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Show Anderson Reviews Status of Fish and Game Department While there is some exaggeration, I am convinced "that our deer are doing material damage in a number num-ber of places The deer management manage-ment problem is not an easy one to solve but it is not by any means hopeless. Eliminate emotion and politics and the situation can be kept on a practical basis. Utah can preserve its deer hunting if we accept the facts and make every effort to stop damage xo private property. We must keep a practical big game man constantly in the field to aid our wardens on deer and elk problems. "We must have fish hatcheries because we cannot depend on natural na-tural propagation. We have a fine system of fish hatcheries in Utah, but they have one fatal, fault they are too artificial. We need more natural rearing ponds. It would be better to have six hatcheries hatch-eries with adequate natural rearing rear-ing ponds than the 12 with very little natural rearing pond capa.-1 city. r'.'As . to beaver management, Anderson An-derson said the policy is sound and is working out better than anticipated. anti-cipated. "We are favoring the land owner on issuing trapping permits wherever beaver are found on private pri-vate land. A considerable annual harvest of beaver fur can be taken tak-en without diminishing the stock. The plan of keeping a beaver manager in the field should be continued. Mark Anderson, who has resigned resign-ed as director of the Utah fish and game department, effective the first of June, today issued a report on the status of his department de-partment and listed several recommendations recom-mendations which he urged to be adopted in future administrations of fish and game in Utah. His report, made public to the press, follows: First, the financial status of the department. Finances, he said, are excellent the best in the department's depart-ment's history. Revenue in 1941 reached the all time high of $426,000. In addition to this, the department in 1941 received $48,000 in federal funds under the Pittman-Robertson program. pro-gram. This was Utah's share of the Federal excise tax on guns and ammunition. "Our expenditures," he continued, "during the first quarter of the present year totaled $65,123.45 as compared to an expenditure of $87,455 for the fast quarter of 1941. The difference results mainly main-ly from the greater amount" of construction work last year. We are doing only necessary maintenance mainten-ance work at the present time. The fish and game department should be able to keep its expenditures below $300,000 for the year 1942 which will no doubt be within the revenues for the year, allowing for a 25 per cent reduction in revenues reve-nues due to war pressure. "We now have approximately $200,000 on hand the greatest amount that the department has ever had at this season of the year. Last November we paid off I the balance of a loan of $45,000 the department owed the state land board." Relative to the department's administration, ad-ministration, Anderson made this statement: "Our fish and game commission set-up needs some revamping. It should be non-partisan, not bipartisan. bi-partisan. It should sit as a civil service body and select the personnel per-sonnel of the departent free from political pressure. It must either go into the details of administration administra-tion thoroughly or leave the details entirely to the director. If the commission is to go into details, it must spend full time on the job and be paid accordingly. "With a salary of $100 a year per commissioner and a once a month meeting, it can only decide matters of general policy. "Utah now has deer hunting that is equal to, if not the best In America Stockmen and landowners land-owners throughout the state are vigorously demanding a drastic reduction re-duction in the deer population. |