The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources along with Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife will release over 1,200 rooster pheasants on wildlife management areas (WMA) and walk-in-access properties in southeastern Utah. The release will occur prior to and during the pheasant hunt. The pheasant season will begin on Nov. 2 and end on Nov. 17 for private land hunts. The season will run until Dec. 1 on state and federal lands in Carbon, Emery, Grand and San Juan counties.
Pheasant release sites will include the Desert Lake area, Emery Game Farm and the lower San Rafael management area. Birds will also be released on walk-in-access properties in Wayne and Emery counties.
Acting southeastern Utah wildlife manager Brad Compton indicated that he plans to release 400 pheasants just prior to the beginning of the hunt, which starts this Saturday. Another 200 roosters will be released at the same sites just before each of the four weekends during the hunt.
To see where the pheasants will be planted, follow the link 2013 pheasant release areas interactive map on the DWR website at wildlife.utah.gov.
More information about the walk-in-access program and its participants is available at wildlife.utah.gov/walkinaccess.