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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources wants Utahns to know that fishing, hunting and other forms of outdoor recreation are for everyone.
To that end, the division recently embarked on an initiative to translate a number of its resources into Spanish. The hope is to make the activities more accessible for Utah's growing Hispanic population. About 15% of Utah is Hispanic and an estimated 313,400 Utahns who speak Spanish have limited English skills, according to Census data.
"It's, in my opinion, long overdue," division spokeswoman Faith Heaton Jolley said. "We wanted to take some of these steps to make these activities more accessible and to let Utahns know how they can participate in wildlife-related recreation even if they've never tried it before."
So far the division has translated much of its beginner fishing content into Spanish. It hopes to translate hunting materials next year and could explore translating resources into other languages if budget permits. The division is also working on holding beginner fishing clinics in Spanish.
Translated resources include:
- A map of community fishing ponds.
- Instructions on buying a fishing license.
- A beginner's fishing video.
- Beginner fishing resources webpage.
- Tips for planning a fishing trip.
- Beginner fishing equipment.
- Some signage around community fishing ponds.
- 2023 fishing guidebook (which outlines the state's basic fishing rules for things like what kind of fishing equipment is permitted, bait and catch limits).
- Crayfishing tips.
The efforts are part of a broader push at the division to include communities that historically haven't participated in things like fishing and hunting.
"There's a lot of research that shows that people don't want to try activities that they don't see themselves in. If there's nobody else that looks like you doing this sport or this activity or this hobby, you're less likely to feel like you can do it right," Heaton Jolley said. "The driving force is just to make it so that this is accessible to everybody so they can see themselves in this, they can network with other people like them that participate in some of these awesome outdoor activities."
The division has partnered with a number of individuals from underserved communities, such as women and Latinos who are already avid hunters and anglers, to show that the activities are accessible. One of those is fisherman Joe Sanchez, of Ogden.
"I fish because it's exciting and fun. You never know what you'll catch, but you'll always have fun," Sanchez told the division in a Q&A. "I grew up in the 1990s, and the other neighborhood kids and I biked around the city from sunrise to sunset. We were lucky enough to live in a city with many lakes and rivers nearby, which allowed us to fish as much as possible."
The division is just the latest state entity to prioritize inclusive language access. Utah State Parks has had Spanish signage for years, the health department translated COVID-19 information, the Utah Driver License Division recently began offering driver's license tests in five new languages and Gov. Spencer Cox held his first dual-language town hall in Spanish last fall.
"It's not new to the state of Utah by any means to have translated resources," Heaton Jolley said. "It's just something that we are kind of diving into for the first time at the Division of Wildlife Resources specifically."
