| OCR Text |
Show Pheasant season opener set for Saturday, Nov. 7 Many hunters will soon be looking for ringnecks instead of antlers during Utah's annual pheasant season November 7-15. About 85,000 hunters are expected to harvest over 232,000 pheasants. Pheasant populations are up this year as they have been in recent years. However, this trend is only temporary due to continued loss of farmland and nesting cover, according to Jay Rober-son, Rober-son, Wildlife Resources upland game supervisor. Last year, 84,868 hunters harvested 228,442 pheasants. The daily bag limit for pheasants is two cocks and the possession limit is four cocks. Some areas of the state have extended pheasant hunting seasons. In Duchesne and Uintah counties, coun-ties, the season is November 7-22. In Box Elder, Cache, Davis and Weber counties, the season is November 7-20. On all state and federal lands in Carbon, Car-bon, Duchesne, Emery, Grand, Juab, San Juan, Tooele and Uintah counties, the pheasant season is November 7 through December 6. About 90 percent of Utah's pheasant hunting occurs on private farmland, says Roberson. Since only about 4 percent per-cent of Utah is cropland, large numbers of hunters are concentrated in very small areas, about 40 hunters per square mile. This figure is twice as high as for most midwestern pheasant producing pro-ducing states with extensive cropland. About 16 percent of Utah's pheasant hunters will be hunting on posted pheasant phea-sant hunting units approved by the Division of Wildlife Resources. Roberson stresses that hunters must seek permission before entering private land. If hunters are to keep this privilege in the future, they must respect the property of landowners and police their own ranks. In previous years, conflicts have resulted when hunters have broken down fences, left gates open, shot near buildings or livestock, and allowed dogs to chase livestock. Under the law, persons may not shoot within 600 feet of any dwelling, dwell-ing, building, house, or enclosure where domestic animals are kept or fed. The pheasant hunting forecast for the Northeastern Region is as follows: In Duchesne County, hunting should ' be slightly better than last year. Habitat loss is minimal. Pleasant Valley, areas south of Roosevelt, and areas near Randlett should provide good hunting. The outlook for Uintah County is not as favorable. There are as many birds per acre, but habitat loss has been considerable. |
