State investigations show that some Utah hunters support monitoring of tracking cameras during the hunting season

Dake Collins | Published 1:08 PM, November 30, 2021

The Utah Department of Wildlife Resources proposed a statewide ban on the use of tracking cameras during hunting seasons. The proposal would prohibit hunters from using tracking cameras to locate or monitor large game animals on public and private lands between July 31 and January 31, and prohibit the sale or purchase of camera information for hunting purposes in the state.

The current proposal will also prohibit hunters from using night vision equipment, such as night vision goggles and thermal imaging cameras, within 48 hours after hunting any large prey. The proposal also includes other less controversial rule changes related to the big hunting in Utah.

"We think these new rule changes are consistent with most of the public feedback we received during the investigation, and this will also help maintain a more sporting and'fair chase' hunting style in Utah," Covy Jones said. The regional competition coordinator, said earlier this year.

By reopening its proposal for public comment last week, DWR basically started where it stopped in August this year when members of the Utah Wildlife Commission voted to postpone receiving public comments until the state’s wildlife biologists To better understand how the hunting public feels about this technology.

To achieve this goal, the department conducted a survey in October and asked more than 2,000 Utah hunters what they think of tracking cameras and whether they should be regulated by the state. Wyatt Bubak, director of law enforcement at DWR in Utah, explained the investigation and disaggregated the findings in a video released last Monday.

The survey found that slightly more than half (or approximately 52%) of respondents support some supervision of tracking cameras. About 38% of respondents said that tracking cameras should not be monitored in any way, and the remaining 11% were neutral.

The survey asked about the comparison between built-in storage cameras and cellular gaming cameras, which can instantly send photos and videos to electronic devices such as mobile phones and laptops. The survey found that although about half of the respondents support the use of built-in storage cameras, more than two-thirds of the respondents oppose the use of transmission cameras during major competition seasons. A similar two-thirds majority also opposes the buying and selling of photos for hunting purposes.

"This is basically where individuals get location data and animal photos, and then they sell this data to others," Bubak said, adding that this practice has become more and more in the state in the past four to five years. universal.

The survey involved other important issues, such as limiting the total number of tracking cameras that hunters and outdoor vendors can use at any given time, and determining whether the rules for public and private land should be the same.

Several states across the country have regulated tracking cameras. At present, Montana, New Mexico, and New Hampshire have banned the use of mobile tracking cameras during the hunting season to a certain extent. Nevada went one step further and prohibited the use of all tracking cameras on public land between August 1 and December 31. (The state still allows tracking cameras on private land.)

Read the next article: Why do states have such different (and ambiguous) hunting regulations? Part of the reason is that we cannot agree on what morality is

At the same time, Arizona recently promulgated the country's most stringent dash cam regulations. The state’s latest regulations came into effect in January, prohibiting the use of all dash cams for reconnaissance and hunting throughout the year.    

The most recent investigation in Utah directly points to the existing regulations in the southwest neighboring state. The survey found that although almost half of the respondents support tracking camera rules similar to those in Nevada, only a third (approximately 34%) of respondents support a comprehensive, year-round camera ban like the one implemented in Arizona .

As Bubak explained, DWR used these survey responses to help formulate regulations that were raised again last week. The department is currently accepting public comments on this proposal and will continue to do so until midnight on December 27.

The Utah Wildlife Commission will vote on these proposed changes in early January. If approved, the new rules will take effect before the start of the 2022 hunting season.

Dac Collins is the news editor of Outdoor Life. His passion for fishing, river running, and exploring the outdoors has made him ubiquitous from East Tennessee to West Alaska, where he spent many summers guiding remote fly-in fishing trips. Dac lives in central Texas with his wife Emily and their dog Willow. He spends his free time chasing perch in the rivers of Hill Country and looking for red fish on the coast.

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