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Wildlife board adopts deer permit recommendations; Beaver West limited-entry proposal reduced to 500 tags
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Summary
After public comment and RAC feedback, the Utah Wildlife Board approved the division's deer permit recommendations and accepted the division's updated proposal to reduce Beaver West limited-entry permits from 900 to 500 for 2025.
The Utah Wildlife Board on May 1 approved the Division of Wildlife Resources' 2025 deer permit recommendations, including a division-led revision cutting the proposed Beaver West limited-entry increase to 500 permits (down from 900).
Dax, the division's Big Game coordinator, told the board the change reflects public feedback from RAC meetings. "We had recommended 900 permits. Based on the public feedback that we received through the public process, we are modifying our recommendation to 500 permits, from 900 to 500," Dax said. He said the division and biologists felt a more conservative approach was appropriate while multiple changes (unit boundary change, altered buck:doe objective and restricted-weapons designation) are implemented concurrently.
Board members discussed monitoring and data collection. Kent Johnson, the division's special projects coordinator for big game research, described ongoing collaring and movement studies: "From the movement side of things... we put collars up on the Beaver from 2019 to 2021, and of those we only had 5 that actually crossed I-fifteen." Kent and other staff said collar and classification data will guide future permit adjustments and that changing unit boundaries will prompt increased monitoring effort on Beaver West.
The board accepted the division's overall deer permit package as presented with the Beaver West change. The motion to approve the recommendations was made by Kent Johnson and seconded by Bryce Thurgood; the transcript records the motion as carrying unanimously.
RAC votes varied: several RACs recommended acceptance as presented; the Southern and Northeastern RACs pressed for lower increases on Beaver West (Southern ultimately recommended reductions that influenced the division's revised recommendation). Public commenters included hunters and representatives of Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife who supported the division's revised recommendation.
Division staff said they will monitor the post-season buck:doe ratio, population estimates, fawn production and survival and may return next year with further permit changes if data support a larger increase. Big game results for the drawing were expected to be posted by May 15, the division noted.
