The earliest records of Utah wildlife are preserved in the petroglyphs andpictographs of the Fremont Indian culture (A.D. 500 to 1300). The mostprominent species noted was the bighorn sheep, seen in artwork in both thedeserts and mountains of the state. Other species depicted include deer,snakes, buffalo, elk, pronghorn, lizards, cougars, and ducks.

The first historic record was provided by the Dominguez and Escalanteexpedition in 1776, in whose records a wide variety of species were noted,ranging from buffalo near present-day Jensen in the Uinta Basin, to trout inthe Strawberry River and Utah Lake, to rabbits and hares near the Sevier River.These explorers too found bighorn sheep abundant, this time in the vicinity ofthe Colorado River in southeastern Utah.

For a short period (1825 to 1840) the fur trade brought numerous trappingexpeditions to northern Utah. Beaver was the primary target of their efforts,although river otter were also trapped incidentally. Almost without fail,these expeditions noted almost without fail the abundance of bighorn sheep andbuffalo. Other species prominently mentioned by these explorers included themore "visible" species like pronghorn, coyote, bears, deer, and "immensenumbers" of ducks at the Great Salt Lake. By the end of this period buffalohad been reduced to remnant populations.

The first scientific inquiry into Utah's wildlife resource occurred when S. F.Baird of the Smithsonian Institute collected and preserved specimens as part ofthe Stansbury Expedition of 1849-1850. This work classified and identifiedmany new species, particularly reptiles. Jules Remy, a French naturalist whopublished two volumes about his journey to Salt Lake City in 1855, noted, amongother things, the presence of the "Virginian deer" (white-tailed deer, which isno longer present in the state).

When the pioneers arrived in Utah, wildlife represented both benefits andproblems. Fish became a significant part of the pioneer diet, particularlywhen crop failures occurred. At other times, hunting parties were formed torid the early settlers of "pest" species. One such hunting company reportedthe killing of "2 bears, 2 wolverines, 2 wild cats (bobcat), 783 wolves(probably both coyotes and wolves), 400 foxes, 31 mink, 9 eagles, 530 magpies,hawks, owls, and 1626 ravens."

Exploitation was the over-riding principle of federal resource policy until1891 when the Forest Reserve Act was enacted. Thus, for the half-centuryfollowing pioneer entry into the Salt Lake Valley, Utah wildlife and itshabitat was subject to the settlers need to subdue the land for their ownsustenance.

Perhaps man's greatest influence on current wildlife habitat, and thus, thecurrent nature and distribution of Utah's wildlife resource, was livestockgrazing during this era. By 1885 some 200,000 cattle and one million sheepwere grazing the state. The impact of such numbers was evident by the 1890'swhen severe competition between the cattle and sheep industries occurred.Although overgrazing by livestock was evident by the turn of the century,livestock numbers continued to increase - 400,000 cattle and 3.8 millionsheep.

With the establishment of the forest reserves came the hope of regulatedgrazing on a portion of Utah's public lands. However, it would be anotherthirty years before significant change was even initiated on the nationalforests. On the public domain (presently administered by the Bureau of LandManagement) there was not yet a legal entity charged with managementresponsibility for these lands.

Although the first hunting seasons for big game and game birds wereestablished in 1876 (big game season was from July through December), wildlifecontinued to be subject to direct exploitation. With the buffalo gone andbighorn sheep considered scarce, those elk, mule deer, and pronghorn which werenot moved out of their native habitat by enormous livestock numbers were huntedto the brink of extinction. Both elk and pronghorn were given completeprotection by the Legislature in 1898, at which time the State's elk herd waslimited to a few animals on the north slope of the Uinta Mountains andpronghorn were estimated at less than 700 animals. With big game in decline,other species were also exploited. A typical late-nineteenth century accountreported four Great Salt Lake shooters "filled the wagon bed" with ducks.

Fisheries were also exploited. The territorial legislature passed a law thatattempted to "prevent the needless destruction of fish" as early as 1853. Yetthe commercial trout fishery established at Utah Lake was in decline by themid-1860s and was essentially eliminated by the 1890s.

