If truth in advertising were in effect, the Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) would be called the Division of Hunting and Angling.

Don't believe it?

Then listen to John Weis, a professor of pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, who recently resigned from the Central Region wildlife advisory council (RAC).

"The entire structure of the RAC process dooms it from being an appropriate voice for the Utah public, the ostensible owner of Utah wildlife," wrote Weis in his resignation letter to DWR director Jim Karpowitz, who never offered a response.

Weis started thinking the RACs had a negative impact on wildlife and decided to join to make a difference. At first, he was positive, but has gone back to strictly negative feelings after seeing Utah's wildlife management process in action.

He feels he hurt management of big predators such as bears, cougars and wolves by speaking out for their conservation. For example, he says, he proposed doing away with bear baiting, where hunters leave old food to draw the animals in close enough to be shot. He, like many others, thinks the practice is unethical. The rule at the time allowed one hunter to have one bait.

"As punishment for me opening my mouth, my RAC recommended and the wildlife board approved two baits for one hunter," he said.

Weis said the entire wildlife management process is controlled by the powerful Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, a pro-hunting organization that raises thousands of dollars for habitat protection but is extremely anti-predator.

Shouldn't hunters and anglers who pay the bills to manage the state's wildlife resources and raise the cash to save habitat from development and improve it have the most say?

If that's the case, Weis, an avid angler who has often volunteered on conservation projects, said that government leaders should "quit telling us that wildlife is the property of the state of Utah."

Utah's wildlife management process is rigged to support a few big-game hunters.

For example, a requirement of the dedicated hunter program that gives special privileges in exchange for volunteer work requires members to attend a RAC meeting.

"The RAC meetings have enforced mandatory attendance by hunters such that any citizens who venture into a RAC meeting to voice opposition to a particular hunt are usually outnumbered 100 to 1," Weis wrote Karpowitz. "The level of intimidation which is certainly evident from where I used to sit is unacceptable."

He contends the Division of Wildlife Resources is not genuinely interested in the opinions of the RAC members, who get no chance to prepare in advance for what regulations the agency is proposing, and that the rare times a decision goes against Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, it is quickly changed by the DWR.

"This process actually insulates DWR employees from answering to the people of Utah," he said.

There is no denying the amount of good Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife specifically, and hunting and fishing license buyers in general, have done for Utah's wildlife.

But the reality is that the current decision-making system is rigged to increase big game herds such as elk and deer, often at the expense of a better, more holistic approach to wildlife management that recognizes the need for balance and the useful role predators play. So how about that name change?

wharton@sltrib.com