The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) is proposing a ban on trail cams for big game hunting. This ban would only last during hunting season between July 31 and Jan 31. More and more states seem to see a need to ban trail cams during hunting season, or more extremely the entire year as did Arizona.
With technology advancing at what seems like a daily rate, trail cams become an ethical decision that must be made by each state. Trail cams can be very beneficial to help hunters take the most mature animal on the property, or help hunters that can’t spend all day everyday scouting.
Technology, Ethics, and Trail Cams
Internal storage SD card style trail cams are one thing, but with newer cellular cams the ethical gray line becomes even fuzzier. These cams will send photos and videos instantly to wireless devices for the hunter to see. So knowing when an animal is in the area is as easy as checking your phone or laptop.
UDWR has conducted a survey of 6,000 hunters, and believe the data shows that the majority of hunter agree that there should be some regulations on trail cams. About 52 percent.
While 63 percent of the hunters surveyed opposed the use of transmitting or cellular tail cams during hunting season. Only about half of the hunters surveyed opposed the internal storage cams. Cellular trail cam use during hunting season has already been banned in other states such as Montana, and New Mexico.
Another major controversy among trail cam users is selling the photos and location details of specific animals for hunting purposes. This has become a larger problem over the last few years.
“We feel that these new rule changes are in line with much of the public feedback that we received during our surveys, and that it will also help maintain a more sportsmanlike and ‘fair chase’ approach to hunting in Utah,” DWR Big Game Coordinator Covy Jones said according to the UDWR website.
UDWR is accepting public comments on this topic until December 27th
Other Possible Changes to Utahs Big Game Hunting Seasons
Along with possibly banning trail cam use during hunting season in Utah, UDWR has also purposed a change to ban any night-vision devices use to locate big game animals or attempt to locate big game animals within 48 hours before the hunt begins and 48 hours after the hunt has ended. This would include the use of any electrical device that enhances visible and non-visible light.
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