By LaVarr Webb Managing Editor
UTAH FISHING & OUTDOORS, December 1, 1991
Tim Provan has a tough job, no doubt about it, As Utah's chief protector of wildlife, he has to juggle a lot of balls and balance more interests than any circus performer. You can bet that if deer hunters aren’t mad at him, then stockmen will be. And if ranchers are happy then elk hunters won't be. And if trappers are smiling, then animal rights activists will be frowning. And so on. The anger, disappointment and disagreement seem to make their way to Provan’s office.
There aren’t many more challenging jobs around than leading the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Provan has been doing it now for more than two-and-a-half years and the job isn’t getting any easier.
Managing wildlife today has become an incredibly complicated enterprise. It‘s not a matter of simply doing what is biologically best for Utah's wild animals. Wildlife management has become a political football with tremendous pressure from all sides, from interests that are in strong competition with each other.
Provan admits that sometimes the pressure gets to him. “Sometimes this job is more than I can take, probably because of my management style," he sighed during an interview in his office with Utah Fishing & Outdoors Magazine. “I tend to overtax myself because I like to be involved in everything. I create a lot of stress for myself. We face a lot of difficult decisions and problems and I like to get right in the middle of them."
In general, Provan feels good about the direction of the DWR and what is being done for wildlife. Wildlife enthusiasts today are able to see, hunt and fish for a greater variety of wildlife than ever before. And wildlife populations are very healthy in most cases. There have been some terrific success stories with elk, native cutthroat trout, the Green River and restoration of Strawberry Reservoir. Antelope populations are increasing and many other animals are doing better today than they have historically.
But the challenges are also great. Population growth and housing and business development mean encroachment on wildlife habitat. Growth and development mean more air and water pollution, fewer pristine streams, fewer places for wildlife to escape, and more pressure from wildlife users.
A major conflict also exists between agriculture and wildlife. As development pushes wildlife off traditional winter ranges, the animals are more and more pushed onto agricultural land. High populations of big game animals make hunters happy, but ranchers and farmers angry.
Provan is in the unenviable position of being damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t, He can’t win.
Wildlife management is also challenged by differences and disagreements in the “user community’ —— consumptive users (hunters, trappers and anglers) and non-consumptive users (birdwatchers, photographers, hikers and others who just want to view wildlife). On the far fringes of the non-consumptive users are the radical animal rights activists who are seeking to ban hunting and trapping through lawsuits and legislation.
Nationally, and to perhaps a lesser extent in Utah, a shift is occurring. The number of consumptive wildlife users is stabilizing or even declining, while the number of non-consumptive users is increasing.
Each group is suspicious of the other.
Tossed into this mix of challenges is a long-term funding problem that must be resolved if good wildlife management is to occur. Traditional consumptive users have paid for most wildlife management in the past. But with their numbers leveling off, funding shortages are likely to occur unless other revenue sources can be found. In addition, Provan faces a public relations problem with his state agency with the Division pulled in so many directions by so many different interest groups, no one is totally happy and few people understand what the DWR does and why it does what it does.
Many, many Utahns do not have a high opinion of the DWR and its actions. And without public support, the DWR can‘t fulfill its mission. To cope with all of this, Provan uses the word “balance" a great deal. He realizes he‘ll never make everyone completely happy, but he hopes to balance the competing interests. He also works hard at getting different interest groups together so they can compromise and work out an agreement among themselves. There must be proper balance between business and residential development and wildlife habitat preservation, between agricultural interests and wildlife interests, between consumptive users and non-consumptive users, between walleye anglers and trout anglers. Between fly fishers and bait fishers, and so on. He hopes to convince these disparate groups that they will accomplish more through compromise and dialogue than through confrontation and stubbornness.
As sportsmen and women, we ought to recognize that our own personal interests are not the only interests out there and we ought to be aware of the challenges faced by the wildlife managers. We can best help by providing constructive comment and suggestions and striving to understand the whole issue before becoming angry or upset.
