taken away we will have more grass than bushes that do no good. I hope that all the people that read this will see that this needs to happen and I hope it does badly, because it’s needed desperately.

Ryker Faatz