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Show FISH AND GAME DEPT. RECEIVE FEDERAL FUNDS Utah will receive almost one million dollars in federal aid funds for fish and wildlife programs pro-grams in 1971. it was announced today by Acting Secretary of the Interior, Fred J. Russell. Pittman-Robertson funds, earmarked ear-marked for wildlife restoration work, will total $613,425 and Dingell-Johnson funds for fish work will bring in another $217,736. Wildlife funds are derived from the federal excise tax on sporting arms and ammunition; f:sh project monies come from a similar tax on certain sport fishing equipment. Funds are made available through Interior's Inter-ior's Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. Under terms of the federal law, states receive amounts based on formula using us-ing the states' area and the .number of its fishing and hunting hunt-ing license holders. The staes initiate the projects and are reimbursed re-imbursed for up to 75 percent of the cost. Projects which qualify include in-clude acquisition of land and water for wildlife and for public pub-lic use, improvement of wildlife wild-life habitat, development of facilities fa-cilities as well as research. FXPAND FISHING OPPORTUNITIES Fishing opportunities in Utah are more varied .now than at any other time in the State's history. In the past 17 years, the angler's choice of waters and the variety of fish species available have expanded considerably. con-siderably. Since 1953, 41 new impoundments impound-ments have been added to the fishing waters of the state. During Dur-ing the same period, several new species of fish cere introduced intro-duced to provide additional angling an-gling opportunities. These introductions intro-ductions include white bass, walleye, bluegill, northern pike, and crappie. The addition of new fishing waters is a boon to the sportsman, sports-man, but it creates an added responsibility for the Division to provide fish, fish management manage-ment programs, and law enforcement en-forcement for these areas. If the revenue generated by license sales fails to keep pace with this added responsibility, the Division will be unable to maintain fishing at its present level. |