Commentary
One of SFW’s most defining characteristics – an aspect that so clearly sets SFW apart from all other wildlife conservation organizations – is that SFW’s mission works to benefit not just a single species but multiple big game species across our Utah landscapes. Many of the projects SFW has funded and provided volunteers for in recent years are showing significant, measurable and important results for deer, elk, moose, bighorns, mountain goats, bison and other species.
Habitat improvement is one of SFW’s primary areas of focus and investment. Each year as much as $1.2 million in SFW conservation funds are spent on projects across the state of Utah. Everything from reseeding burned habitat and removing pinion-juniper to chaining of unproductive lands and planting sagebrush seedlings is on the list. Conservation funding isn’t the only thing SFW puts on the ground. SFW members also show up with gloves, shovels, machinery and other materials volunteering time and resources to make a difference for big game.
Predator control of coyotes and cougars in the state spearheaded by SFW is yielding impressive results, specifically for Mule deer and Bighorn sheep. Mule deer fawn survival is booming on many units where coyote control efforts have been unleashed over the past five years. Wild sheep transplants are successful only when cougars are managed to levels that allow wild sheep to flourish in new areas.
SFW’s Pheasant Program, which is now in its fourth year, is helping address a 25-year downward trend in Utah’s declining pheasant populations. SFW has secured ongoing funding for raising and releasing tens of thousands of pheasants for public hunters on WMA and Walk-In-Access properties in the several regions of the state. Not only are new young hunters now enjoying the opportunity to see and shoot pheasants again, Utah’s wild bird populations are being augmented thanks to our members’ efforts and SFW’s financial support.
One of the most high profile of SFW’s projects has been the ground-breaking and now proven successful deer transplants conducted first on the Parowan Front in southern Utah and currently in northern Utah’s Wasatch Front residential communities. Interest in capturing and transplanting overpopulating mule deer started among SFW’s Beaver and Iron county chapter leadership nearly 10 years ago. Despite negativity and resistance among many, we proudly stamp our mark on this uniquely SFW project that is now being duplicated in a few neighboring states.The Utah Moose Health and Reproduction Study conducted by USU Graduate Student Joel Ruprecht is yet another of the diverse projects SFW is solidly behind. The study has been ongoing for the past four years and is funded and supported by SFW and its membership. This project has been the key in determining causes for recent declines in the North Slope Uintas and Wasatch Mountains moose populations. SFW has made a difference by ensuring the best science and biology is being applied in efforts to correct the decline.
Utah’s exploding Bighorn sheep populations would not be what they are today without SFW and our partner organization Utah Foundation for North American Wild Sheep (UFNAWS). Major investments in capture/transplants, paying for Bighorn sheep research and habitat studies, building water catchments as well as purchasing wild sheep from other western states, all with SFW conservation funds, has been the critical component to Utah’s status as the state with the most aggressive and successful wild sheep program in west.
As we look back on 2015 as the best deer hunt in recent memory, and with additional mountain goat and wild sheep populations established, as well as the hundreds of thousands of acres of improved and restored habitat in Utah, we do so knowing the significant role SFW and its members have played in these successes. It has taken more than a decade of investment, sacrifice and leadership to produce results that Utah and those who hunt hear enjoy. Now let’s keep up the fight and continue building a bright future for hunters and our wildlife.
