June 30th, 2009 @ 11:40am
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's wildlife agency has bought more than 5,700 acres in Duchesne County that's prime habitat for deer, elk and sage grouse. Mike Canning, habitat section chief for the state Division of Wildlife Resources, says the deal that closed Monday is the agency's largest land buy in at least a decade. The agency paid $850,000 for the land northeast of Fruitland. It was paid for with money from land sold last year near Roosevelt and donations from the Mule Deer Foundation. State officials say the land will be good wintering ground for elk and deer. They hope it will mean fewer wild animals eating crops on neighboring farms. The land will also be open to hunters. The property will be protected from development and become part of the 42,000-acre Tabby Mountain Wildlife Management Area.
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Sounds like a new spot to find some sheds [cool]
Do you have a map of where this is at?
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This is great news. I own a small lot on mt. tabby. Guess I'd better look into this wma a little more and see what opportunities it may have. thanks for sharing.
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I took this off of KSL yesterday.......
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I think you forgot to attach something [cool]
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What was printed above was taken off KSL website... thats what I meant and that was all it showed.... No maps or other info, just that......
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Hmmm...
I wonder if it's in the "Any Bull" area. I know where Tabby Mountain is, but I can't find a map of the WMA anywhere. I have a book that shows all the WMAs but I let someone borrow it. Dang! [:/]
I'll send the biologist a email and ask if I can get a google map or somehting. I'll be back [
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If it's where I think it is, it is a spike only area, I've been told it is on the West side of the highway going from Highway 40 to Hanna but I'm not sure. I'll be spending some time down in that area next weekend fishing and checking on my trail cams, maybe I can find out more info.
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See what you can find out, I wouldn't mind taking a trip down there to check things out if it's a "Any Bull" unit. If it's wintering ground for LE elk, I wouldn't mind taking a trip down to look for some sheds too.[
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That's actually the area I took my LE bull in back Nov. of 2006. I'll be hunting West of there on my CWMU deer hunt this year.
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Good luck with that CWMU tag. I hope you get treated fair, and not screwed over.
I had a buddy put in for a CWMU that I knew had great draw odds and good bucks on it. He drew the only tag they had, and was really excited about it (I was too [cool]).
I had called the operator before he even put in for the tag and talked to him about expectations and rules. Everything sounded awesome until he actually drew the tag. The owner called my buddy and told him the exact opposite of what he had told me. He said to not plan on anything big and to make sure and bring a generous tip for the guide.
What a crock of crap!!!! [crazy]
I'm soooo sick and tired of these CWMUs!!! I have researched almost everything in Northern Utah and talked to tons of owners and they are all two-faced SOBs. The only thing worth putting in for up here is Deseret, The rest of them can kiss my butt.
I haven't done any research on those central CWMUs so I hope you get some good people working for you. As for me, I'm done with this crap. I'll keep shooting cows on a certain CWMU, but I'm putting in for the Book Cliffs from now on for deer.
I still have hope that my buddy will run into a nice buck and still have a good hunt, but you never know [:/]
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I don't think there will be any guides and I was told by the operator that I could use my ATV and that they would show me the area prior to my hunt. My Buddy that lives in Fruitland says the operator is a pretty decent guy and he hasn't heard of any one complaining about the hunts they drew there. His friend who is the local CO drew an LE archery elk tag for the unit this year, so we will see how his hunt goes. The one CWMU unit to stay away from is the Weber Florence Creek unit, it totally sucks at least on the elk hunt. You are very limited on the old 1000 Peaks ranch where you can hunt. It's pretty much groomed for the paying hunters. The State has had alot of complaints on this unit but hasn't done a dang thing about it.
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That's funny, I actually called the operator of Weber Florence Creek to ask about the public hunts. He was a total jerk and I basically had to hang up on him because he was so rude about the whole thing. Funny how money influences peoples lives.
The CWMUs that offer 1 tag to the public are the ones that drive me nuts. You would think that if you only had to give up 1 tag to the public, you could provide a decent hunt for a guy. I can imagine some CWMUs get frustrated with a bunch of public guys running around, but come on! 1 guy, 1 hunt, once a year, and they still have to make life a living hell for the lucky guy. You draw a once in a lifetime tag and the guys treat you like piece of crap, what a distgusting way of life for those money hungry bass turds.
Anywho [crazy], sounds like your hunt should be good. Shoot us a big one [
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The DWR could fix that problem if they would cut some of these CWMU operator tags that have complaints against them or eliminate them from the program all together. I guess it's just another part of the beurocracy ( I know I spelled that wrong) that we have to live with.
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Not sure if you have ever been to the CWMU program webpage,([url "http://www.cwmuutahwildlife.org/rules.htm"]http://www.cwmuutahwildlife.org/rules.htm[/url]) it's pretty funny. These are the goals listed for the program
1. Ensuring comparable hunting opportunities for all CWMU hunters
2. Changing the current CWMU split ratios without resulting in lost income to the operations, while increasing public hunting opportunities.
3.Development of a program to compensate landowners who provide bug game habitat but are not eligible to participate in the current CWMU program
4. Increase the opportunity for Utah public hunters to hunt bull elk in Utah.
They are supposed to have meetings every month to discuss how the goals are going. The last time they met was 2002 [crazy]. These guys don't care about the public, they care about how much money they can get per animal and that's about it. I have fought this issue many times with the DWR and the CWMU program coordinators. Most of the guys know who I am and they hate my guts, but oh well. Just trying to help out my fellow poor outdoorsman. Looks like we will never win, cause we don't have MONEY.
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[#400080]One of the biggest problems of the CWMU's hunts is the flexibility offered to the operators. The one I dealt with had a 2 month (give or take) season. Of course, the operator wanted to push the public hunter to the worse time of year.[/#400080]
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[#400080]They should state the exact dates available to hunt. These dates should equal the opportunity of the paying hunters.[/#400080]
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[#400080]We had a decent experience. However, there were still a few problems. Having said this, I will never ever risk a CWMU hunt. Tags are too hard to come by and a public land LE unit is the way to go.[/#400080]
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[#400080]Packfan,[/#400080]
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[#400080]Sounds like you have a good one lined up. Best of luck and please post your experience when you are done.[/#400080]
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We shall see, only time will tell. The one thing right off the git go, and I think I posted this earlier, was that the guide book says this hunt is open to the public hunter until 10 Nov. That was not exactly the case, when I contacted the operator he told me that I could only pick 1 day in the Nov. time frame because everyone wanted those dates, DAH! I wonder why, couldn't have anything to do with the rut starting then could it? Kind of sucks, if I hold off for a good buck on the earlier dates and then drive 130 miles for a 1 day hunt in Nov. Two days in Nov. wouldn't have been quite so bad.
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