After an extremely busy session, the Utah Legislature wrapped up on Friday, March 7. The chapter leaders of Utah Backcountry Hunters and Anglers tracked several bills this year and participated in multiple public comment opportunities to voice our support / opposition.

BHA members and supporters sent over 5000 messages to legislators in Utah opposing bills attempting to privatize our public trust resources.

This session was particularly exciting due to the restructuring of Utah’s Sportsmen’s Caucus to include an Advisory Council, which our chapter was fortunate enough to earn a seat on. In addition to Utah BHA, the Council includes major Utah conservation organizations, such as Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and MDF, among others. As a result, the council has significant influence on bills related to wildlife, hunting, and angling. To learn more about how the council works, we encourage you to read about our Vice Chair Caitlin Curry’s experience serving on it this past session.

Outlined below is a list of the most impactful bills our chapter monitored this year, including the sponsor, a description, whether it passed, and the impact it will have on Utah hunters and anglers moving forward. Please note the description included is brief and we encourage you to read the bill in its entirety for further information. 

Bills that Passed

H.B. 202 - Private Landowner Big Game Revisions

Sponsor: Representative Carl Albrecht

Chapter Stance: Oppose

Description

• This bill will allow landowners within Limited Entry (LE) Elk Units to apply for a bull elk permit to hunt their private land in the LE unit via a “landowner only” draw. To be eligible, landowners must own between 640 - 8,999 contiguous acres of land. A landowner can apply as many times as equal to the number of 640 contiguous acre blocks that they own. The number of permits for the draw in each unit is equal to 5% of the unit's bull elk quota. This 5% will be in addition to the permits available through the public draw (i.e., if a LE unit offers 100 permits, this new landowner draw will contain 5 permits. So a total of 105 permits will be awarded). These permits are transferable (i.e., they CAN be sold by the landowner).
• If a landowner on a LE elk unit owns between 4,000 and 8,999 contiguous acres, they are eligible for up to 2 additional bull elk permits. The Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) will authorize the permit(s) to the eligible landowner. These permits will be directly taken from the public draw (i.e., if a LE unit offers 100 permits, and a landowner is awarded 2 of these tags, then only 98 permits will be available via the public draw). These permits are also transferable.
• This bill also prevents any properties who are currently enrolled in a Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit (CWMU) or Landowner Association (LOA) from participating in these new landowner permit options.

Impact to Hunters and Anglers

• Our chapter dedicated the most time and resources combating this bill. It directly conflicts the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation by violating two key pillars:
  • Wildlife is a public resource managed for the public trust.
  • The allocation of citizen opportunity to harvest wildlife must be democratic.
• These violations establish a dangerous precedent for the future of our wildlife management. This risks the further success of our model, which is responsible for bringing back several species from near extirpation, including elk, deer, and turkey, among countless others.
• Furthermore, by allowing these permits to be transferable, Utah is supporting the privatization of our wildlife. 
• While landowners are free to profit off our wildlife, the public receives no tangible benefit from this program. This is in direct opposition to our CWMU and LOA programs, which do provide some benefit to the public. While we are supportive of the language that prevents individuals from leaving our CWMU or LOA programs for this new landowner program, we are deeply disappointed that the program offers no benefit to the public.
• Looking ahead, we will be closely monitoring the effects of this bill and continuing to oppose similar efforts to privatize public wildlife.

H.B 244 - Wildlife Management Area (WMA) Amendments

Sponsor: Representative Casey Snider

Chapter Stance: Support

Description

• This bill provides additional protections for the Great Salt Lake wetlands ecosystem through the creation of the Bear River Bay Waterfowl Management Area. It also removes restrictions on impoundments on the Willard Spur WMA and authorizes the DWR to be able construct structures only after forming and meeting with an advisory council consisting of affected stakeholders.

Impact to Hunters and Anglers

• The creation of the Bear River Bay Waterfowl Management Area will preserve critical habitat for our waterfowl, migratory birds, and various other species.
• This bill also explicitly states this new area must be managed for hunting, fishing, trapping, and wildlife viewing opportunities, which is a big benefit for hunters and anglers by protecting access.

H.B. 309 - WIldlife Amendments

Sponsor: Representative Casey Snider

Chapter Stance: Neutral

Description

• This bill is essentially the annual amendment bill to laws around wildlife management. One of the biggest changes is the requirement of individuals serving on our Wildlife Board and Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) to possess a hunting or combination license to serve. An exception was granted to members serving on RACs who represent the Agriculture community. This bill also requires any individuals who use state owned Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) to possess a hunting, fishing or combination license.
• It also provides clarification to the use of night vision/thermal for non-protected wildlife.

