Like the traveler in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” visitors to the Dairy Fork Wildlife Management Area near Spanish Fork face a decision. About three miles into the Dairy Fork trail, mountain bikers, OHV riders, equestrians and the like can continue along the main trail, which veers to the left another five miles. Or they can go right onto the Sky High trail.
Similarly, Utah lawmakers may come to a fork in the road next legislative session regarding some of the state’s most popular Wildlife Management Agencies, like Dairy Fork. For anyone who isn’t a hunter or fisher, the path they take may make all the difference.
Two separate interim legislative committees have begun discussing what tweaks should be made to a controversial new law requiring a fishing or hunting license to access Wildlife (or Waterfowl) Management Areas in Utah’s four most populous counties. And, at least initially, the committees have two very divergent approaches.
One solution expected to be presented to a committee this week keeps the license requirement intact. However it creates paths for free or discounted access, mostly via community service projects and education. The other solution, which has passed in committee, recommends getting rid of the license requirement altogether and returning to the way things were.
Rep. Nelson Abbott, R-Orem, brought the latter proposal to the Judiciary Interim Committee in September.
“We’ve had a really strong tradition in the United States of allowing hikers to access public lands,” Abbott told The Salt Lake Tribune, “and we shouldn’t be changing that.”
Read more at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.