23-29-103 - Legislative findings and declarations. - Utah Statutes

23-29-103. Legislative findings and declarations.
(1) Section 23-14-1 appoints the division as trustee and custodian of protected wildlife inthe state.
(2) The wolf is listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Actthroughout the greater portion of the state.
(3) The service is the federal agency charged with responsibility to administer theEndangered Species Act.
(4) The service acknowledges that Utah is not critical to the recovery of wolves and thatit does not intend to actively recover wolves in the state.
(5) The division prepared a wolf management plan outlining its management objectivesfor the wolf in Utah when the wolf was delisted and removed from federal control.
(6) The wolf management plan prepared by the division was formally submitted to theservice in 2007 for approval.
(7) The service has neither approved, denied, nor otherwise commented on the plan sincereceiving it in 2007.
(8) The state formally requested, in writing on multiple occasions, that the service delistthe wolf throughout Utah, and the service has failed to acknowledge or otherwise respond to anyof the requests.
(9) The state cannot adequately or effectively manage wolves on a pack level in the smallarea of the state where the species is currently delisted without significantly harming other vitalstate interests, including livestock and big game populations.
(10) It is the policy of the state to legally advocate and facilitate the delisting of wolvesin Utah under the Endangered Species Act and to return wolf management authority to the state.

Enacted by Chapter 20, 2010 General Session