Hunters Meet with Sec. of Interior

It was great meeting Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar at the “public listening sessions” today, Aug 3rd. He was decked out in blue jeans, maroon cowboy boots and a bolo neck tie. He talked about about many issues regarding Utah’s environment such as oil and land leases, ATV’s – off road vehicles and how we’re going to preserve our land (open and close roads and trails). Also in attendance were Bob Abbey (Director, Bureau of Land Management), Nancy Sutley (Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality), Ralph Becker (Salt Lake City’s Mayor), Gary Herbert (Governor of Utah).

There were also many different organizations from many different parts of Utah and America in attendance. There were several hundred people in attendance.

We were able to meet Secretary Salazar face to face and we were given a limited amount of time to speak with him so we chose to ask a question regarding a pressing issue here in the west.

Here is the question we asked Secretary Salazar: “What is the federal government doing to stop the Canadian Gray Wolf from wiping out our elk and deer herds here in the western states? We know some wolf hunts have been established but what other steps is the government doing to protect our elk and deer herds?”

Unfortunately because he was asked 35 questions by 35 different people/organizations he was unable to answer our question. However, he promised that our question will be answered in a report that will be released in September.

After we asked our question and stepped down it was great to hear the support for us from other fellow hunters and sportsmen in the room. We could tell by listening to the applause and shouts that this is an important issue with sportsmen not only in Utah but here in the west.

During the 2 hour meeting they talked several times about protecting our lands for hunting and fishing. We were actually pleasantly surprised how pro hunting and fishing the meeting was. They also talked about preserving our heritage which obviously is very important to almost all sportsmen across America.

Salt Lake City Mayor Becker was quoted as saying “Having land for us and our children to hunt and fish.”

They also talked about how our youth are losing touch with the outdoors and how we can educate our youth about the outdoors so they’ll love going hunting, fishing, camping and hiking.

We want to thank everyone who emailed us with questions to ask Secretary Salazar, we gave your questions to him and he took them from us and again stated that “all questions will be answered in a report that will be released in September.” We will post the full report on our site as soon as it comes out.

Secretary Salazar also stated that he does read and check the emails he receives from people. If you ever have an issue please send your opinion or idea to him. We will keep his email address permanently posted on our site.

Here is Secretary Salazar’s contact email and website: feedback@ios.doi.gov – http://www.doi.gov/public/contact-us.cfm