| Show aff field stream by VERNON W SHIELDS the barrett congressional corn com s hearing on public lands was held in the federal district courtroom in salt lake city sept ember the ath the livestock men were there in force and really took quite a poke at the U S forest service the livestock men urged the congressional committee to support legislation designed to es cablish a vested right in a forest service permits and also to give their board legal status in shap I 1 ing policies in other words live ive stock men at least some of them have grown so self assertive that they consider their grazing as a sacred right they take all and give nothing in return they even begrudge the browse used by deer to them grazing cattle and sheep Is is the theo only legitimate use of the range some have advocated strongly that deer and elk be slaughtered to reduce the tion of wild game and leave more room for cows and sheep game animals and domestic animals do not compete to much on the range if the total number of both are kept in line any time they think the sportsmen are going to give up their wild game ent entirely izely they have another think coming already the big game supply is limited by range conditions very careful management Is necessary to prevent disease and starvation because range fences and other factors have cut so deeply into winter range tor for deer and elk they can t stay in the high country in the winter they must come down low to protected slopes benches and valleys with this territory taken over by cattle and sheep the deer and the I 1 elk must do with what is left the quantity of the winter range is the determining factor in big game population if the game cannot sur vive the winter they cannot be on hand in the sumer to delight the s or next fall to be ed by the hunters if the winter range has been denuded by sum mer grazing of livestock what will happen to our big game gamec to the sportsmen of utah who have exault ed to the beauty oi of our mountains who have hunted elk and deer to the summer vaca zionists who have glorified in the clear vistas who have fished in our trout S streams to all these and to the millions who have still to taste these thrills and pleasures this request by the stockmen is a genuine and serious threat L C montgomery president of the utah cattle and horse grow ers ass n and don clyde pres ident of the utah wool growers Asso claton clat on both declared at this hearing that big game was the bruex of the problem they tried to show that big game is ing tremendously here in utah I 1 beg to differ with mr clyde and mr montgomery because in 1946 the utah Sports sportsmen mens s association made extensive surveys and there ire are very few areas in the state that ire are over populated with big game what areas there are can and are excess game both these removing men are members of utah s big game board mr montgomery has been on the board for over 20 years Is it any wonder that the sportsmen have such a hard time to prevent the killing of does they are after our deer gentlemen ana dna dont don t you f forget aget it the stockmen are always holler ing about too many deer here is a suggestion I 1 would like to make instead of a deer count why don t the sportsmen pull a surprise cat tie tle count on some of our ranges I 1 have very good reasons to be lieve that they would find a num ber more cattle on the range than the owners have permits for lets count cattle and sheep for a change and see what we get the sportsmen have had their arguments with the forest service but I 1 believe the officials in charge are for the most part earnest and sincere all they need is the sup port of the general public and awakened public BONER ON DUCKS A recent survey on the duck sit bation shows that there are con sider ably more ducks than was anticipated when the officials set up the present ridiculous shooting regulations on our migratory wild fowl they were hollering their heads off that there was a ser ious shortage of ducks they hoi hol lord before they saw the results of the mating season now ducks unlimited reports there are go mg ing to pe be plenty of ducks will they change the shooting regula eions I 1 doubt it such a policy as this does not tend to build good sportsmanship sportsmen ship |
