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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah doesn't let hunters harvest that many trumpeter swans every fall; in fact, its quota is actually based on what the federal government allows each year.
However, hunters began to hit that quota well before the season ends, after state wildlife officials expanded the hunting boundaries in 2019. The 2022 swan season ended more than three weeks early when hunters reached the 20th trumpeter swan on Nov. 17. It marked the fourth consecutive year that the hunt ended early, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Now, in an effort to make it to the end of a season in December, the division is looking to drop trumpeter swan hunting and only allow hunters to nab tundra swans.
"We are hopeful that this change will prevent hunting opportunities from being taken away due to the early-season closures," Jason Jones, migratory game bird program coordinator for the division, said in a statement Wednesday.
While Utah permits swan hunting, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sets the quota for how many swans can be harvested. The cap for trumpeter swans is currently 20 birds because of the small population size of the Greater Yellowstone area swans, which fly through Utah.
But when the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources altered its hunting policy in 2019, it also changed all sorts of habits. People reached the trumpeter swan quota for the first time ever that year, the division's upland game coordinator Heather Talley said in a video presentation.
It also tweaked where trumpeter swans can be harvested. Prior to 2019, about a third of all harvests came at the Bear River Refuge, while another fifth came from the Harold Crane Wildlife Management Area near Willard Bay. Those sites only accounted for about 23% of all harvests over the past four years, while Public Shooting Grounds Wildlife Management Area in Box Elder County, where the species was never harvested before, now accounts for nearly ⅓ of the harvests.
Public Shooting Grounds also accounts for almost half of the harvest over the past two years, helping lead to the early season closure.
"(It) has been an unintended consequence of increasing the boundary to offer more opportunity," Talley said. "Additionally, there are more issues with targeting trumpeter swans in the last couple of years as well. The recommendation moving forward is to actually prohibit the take of trumpeters and only offer tundra swan permits."
Hunters must check in their swan harvests, trumpeter or tundra, with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, within 72 hours of the hunt, though, all harvested trumpeter swans will be confiscated by law enforcement, under the proposal.
Talley adds that the division plans to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on a long-term study to better understand the origin of trumpeter swans in Utah since the current restrictions are tied to the Greater Yellowstone area. This could take several years to complete, though.
"We're striving to find a short-term solution to the early hunt closure," she said.
The proposal is subject to approval by the Utah Wildlife Board. The board is scheduled to vote on the issue during its meeting at the Eccles Wildlife Education Center, 1157 S. Waterfowl Way in Farmington, on June 8. People can submit online public comments through the division's website until 11:59 p.m. on May 30 ahead of the meeting.