Impacts to Hunters and Anglers

• The only direct impact hunters and anglers will experience as a result of this bill is the changes to the use of night vision / thermal devices for hunting non-protected wildlife. For those that pursue these species, we encourage you to review the bill to understand how you’ll be impacted.
• By requiring individuals who wish to use WMAs to possess a hunting, angling, or combo license, the DWR could experience an increase in license sales. This in turn means more money for our wildlife and their habitat, which will positively impact our wildlife populations. If any friends or family like to recreate on our WMAs, please pass along this information so they’re in compliance!

H.B. 378 - DNR Funding Amendments

Sponsor: Representative Casey Snider

Chapter Stance: Support

Description

• This bill increases the funding of Utah’s “Species Protection Account”, which is meant to fund the protection, conservation and recovery of federally listed species and species of greatest conservation need as identified in the Utah Wildlife Action Plan. This list includes over 100 species of native wildlife, fish, and plants across our state. 
• The bill reinstates royalties related to the brine shrimp industry and imposes a tax on wind electric generation facilities, solar electric generation facilities, and direct current transmission facilities.

Impacts to Hunters and Anglers

• While hunters and anglers aren’t directly impacted, these new funding sources for the “Species Protection Account” will allow non-game species management to receive adequate funding support. This will ensure the DWR has the resources necessary to effectively study our most critical species and develop management plans to help prevent them from being listed on the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) without depleting funds generated from hunting license and tag sales.
• While only a few of these species are relevant to us as hunters and anglers (i.e., Greater Sage Grouse, Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse, Bonneville Cutthroat Trout, etc.), we are conservationists. As such, we should champion our non-game species and support legislation such as this that will help improve the recovery of our species that are most at risk.

S.B 0008 - State Agency Fees and Internal Service Fund Rate Authorization and Appropriations

Sponsor: Senator Scott Sandall

Chapter Stance: Neutral

Description

• Authorizes the Utah DWR to implement up to a 100% price increase for nonresident hunting licenses and permits.
• This bill was pushed through very late in the Session with no opportunity for public comment, nor were sportsmen consulted in the passage of this bill.
• The DWR has since acted on this legislation and considered price increases for non-residents. The agency recently announced the non-resident fee increases that will be implemented starting September 1, 2025. While there are price increases to licenses and tags outlined in the Division's press release, the price increases are less than the 100% increase authorization permitted in the bill. The DWR plans on leveraging this additional revenue generation for land acquisitions to protect habitat and hunting/angling access.

Bills that Didn’t Pass

H.B. 153 - Hunting Amendments

Sponsor: Representative Rex Shipp

Chapter Stance: Neutral

Description

• This bill would have restructured the regulatory authority of guides and outfitters for hunting and fishing from the Division of Professional Licensing to the Division of Wildlife Resources. It also provided definitions for commercial guides, outfitters, and spotters and clarified restrictions on the number of paid individuals a hunter hiring a guide service can use.
• While this bill wasn’t directly related to BHA’s core focus, we did think that it could have been an important shift to highlight for our sportsmen and women in Utah.

What’s Next?

• Although it didn’t pass, Rep. Shipp listened to feedback from hunters and the guiding / outfitting community to amend this bill multiple times throughout the session. We will keep you updated should this bill resurface in the interim session.

H.B. 386 - Public Water Access Amendments

Sponsor: Representative Scott Chew

Chapter Stance: Oppose

Description

• Current law allows the public to touch the streambeds and banks on navigable waterways where the waterway flows through private lands, but not on non-navigable waterways. However, this bill would have solidified that the only way to prove navigability is through litigation and places the burden of proof on the public, which is not an adequate solution for the public. 
• It also would have changed the definition of navigability to make it even harder to prove our stream access rights in court. We strongly opposed this bill and negative feedback from the angling community effectively caused this bill to die in the House Rules Committee.

What’s Next?

• We may see a discussion around stream access emerge in the interim session. We will keep you updated with more information as it becomes available. 

Next Steps

Our chapter will be hosting an in-person legislative recap session in early April to discuss these above legislation further and answer any questions you may have. This event will be open to our members and the general public, which will provide you the opportunity to learn more about the work we’re doing throughout the state.

In addition to our legislative recap, our board will now be shifting our policy focus from the legislative session to the Regional Advisory Council (RAC) and Wildlife Board process. The first cycle will occur in early April and will include big game permit recommendations for this coming season. Our chapter reviews every proposal during each cycle, and we will have representatives attend most RAC and Wildlife Board meetings to voice our support / opposition. To learn more about the Utah RAC and Wildlife Board process, click here.

If you have any questions or would like to talk more, please reach out to the following individuals: 

• Wes Moore (Legislative Analyst) - topics related to the legislation session / above bills.
• Adam Denison (Wildlife Board Coordinator) - topics related to the RAC or Wildlife Board process or how you can get involved. 

We appreciate your continued support and thank you for taking the time to learn more about how Utah policy impacts our public land access, wildlife, and their habitat.