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Show Newell 15. Cook : Speaks at Meeting With a view to making the fish in Rents lake available to fishermen fisher-men before they begin to taste of the mud into which they burrow as the season advances, it is probable prob-able that the season for this lake will this year be. opened to fishing about a month ahead of the regulation regu-lation opening. Newell B. Cook, state fish and game commissioner indicated that this could be done in the course of discussion at a 'meeting of the Beaver Fish and Game club, held Monday evening ' at Beaver. It was attended by a ! large number of Beaver people and representatives of sportsmen's sports-men's organizations from Milford, Farowan and Cedar City. The meeting was conducted by John K. Murdock, livewire new president presi-dent of the Beaver club, anil was held in the court house. Mr. Cook stated that it remained only for the Milford and Beaver ' sportsmen's groups to get together togeth-er on a proposed early opening date and advise his office in time to permit 20 days' notice and he would issue the necessary proclamation. procla-mation. Among the reports given was one by Joseph Jackson, detailing the fish of various sizes planted from the Beaver hatchery, and a count of the deer in Beaver county east of the Union Pacific tracks by Dudley Gillies of Beaver. Deer actually counted in this area, plus a small section lying in Iron county, numbered 6073 head, he stated, and there were probably enough more which escaped counting count-ing to bring the total to an estimated esti-mated 7000 head. Following the regular business of the meeting. Commissioner Cook gave an enlightening talk on what the department had accomplished, accom-plished, emphasizing the huge share of federal funds which had come to Utah in proportion to the state's share in the way of permanent perma-nent structures and other projects from which sportsmen and others will reap benefits for many years to come. In the course of his remarks. Commissioner Cook stated that, by careful management of the beaver within the state, it had been possible to turn in to the State more revenue from commission-handled pelts than the entire catch amounted to in the hey-day of unrestricted trapping' which had just about eradicated this val-' val-' uable little "engineer" from the 'state. Other facts brought forth: That ten new fish hatcheries had ; been constructed during his term of office; that the number of fish-planting fish-planting tanks had been increased from two to 12; that the annual plant of fish in Utah had been increased from four to 51 million; and that there had been an estimated esti-mated 200,000 pheasants killed legally last year. A good many fish had been lost in the past, Mr. Cook stated, by the complete draining of the water from reservoirs which had been planted and in which fish were doing well; adding that he had just been advised of the legality legal-ity of the department purchasing sufficient water to be retained in such reservoirs that would insure against such occurrences in the future. In conclusion, the commissioner stated that he was becoming in-nured in-nured to the panning he was constant- getting because he claimed that the sheepmen had been responsible re-sponsible for the destruction iof the ranges and were now looking for someone else on whom to heap the blame, all the while assuming jto dictate the big game policy of jthe state, though range sheep, i cattle and horses pay less than 2 of the taxes of the state! j Among those from outside Bea-! Bea-! ver who attended the meeting were ; Jack Miller, president of the Mil-l Mil-l ford WMldlife Protective associa-1 associa-1 tion, Sam Cline, Fred Jefferson and David S. Wiliams, all of Milford; Mil-ford; Robert Mitchell, president of the Parowan club and editor, of the Parowan Times; and El Roy Webster, vice-president of the Cedar City club and Claude Mac-Farlane, Mac-Farlane, an active member of that club. The latter stated that Dean Isbell of Cedar City, at his own expense, had planted some 250 channel catfish in the Minersville reservoir last year and that some which had been seen this year in the channel below the dam had been estimated to weigh six and seven pounds. Furthermore, he added, this variety of fish, consid; ered choice eating, were able to withstand low water and other unfavorable conditions and, with the start they had now and more to be added this year, this body of water could be considered stocked for all time. j |
