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Show Streams Closed To Taking Of Beaver Several local streams were closed to taking of beaver to protect small populations important to watershed protection projects planned for those streams at meetings of the Utah Wildlife Board August 12-13 in Cedar City. The creeks involved are Bear Creek along Utah Highway 20, and Blue Spring Creek, Bunker Creek, and Deer Creek above Panguitch Lake. The Wildlife Board met for two meetings at Thorley Recital Hall on the Southern Utah State College Campus where four major topics were presented for Division of Wildlife Resources recommendations recommenda-tions and public input The four major topics were the adoption of new Cougar and Bear Proclamation, adoption of the new Furbearer Proclamation, adoption of the Waterfowl Proclamation and consideration of change of status for the magpie and crow. Although a large variet of interest groups attended, most everyone ev-eryone agreed the changes and adoption were acceptable. The Division of Wildlife Resources, Statewide Houndsmen Associations, Animal Damage Control, Utah Livestock groups, Trapping Associ ' ns, Utah Wilderness Ajsocii.,.- n all had representatives in attendance in addition to the public segment representing rep-resenting its own interests. The Wildlife Board made minor changes in the Cougar-Bear proclamation. procla-mation. Some of those changes are reducing the waiting period (before hunting after purchase of pern.. N from 30 days to 7 days, tightened up bear baiting regulations, and created a "pursuit only" area for bears in northern Utah. Ken Elowe, Mammals Program Coordinator for the Division of Wildlife, was happy with the outcome out-come stating "the DWR wants to be conservative in regards to the bear harvest, at least until some additional ad-ditional data can be collected from the two ongoing bear studies." During the Furbearer Proclamation Proclama-tion segment of the Board meeting, topics of most interest and discussion discus-sion were the regulations dealing with the harvest of bobcats. After much discussion and debate, the Wildlife Board decided to retain the same basic season dates with a limit of four tags per sportsman. Waterfowlers received the first split season duck hunt in Utah's history. In an effort to provide the maximum opportunity for open water hunting and also allow hunting hunt-ing during the Christmas holidays while still fitting into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife framework (of a maximum of a 79 days of hunting) the split season was adopted. The duck season will be October 3 through December 6, then reopen December 21 and end January 3, 1988. The goose season will open October 10 and continue through January 3, 1988 which also fits with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife framework. Tom Aldrich the Waterfowl Program Pro-gram Coordinator for the Division of Wildlife projects "an increase in fall flights from the Canadian prairies and an increased local duck production over last year, but still way below the long-time average." This is due to the fact that local waterfowl habitat in the Salt Lake area has been reduced as much as 85 percent by the increased water level of the Great Salt Lake. After years of protection, the status of the magpie and crows was changed to allow the harvest of either ei-ther year round. This was a result of crop damage in both commercial and garden areas. The Sevier Wildlife Federation had requested this review of status in a previous Wildlife Board meeting. |