I just got home from the meeting. I missed the pre-lunch portion but joined after the break for the important stuff. It went pretty much how everybody already knew it would. The board (bored?) looked sleepy and disinterested as those of us who care got up and gave our 3 minute sermons. Three minutes on the dot, mind you, not 3:10 (unless you side with the SFW/MDF folks).
There were quite a few that voiced their opinions in favor of UWC proposal, myself included. Hopefully these comments will be made available online somewhere so that we can go back and review them. We all repeated the same thing we've been asking for for years now- give us some accountability. We're now on record, again, that this whole thing is a serious problem that the DWR needs to fix. They are now on record, again, that they aren't as concerned about the utah sportsman as they are about the bottom line and their revenue streams.
The Don used 2:55 of his 3:00 reminding the board that he has done more for Utah and Utah's wildlife than anyone in the history of this great state of Utah outside of anyone not named Jesus. Hopefully somebody there had an arm sling for him, as his shoulder was surely injured after so much self love.
Byron told us how he was fighting the good fight, like Teddy Roosevelt, and that the $5 wasn't really money they got for selling the permits, it was money they earned from processing the applications, so it shouldn't be available for public perusal. He almost brought a tear to my eye.
Several people made mention of the injured veterans and the poor children with cancer that benefited from SFW's generosity. Surely we wouldn't want to stop helping those kind of causes now, would we?
We already knew what the outcome of this meeting would be, but it was an important step that needed to happen. Thanks to all of you who took time to come and show support. Now, on to the next phase.
Ben Armstrong
Vi Et Armis Invictus Maneo