Utah raises money for wildlife through permit auctions
Published January 16th, 2007
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources regularly sells hard-to-get hunting permits as a way to raise money to expand the population of wildlife.
Hunting tags from 11 states, Canada and Mexico and the Navajo Nation will be available this week at banquets tied to the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo in Salt Lake City.
David Meyer of Memphis, Tenn., spent $156,000 for a Utah tag that allowed him to kill just one mule deer in 2006.
“I bought that tag for the opportunities it gives myself and my family to fund conservation projects to benefit all mule deer in Utah,” Meyer said.
“If that money wasn’t slated for conservation, I’d go through the drawing process for a chance to take a trophy animal just like everybody else,” he said.
The Utah wildlife agency is providing 359 permits, ranging from moose to bison to turkey, to hunting groups for auction this year.
Utah requires 30 percent of the winning bid be returned to the state. The hunting group that sells the permit can return another 60 percent to the agency or use the money for its own conservation efforts.
The state has raised more than $9.5 million in the past 10 years and expects to collect more than $2.5 million this year.
