Southern Region RAC approves most deer permit increases amid drought concerns

The Southern Region Advisory Council on wildlife management voted to approve the Division of Wildlife Resources’ 2026 deer-permit recommendations for units that exceeded a 20% change threshold, despite concerns from some RAC members and local landowners about drought and long-term permit growth.

The motion to accept the recommendations as presented was made by Trevor Barstow and seconded by Bryant Johnson; the RAC approved it 7–2. Dax Mangus, the division’s regional supervisor, and Mike Wortel, the division’s big-game program coordinator, presented the recommendations and explained the data behind permit adjustments, which rely on classification surveys (buck:doe and fawn:doe ratios), adult-doe and fawn survival from GPS-collared animals, and harvest-report information fed into population models.

Why it mattered: public commenters and some RAC members argued the division should tread carefully in drought conditions and re-evaluate units with long-term tag growth. Andy Monroe of the Oak Creek Landowners Association told the RAC that Oak Creek tags have risen from roughly 30 tags to 67 over the last decade and urged the council to recommend holding increases until the mule-deer mid-plan review. The division said units with smaller year-to-year changes (under 20%) are handled as informational items and therefore were not before the RAC for action tonight.

Key questions and responses: landowners asked how management tags are allocated and whether increased permits result in additional landowner tags; staff said landowner allocations depend on statutory formulas and property acreage thresholds and may lag a year. On the Paunsaugunt, the division explained that 10 cactus-buck permits were shifted to management-buck permits because harvest success of cactus-buck tags declined and the management tags help control buck:doe ratios.

Public comment: Twelve written comments were summarized for the record on the deer-permit item; about half supported the recommendations, and the remainder were split. Oral public comments included expressions of general support from Utah Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and calls for caution from local landowner associations and Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (SFW), particularly for units affected by fire and drought.

Outcome and next steps: The RAC’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Wildlife Board for final action. Dax Mangus noted the board will review the region’s recommendations and that staff can bring further adjustments if conditions change over the summer.

"We're using the data we have to look forward and say, if I issue this many permits, my buck-to-doe ratio is likely to be within this range after the hunt," Mike Wortel said, describing the modeling used to set permit numbers. The council closed the item and moved to the next agenda topic.