As this kind of indulgent fish and wildlife use became more common a group ofcitizens organized the Sportsmen Club in Logan in 1894 to combat "wantondestruction" of fish and wildlife. When Utah became a state in 1896 theDepartment of Fish and Game was incorporated into its constitution; thus,Utah's citizens gave official recognition to management of fish and wildliferesources for the first time.

Near the turn of the century, Utah citizens began to recognize the need torectify some of the resource problems created by the settlement of the lasthalf-century. This recognition, coupled with a "custodial" approach to naturalresources, formed the management framework for the first half of the twentiethcentury. Custodial management was characterized by maintaining existing landuses while reacting to major impediments to such use. Thus, such activities asfire suppression and predator control were initiated to help maintain existingland use patterns.

In this same spirit, wildlife management activities included the opening ofthe State's first fish hatchery in Salt Lake City in 1899, which begansignificant efforts to restock depleted fisheries. And, with the realizationprotection alone would not restore elk populations, 155 elk were reintroducedto six areas from the Yellowstone Park area between 1912 and 1915. This effortwas so successful that the Board of Elk Control was established in 1927 toregulate the now increasing elk populations and their resultant conflict withprivate property interests.

Custodial management of range livestock continued to degrade range resourcesfor both livestock and wildlife. Cattle numbers peaked by the early 1920s atone-half million although domestic sheep numbers had declined to about 2.5million. The poor range and habitat conditions which resulted from this levelof grazing were soon realized to be a major impediment to sustaining existingland use patterns. As a result, a long and arduous effort on Utah's nationalforests to reduce grazing began in 1920 and ended in about 1970 with alivestock reduction of 50 to 60 percent.

In 1934 the Taylor Grazing Act attempted, among other things, "to stop injuryto the public (domain) grazing lands by preventing overgrazing." A federalDivision of Grazing was thus created; however, little was accomplished relativeto the control of overgrazing. The Bureau of Land Management was formed by themerger of the General Land Office and the (then) Grazing Service in 1946, whichinitiated the slow process of range management reform begun by the ForestService some fifty years earlier.

In 1933 the name of the Board of Elk Control was changed to the Board of BigGame Control and its powers extended to include all big game species. This wasnot without reason in that the once small mule deer herd had begun to grow.The problem range conditions generated during the previous forty years had nowbegun to prove beneficial to mule deer. Heavy livestock grazing had depletedgrassland types in favor of forb and browse types, both key elements of muledeer habitat. From 1925 to 1949 the harvest had increased from 1,400 animalsto more than 73,000 animals, yet mule deer were still consideredoverpopulated.

By the 1950s the habitat recovery from earlier resource exploitation wasbeginning to have a greater influence on the fish and wildlife resources ofUtah. In addition, human demands for both consumptive and non-consumptive fishand wildlife use were still far less than the supply. Conservative hunting andangling regulations imposed by the Utah Fish and Game Department coupled withstrong support for such regulations by sportsmen had long since eliminated theimpact of over-harvest. These factors, along with reduced competition fromlivestock grazing and the resultant gradual improvement of habitat, led topopulation increases in many wildlife species by the 1960s.

The species which responded particularly well to these changing conditions wasthe mule deer, which necessitated an increased management emphasis on thespecies by the Utah Fish and Game Department. The agency instituted either-sexdeer hunting in 1951 in an attempt to control the population, but it was onlyin the late-1960s that mule deer populations came more into balance with theirwinter ranges.

The mule deer management emphasis is somewhat typical of wildlife managementduring this era--that of featured species management. Those species whichcommanded public attention either because of public interest or conflict wereextended management attention. Habitat of these species was also givenattention by the federal land management agencies, the Forest Service and theBureau of Land Management. Range rehabilitation projects to benefit mule deer,and to a lesser degree, elk, were initiated in the 1950s and continue to somedegree today.

During this period the peregrine falcon was essentially extirpated from thestate due to reproduction problems caused by the use of the pesticide DDTthroughout its range in both North and South America.

