DWR Press Release
Utah offers two hunting slams
If you enjoy hunting waterfowl or upland game in Utah, you can add something fun to your hunt while helping the birds and animals you pursue.
This fall, the Division of Wildlife Resources is offering nine Waterfowl Slams and seven Upland Game Slams.
If you complete a waterfowl slam you’ll receive a colorful Waterfowl Slam leg band, perfect for hanging on a lanyard. Complete an upland game slam, and you’ll receive a colorful Upland Game Slam “coin.” Each coin, which is laser engraved with the slam details, looks like the brass end of a shotgun shell.
Every time you complete a slam you’ll receive a different leg band or coin. In addition, if you sign up for the Waterfowl Slam you’ll receive a leg band for taking your first duck, goose or swan of the 2015 – 2016 season. And your name will be entered in a drawing for prizes that include decoys, hunting apparel and cooking equipment.
The cost to participate in the Upland Game Slam program or the Waterfowl Slam program is $10 for those 17 years of age and younger, and $20 for adults. You can also participate in both programs by paying the registration fee for each.
You can learn more about the Waterfowl Slam at www.wildlife.utah.gov/slam. Upland Game Slam details are available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/uplandslam.
Have fun while giving back
Blair Stringham, migratory game bird coordinator for the DWR, and Avery Cook, upland game project leader for the DWR, say there are several reasons the DWR and a long list of co-sponsors are offering the slams. Creating more interest in waterfowl and upland game hunting, and raising funds to help conserve waterfowl and upland game in Utah, are among them.
“The slams are a win-win for everyone,” Cook says. “Hunters win through giving back to the resource while adding something fun to their hunt. Upland game and waterfowl populations win through the funding hunters provide. Almost all of the funding to manage upland game and waterfowl in Utah comes from hunters.”
Stringham and Cook say proceeds from the slams go directly to improving upland game and waterfowl populations and habitat—Waterfowl Slam money to waterfowl projects and Upland Game Slam money to upland game projects.
A new 120-acre impoundment wildlife managers would like to create at the Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area is one example of how Waterfowl Slam money would be used this year. Creating the impoundment would improve habitat for waterfowl in the WMA’s North Run and make hunting there even better. “I encourage hunters to help fund this project by signing up for the Waterfowl Slam this year,” Stringham says.
If you have questions about the slams, call the nearest Division of Wildlife Resources office or the DWR’s Salt Lake City office at 801-538-4700.