Keith Lusher 07.24.25
Simply weeks after implementing a controversial new regulation requiring searching or fishing licenses for all customers of Wildlife Administration Areas, Utah officers are already backing down on their WMA license requirement in response to public outcry. The about-face facilities on the favored Bonneville Shoreline Path at Timpanogos WMA in Orem, the place path runner Kyle Burgess sparked statewide debate when he was stopped by an officer and instructed he wanted a fishing allow simply to run the path.
Park Protection on AllOutdoor
WMA License Requirement in Utah
Home Invoice 309, which took impact in Could, required anybody over 18 to have a searching or fishing license to entry any of the 30 WMAs in Davis, Weber, Salt Lake, and Utah counties. The regulation utilized to all actions, together with climbing, biking, and path working. However after Burgess posted his encounter on Instagram, producing tons of of feedback and widespread criticism, state companies scrambled to discover a answer. Chelsea Duke, wildlife lands coordinator for Utah’s Division of Wildlife Sources (DWR), admits the Timpanogos WMA introduced a “distinctive problem” as a result of it hosts a closely used path that pulls many non-traditional WMA customers.
Relatively than implement the unpopular requirement, DWR labored with the Division of Outside Recreation to create a particular use allow for the path. This permits hikers, bikers, and runners to make use of the Bonneville Shoreline Path portion with out buying a searching or fishing license. Duke says the collaboration between the “sister companies” particularly addressed suggestions from customers like Burgess who have been caught off guard by the brand new rule. The path additionally lacks a public easement, which difficult the unique enforcement method.
The reversal on the Timpanogos WMA path suggests Utah officers underestimated the general public response to their license requirement. When confronted with actual enforcement conditions and offended out of doors lovers, they shortly discovered methods to create exemptions. This raises questions on how the regulation can be utilized at different fashionable WMAs the place leisure customers vastly outnumber hunters and anglers. Will extra particular permits be created? Will enforcement be selective?
The Bonneville Shoreline Path spans 280 miles when full, although solely about 100 miles are presently designated. The Timpanogos WMA part was already fractured by the brand new license requirement earlier than officers reversed course.
For now, path customers can entry this fashionable part with out shopping for licenses they don’t need or want. However the fast coverage reversal exhibits how unexpectedly the unique regulation was applied, with little consideration for a way it will really work in follow.
It stays unclear whether or not different WMAs will obtain comparable particular use permits or if this exemption solely applies to the Timpanogos path. The regulation technically nonetheless requires licenses for the opposite 29 WMAs within the 4 affected counties.