The 1970s brought about a proliferation of laws, regulations, publicinvolvement, and legal process, that was generated by a sharply increasedinterest and activism by the public. With the creation of the Utah Departmentof Natural Resources in 1967, the Fish and Game Department became the Fish andGame Division, and four years later, the Division of Wildlife. This latteraction declared for the first time all wildlife not legally held in privateownership to be the property of the State. In 1976 some authority of theDivision was usurped with the passage of the Agricultural and Wildlife DamageControl Act, which placed control of various predator and "pest" species underthe jurisdiction of the Utah Department of Agriculture. However, jurisdictionover one of these, the bobcat, was returned to the Division in 1979. In 1986the legislature strengthened the Division's authority to manage wildlife bydeclaring all vertebrates plus brine shrimp and crayfish as protected speciesexcept those previously designated under the jurisdiction of the Department ofAgriculture.

The Division of Wildlife reorganized to include a Nongame Section in the early1970s and a Resource Analysis Section in 1978. The Nongame section becameresponsible for protection, propagation, management, and conservation of Utah's499 nongame species. The Resource Analysis Section was established to focus onwildlife habitat protection, land use planning, and environmental issues.

Nearly 64 percent of Utah is federal land, with the large majority managed bythe Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM): thus, federal lawwhich relates to natural resources is extremely relevant to the State's fishand wildlife. The first authorization for the Forest Service to managespecifically for wildlife habitat came in the form of the Multiple-UseSustained-Yield Act of 1960. The Classification and Multiple Use Act of 1964game BLM similar authority, albeit only temporary. The Federal Land Policy andManagement Act of 1976 finally granted the BLM formal authority to identifyspecific areas "where special management attention is required" and designatedwildlife habitat as one of those areas.

Other federal legislation of significance includes the National EnvironmentalPolicy Act (NEPA) enacted by Congress in 1970 to ensure human activities wouldnot significantly impinge on the natural environment. This act required adocumented analysis of impacts on natural systems, but more important, NEPAbecame the anchor for public involvement in federal resource decision-making.Finally, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 gave federal protection to specieswhich are judged in danger of extinction over a significant portion of theirrange or which is likely to become so endangered.

The 1990s thus far have been marked by more intensive public scrutiny ofagency management activities than ever before. For example, controversy hasbeen the order of the day as in the case of elk management objectives, an issueraised by ranchers from throughout the state; in bear-hunting methods andseasons, which were challenged by animal rights advocates; and in predatorcontrol in designated wilderness areas, an issue raised by environmentalgroups.

Utah's current fish and wildlife resource is extremely diverse. Some 647vertebrate species inhabit the state at some point in their life cycle. Ofthese, 381 are considered permanent residents, which includes 126 mammals, 95birds, 82 amphibians and reptiles, and 78 fishes. These species represent asignificant component of the State's tourism industry. In 1985 nearly $400million was expended in association with fishing, hunting, and wildlifeappreciation activities. All fish and wildlife species form the basis for arecently created network of ninety-two wildlife-viewing areas throughout thestate. Viewing areas include short nature trails, wilderness hikes, riverfloat trips, and auto drive-by sites from the high elevations of the UintaMountains to the Mojave Desert type southwest of St. George. Wildlife takenfor sport and meat include ten big game species, twenty-six species ofwaterfowl, seventeen upland game birds and mammals, plus twenty-five species offish. In addition, some eighteen species are trapped as furbearing species.

Species which are listed by the federal government asendangeredinclude one mammal, the black footed ferret; three birds, including theperegrine falcon, bald eagle, and whopping crane; six fishes, including thebonytail chub, Colorado squawfish, humpback chub, June sucker, Virgin Riverchub, and woundfin minnow; and one reptile, the desert tortoise. In addition,the Utah prairie dog and the Lahonton cutthroat trout are listed asthreatened. These species, which fall under the jurisdiction of theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are classified endangered or threatened due tosignificantly decreased population levels caused by alteration of habitat, adiminished food supply, and/or a narrow range of distribution.

Some species noted by early trappers and explorers are presently absent fromthe state. These include the grizzly bear, wolf, wolverine, and white-taileddeer (originally limited in distribution). Many other species have undergonedrastic population fluctuations, most notably the buffalo, rocky mountainbighorn sheep, river otter, and peregrine falcon. The buffalo, has since beenreestablished through transplant programs and work is currently ongoing toreestablish the others. Although there is some disagreement as to the historicpresence of the mountain goat in Utah, the species has been reestablished inthe Wasatch, Uinta, and Tushar Mountains. As mentioned previously, pronghornand elk were nearly extirpated but were protected and subsequently reintroducedand reestablished throughout much of their former habitat.