I read in this morning’s Tribune that our illustrious state Legislature has again taken Utah taxpayer funds and made a $500,000 donation to the anti-wolf lobbyist organization Hunter Nation, to educate midwestern hunters on the evils of protecting the gray wolf under the Endangered Species List. This is in addition to the $2 million awarded a few years back, and totals more than $5 million of Utah taxpayer funds to these organizations over a decade. $5 million of Utah taxpayer money used to lobby Congress that we need to delist the gray wolf, because it’s apparently decimating too much cattle and sheep in Utah? Or is it really about keeping a robust hunting season for the shrinking population of Utahns who still participate?
These are our tax dollars that could be used to improve Utahns’ lives — all Utahns’ lives — not just the hunters. How about putting more money towards the crisis with the Great Salt Lake — so conveniently back burnered because we kept getting more snow? Or how about allocating more funds toward getting pollinator plants in the ground throughout the state of Utah? Rep. Ashley Matthews’ HB224 was a great start.
I am not-so-patiently waiting for the day when the Utah Legislature will leave wildlife decisions up to the experts in the field — those scientifically educated like the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the like – instead of paying lobbyists to influence Congress to pass legislation “outside of their lane,” so they say. Mankind, in its infinite wisdom, keeps engineering Mother Nature and she has finally had enough.
We just lived through the most hideous, out of control 45 days of the Utah Legislature I’ve ever witnessed, and Mother Nature isn’t the only one who’s had enough of this clown show.
Rachel Taylor, Salt Lake City