A recent bill in Utah will ensure that all future members of the state’s rule-setting Wildlife Board are license-holding hunters. The bill's author, Rep. Casey Snider says it’s a response to anti-hunting rule changes pushed by non-hunting fish and game commissioners in Washington State and Colorado.
HB309 has passed both the Utah House and Senate and is awaiting signature from Gov. Spencer Cox. Snider calls it a "cleanup bill” for the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources that contains multiple updates to wildlife management policies. One of the updates is a provision requiring all future members of the Wildlife Board to have held a hunting or hunting-fishing combination license for three of the last five years.
“The thought process being [that] to obtain a hunting license, you have to take hunter safety,” Snider said on Tuesday, March 4, speaking before the state's Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee. “You have to fully understand all the rules related and laws related to hunting and qualify through a moderately difficult marksmanship lesson. You have to know how to shoot and you have to know how to hunt."
Snider was explicit in stating his motivations for adding the provision to his annual DWR clean up bill. "In other states—Colorado, Washington—we are seeing an effort to undermine wildlife policy through the appointment of these boards," he said. "In Washington, you're seeing predator hunts basically demolished because individuals who do not participate in the sport of hunting are gaining access to those and are fundamentally rewriting the laws."
In his remarks about Washington, Snider seemed to allude to a 2022 rule change by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) that outlawed the state’s long-running spring bear season. That controversial change was implemented by WDFW’s Fish and Wildlife Commission against the recommendations of the state’s top bear biologist at the time—Stephanie Simek. Simek, who argued that Washington’s black bear population was robust enough to support its now-banned spring season, has since left WDFW and now serves as the Executive Director of the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department.
In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis has made controversial appointments to the state’s Wildlife Commission in recent years who have “ties to anti-hunting stances,” according to the National Rifle Association (NRA). “In August 2024, Polis appointed two new members to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission—Jessica Beaulieu and Jack Murphy—who sparked controversy for their ties to anti-hunting stances,” NRA representative Ace Luciano wrote in a 2024 blog post on the organization’s website. “These new appointees have drawn criticism for openly supporting initiatives to limit hunting of certain species."
But Colorado voters and legislators have also beat back recent attempts to curtail hunting opportunity. In November 2024, the state voted down a ballot measure that would have outlawed all hunting and trapping for mountain lions and other big cat species. And just last week, a bill that sought to remove Colorado's statutory mandate to manage fish and game populations through hunting and fishing was soundly defeated.
Matt Anderson, the director of the Utah Sportsmen's Caucus, spoke in favor of Snider’s bill during the March 4 hearing. "We think it's great policy, [and] especially like a portion about requiring hunting licenses for the wildlife board," he said. "Our interest will definitely be represented there."
Though popular with hunting groups, Snider’s bill did encounter opposition. In a statement provided to the St. George News a local nonprofit called Conserve Southwest Utah said that “by narrowing the State Wildlife Board to only those who purchase hunting licenses, we risk losing critical perspectives that help maintain balance and ensure long-term sustainability." Western Wildlife Conservancy Executive Director Kirk Robinson, speaking during the hearing, called the bill “discriminatory” and said it was “loaded with falsehoods.”
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Snider's bill also makes changes around wildlife management areas in the state, requiring that, in many cases, people using state-owned WMAs must possess a valid hunting license. Utah’s Wildlife Board is made up of 11 members who make final recommendations on wildlife policy and laws to the Governor. Right now, the board has four vacant positions that are set to be filled no later than August 2025. HB309 passed the Senate on March 5 and arrived on Gov. Cox's desk on Wednesday, March 12.
