Show L a x a d' d kd A r t a y xa 6 I I g rr r a N 10 t d' d v 1 1 1 XI t s t f i tJ fr t- I 1 S. S J SS r y J I S 'S s sv 55 0 X w 1 I M v u. u f X V j I V x Y 1 v i W t e V 11 t J. J k I J ROBERT BIA Uintah left tussles with David Sherod Pleasant Grove Sherod edged Bia 3 to 2 for first place ploce in the pound weight Local pheasant rooster ratio is hi high By John C C. C DIckerson Conservation Officer West Vernal District Division field personnel have just completed our annual winter pheasant sex ratio counts and once again we are carrying over an excess number of roosters In Uintah County we classified over birds and the ratio came out one rooster for every three hens which is obviously an excess of roosters That figure may be a little hard to swallow for the hunter who tromped through the fields for hours last fall and saw lots of hens but no roosters but it is about average for the thelast thelast thelast last ten years Last year our ratio was even below 3 H. This brings up the old question Why dont don't we have a longer looger season then so we can harvest the excess In a nutshell the answer to this is because pheasant hunting is found alm almost t exclusively on private agricultural lands and the farmer or stockman does not want hunters on his property for an extended period of time and justifiably so Our normal season is nine not days-not bad when you consider consider con con- sider that Utah County has had hada a three da day season for many years A few years back we tried a system whereby the general season was nine days and then r t landowner could post his property open to hunting huntin for a total of 30 days if he wanted to but this was abused and the system was dropped We didn't have many problems in the Basin with this setup but evidently there were quite a few around the large metropolitan areas so we went back to a straight nine day hunt on A private property NOW YOU MIGHT l ask If we didn't have problems in the Basin with the extended hunt why not let the populated areas close up and let us stay open We considered that but we felt that we would draw too many J L hunters from the western portions of the state and the influx might do more harm than good 1 I dont don't know if we can consider consider consider con con- sider ourselves lucky to have a y nine day hunt or not One thing it points out though is that the hunter must be aware that he is hunting on private property and act accordingly This awareness should be applied anytime we are hunting any specie not just the pheasant There is a big hunting anti-hunting movement in our country and any time an like act is committed it only lends fuel to that fire Our state legislature has made it mandatory that on all y y hunting and fishing proclamations we include the entire law that covers trespass Obviously this has become a major problem and the that powers are well aware of it It would certainly be to our own benefit if everyone of us would be on our best behavior when we are in the field this coming you year-you never can cantell cantell cantell tell a longer pheasant season might even come of it it |