Are (CWMU/PHU) a benefit to Utah, the wildlife, sportsmen and the public?
Almost two decades ago, I was involved heavily in the sport of archery hunting. My favorite hunting spot was Southern Utah and the white cliff regions between Mnt Carmel Junction and Hatch Utah. The deer hunting was fantastic and the bucks were huge by todays comparison. I come to know the locals well and had gained their trust. I was given all but complete access to much of the private land in open unit area. For three years hunting was superb and then things started to happen that changed my whole hunting experience. Private lands almost over night started to close their doors to accessing their lands for hunting. We started to hunt more in-depth the public lands around the private land and still the hunting was good. Then the accesses roads to public property started to be gated off. Places that we had driven for years were now off limits.. Public roads started to have signs posted: "No Trespassing" and some were even illegally gated and closed. I started to hear the rumbling about a DWR enforcement officer out of the Cedar city office, who was taking over the area and starting a new private land movement of land closures to public hunters. My blood was boiling! I hated this man.... and if I ever met up with him I was going to give him a thing or two to think about. The new hated term was PHU.
One night while hiking out to my truck after a long days hunting, I arrived at my truck to find a Division truck parked next to mine. As I arrived, I greeted the officer and wished him a good day, asking if everything was all right? I put my bow in the back of the truck and proceeded to introduce myself. That is when I learned the officers name.....it was he, the devil the evil one who had ruined my life. The man who started the PHU program! He give me a warning about using a head lamp to come back to my truck after shooting hours. I proceeds to give him my thoughts.
This man and I are good friends now and he has retired and started a successful hunting consultancy business in southern Utah. My perceptions have changed a little, however I still have this aching question. Are Cooperative Wildlife Management Units working? Are we being provided better and more opportunities to hunt now after fifteen years of the program? Or have we lost something in the process.
What are your thoughts and experiences? Have you hunted on a Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit? What did you find and what did you expect?
Here is a link to a movie produced on the CWMU program: http://www.cwmuutahwildlife.org/
Almost two decades ago, I was involved heavily in the sport of archery hunting. My favorite hunting spot was Southern Utah and the white cliff regions between Mnt Carmel Junction and Hatch Utah. The deer hunting was fantastic and the bucks were huge by todays comparison. I come to know the locals well and had gained their trust. I was given all but complete access to much of the private land in open unit area. For three years hunting was superb and then things started to happen that changed my whole hunting experience. Private lands almost over night started to close their doors to accessing their lands for hunting. We started to hunt more in-depth the public lands around the private land and still the hunting was good. Then the accesses roads to public property started to be gated off. Places that we had driven for years were now off limits.. Public roads started to have signs posted: "No Trespassing" and some were even illegally gated and closed. I started to hear the rumbling about a DWR enforcement officer out of the Cedar city office, who was taking over the area and starting a new private land movement of land closures to public hunters. My blood was boiling! I hated this man.... and if I ever met up with him I was going to give him a thing or two to think about. The new hated term was PHU.
One night while hiking out to my truck after a long days hunting, I arrived at my truck to find a Division truck parked next to mine. As I arrived, I greeted the officer and wished him a good day, asking if everything was all right? I put my bow in the back of the truck and proceeded to introduce myself. That is when I learned the officers name.....it was he, the devil the evil one who had ruined my life. The man who started the PHU program! He give me a warning about using a head lamp to come back to my truck after shooting hours. I proceeds to give him my thoughts.
This man and I are good friends now and he has retired and started a successful hunting consultancy business in southern Utah. My perceptions have changed a little, however I still have this aching question. Are Cooperative Wildlife Management Units working? Are we being provided better and more opportunities to hunt now after fifteen years of the program? Or have we lost something in the process.
What are your thoughts and experiences? Have you hunted on a Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit? What did you find and what did you expect?
Here is a link to a movie produced on the CWMU program: http://www.cwmuutahwildlife.org/