The Utah Wildlife Board has voted to ban all trail cameras for hunting from July 31st – Dec. 31st. This vote came from the Wildlife Board meeting on Jan. 4th, 2022.
The meeting opened with the board listening to the new recommendations from the Utah DWR. The DWR had recommended banning transmitting trail cameras for the use of hunting. These cameras are able to send their pictures to a computer or cellular device as soon as the camera takes a picture. However, the Wildlife Board amended this recommendation to ban all cameras during the fall season.
The recommendations came from the DWR after legislator Casey Snider introduced and helped pass HB 295. HB 295 was a bill that focused on banning baiting and trail cameras for hunting in Utah. If you’d like to read more about this bill you can click here to read our coverage of it from the summer of 2021. Long story short the bill instructed the DWR to look at creating new rules that would ban trail cameras or at the very least create a stricter season for them.
Before the vote, the wildlife board received data from the two surveys the DWR had conducted. Likewise, they heard from speakers who were for and against a ban on trail cameras. Lastly, they heard from the five RAC (Regional Advisory Council) boards. Some of these boards recommended changes or a season over an outright ban.
Once it came time for the vote the Wildlife Board voted 4:3 to ban all trail cameras for hunters statewide seasonally. As a result, all trail cameras can not be used from July 31st – Dec. 31st for the use of finding or hunting animals.
You can watch the Wildlife Board meeting by clicking here. Likewise, you can check out more Utah hunting news by clicking here.
