I gotta get in this.
1st- Why isn't poaching a felony in Utah? I can't seem to get a straight answer on this from the DWR. I hear that a dead elk/deer isn't valuable enough to be a felony, but then I see that Deseret charges $15,000 for an elk. Steal $15,000 from a bank(with a firearm) and its a felony.
2nd- I can't help but notice that landowners(CWMU)can incorporate public land in their operations. How do they get to use public land, then lock their gates and [beeep] about trespassing?
3rd- If you draw down on anyone for trespassing, not invading your home, but out on a ditchline hunting pheasants whether trespassig or not, your an idiot!
4th- We allowed this to happen to ourselves. We sit around and watch as the state creates (CWMU) which then creates a commercial market for animals on land. Notice the original poster doesn't say what they paid the state for the elk on their land. A CWMU sells, hunts, and runs a buisness on the animals that cross their property. Where did these elk come from? The state doesn't stock private ponds with fish, yet CWMU's have public animals on private land, and run a commercial buisness killing them. Without the CWMU, their wouldn't be such a closed off mentality. And before I hear about how "we feed them, they damage fences, etc". First, their would be more feed on the mtn without grazing(not against it, you just can't feed off public land, then [beeep] about animals on your private land), second, if an elk or deer is such a pest and so destructive, don't you want them gone? Wouldn't you let anyone kill as many as possible? I have yet to ask a cow or sheep man for permission to hunt coyotes and been turned down. Why? Coyotes are destructive to their livelyhood and they want them dead. Northern Utah is pretty much closed. Want to make land more accessible, get rid of the market. That $15,000 elk at Deseret sets the market. Without that market we would most likely have trespass fees, or perhaps the DWR could give landowners a few premium tags(instead of cow or doe tags) as compensation for walk in access. Private land is private land, but out here in the West, WAY TO OFTEN, public land is private land!!!