Castle Country Radio was able to speak over the telephone with Representative Christine Watkins about what is taking place at the legislation session. She was able to talk about a House Bill 295 and House Bill 170.

House Bill 295 is Wildlife Modification and Representative Watkins said this is a huge bill that many are opposed against especially in our area as she found her email and voicemail full of concerns. “We heard it in committee today Natural Resources. They want to prohibit the wildlife cameras from August 1 to December 31 so they can’t be in use during the hunting season and then it also outlawed the use of batting animals,” said Representative Watkins. The batting of animals is a tactic that many bowhunters use to get closer to the animals while hunting.

“Of course, in our area most of the people were against it. There was just a lot of conversation. I kind of think that hunting in northern Utah is a little different than our neck of the woods because when it came down to voting for it the three representatives that voted against it are the ones from San Juan County, me and the one from Uinta County and all the others supported it,” said Representative Watkins. Some people think that by not allowing cameras it would help grow the number of deer herds and go back to the older styling of hunting animals. There were many folks that feel that the bill was not legislative and should be decided by the Utah Wildlife Board and Regional Advisory Council. However, the bill is on its way to the floor so we’ll see how that plays out.

House Bill 170 is Vehicle Registration Renewal Notice. “In special session five or six, I don’t remember which one and because we were concerned about funding for it, it does cost to send those cards out. They noticed many, many, people were forgetting to register their cars. A representative brought this forward and so we’re going to charge you a $1.00 to send out the card and that wasn’t going over really well. So they just found some money to fund it so that bill passed on the floor,” said Representative Watkins. It’s not known when drivers will begin to receive reminder cards in the mail as it could take a few months to get the program up and running again.