Utah Chukar & Wildlife Foundation

Chukar Partidges in Utah

Recent News

President’s Message – Summer 2018

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Greetings,

I hope your summer is going well, fall will be here soon.

Now is the time to put in for the limited entry upland permits, go to the UDWR website for more information. Join us for the annual Parker Mountain sage grouse count on July. Also, we are excited to continue participating in the youth/family Utah Youth Waterfowl Fair and Outdoor Festival on Sept. 8, at the Farmington Bay WMA (http://www.utahwaterfowlfair.com/). This is a great youth event for you to attend, or contact Alan at alan.smith@grousecreek.com if you can volunteer to help.

We have more guzzler installations that will take place later this summer and fall, look for emails with dates and contact information.

Enjoy the rest of Summer!

President’s Message – 2018 Spring

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Greetings,

Thanks for uniting to support upland game in Utah! Many volunteer hours and donations by members of this foundation and supporting companies enable us to make a difference! We made just over $34,000 at our banquet this year.
It is amazing what we are able to do with $30K+, a dedicated volunteer group, and a respected voice representing outstanding sportsmen/women. We are greatly pleased with the work we are able to accomplish with the UDWR and other agencies like the BLM, SITLA and partnering organizations. Some quality upland projects we are planning on this year include:

  • Finishing the Central Region guzzler projects
  • Install 2-4 Box Elder guzzlers
  • Supporting and volunteering with two youth fairs.
  • Continuing sage grouse and other grouse data collecting projects.
  • Continuing our partnership with the USU/UDWR forest grouse
  • study.
  • Continuing with trapping, transplanting and releasing upland birds.
  • Volunteering and providing input/feedback on many upland projects in the state.

The UCWF pledges to make sure your voice is heard and to ensure that monies dedicated to Utah’s upland game are used in the best possible way. My deepest thanks to the UCWF board, members, donors and volunteers who do so much to make good things happen for Utah’s upland game! Please support our donors first!
Some of our current and future goals are (many of these are long term):

  1. Continue to support Upland research and implementation of research into effective management plans.
  2. Aid in transplanting chukar and building guzzlers in each region.
  3. Continue supporting youth recruitment.
  4. Be involved in upland management decisions.
  5. Be involved in habitat improvement for upland game species including grouse species.
  6. Provide money and a volunteer work force that will help make upland game projects and research happen.
  7. Help create a Utah guzzler crew. 8.) Manage, maintain, and improve our website.
  8. Increase trapping and relocation of valley quail.
  9. Continue to work together with state and federal agencies as well as other wildlife organizations.

Wasatch High School Chukar Project – Kaitlyn Horne

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The Wasatch Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) is an opportunity for Wasatch High School students to work on real-world projects to help develop critical thinking and problem solving skills by working with local businesses and industry mentors.


Coming in to CAPS as a Junior in High school was a completely different environment and experience than normal high school classes. We have an entire facility dedicated just to the Wasatch CAPS program, which is located downstairs at the Utah Valley University Wasatch Campus


I am part of the Environment and Agriculture sector. In this sector, our teacher helps us to find a project that would be the best fit for each one of us by exploring all possible projects that involve things that we are interested in, and for most of us, these are the things we want to do in the future for our career. I have always been fascinated with wildlife and the DNR. I have had the opportunity to partner with the DNR and the Utah Chukar Foundation to raise 150 Chukars that will be released onto the Wallsburg Wildlife Management area. The DNR’s program, The Day Old Chick Program, is how we got started with this project. Once I was told about this opportunity, we started researching how to get involved, and everything that we would need to know as this being our first time raising Chukars.


In the beginning stages of my project, most of what we were doing was research. We couldn’t do too much to actually do with the chicks until right before we got them in May. My project partner and I would spend every day that we had CAPS researching all information about them, and what kind of shelter we needed to build for them that would hopefully allow for a high success rate with raising the Chukars.


Once we did as much research as we felt we could at the time to be beneficial to us to start this project, we began working with a student in the Engineering and Industrial Design sector, to help us build the blue prints that we could give to our building crew. Our building crew worked on getting the flight pen and shed built in time for the chicks to arrive. They started as soon as the snow melt and the pen and shed were completed a few days before the chicks arrived.


Once the chicks arrived, we brought more students on to the team to help monitor them. From the time we got them, to when they were about 6 weeks old, we would check on them 3 times a day. We would do this to be sure that our lights were adjusted correctly to ensure they were at a comfortable temperature. Once they got to the age where we thought they could stay at a steady temperature, we would just check on them to refill their feeders and their water. During this time, they were in the brooder which was inside the shed that is attached to the flight pen, once they were starting to fly, we released them into the flight pen, and that is where they are to this day.


Now the Chukars are fully grown, and are ready to be released. We are planning on releasing them at the end of this month. Over the course of this project, we have met with multiple people that have helped us get started and carry out this project. We especially appreciate all the support that the Chukar Foundation has given us throughout this project. We are excited to finally be able to release these Chukars after months of work.


Here is a short video by Scott Root from the Utah DWR showing the project and final release. Wasatch CAPS Chukar Project

President’s Message Summer 2017

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Greetings,

I hope your summer is going well, fall will be here soon.

Now is the time to put in for the limited entry upland permits, go to the UDWR website for more information. Thanks to those who helped with Outdoor Adventure Days and recent guzzler installs! We will be participating in another youth/family Utah Youth Waterfowl Fair and Outdoor Festival on Sept. 9, at the Farmington Bay WMA (http://www.utahwaterfowlfair.com/). This is a great youth event for you to attend, or contact Alan at alan.smith@grousecreek.com if you can volunteer to help.

We have seen chukar chicks in the desert during our guzzler installations and we hope they are faring well despite the dry weather. Our annual sage grouse count summer activity is coming up on July 28-29. We hope to see many of you there, look for additional information in this issue and via email. We have more guzzler installations that will take place later this summer and fall, look for emails with dates and contact information.

Enjoy the rest of Summer!

2017 Annual Banquet & Fundraiser

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Greetings,

I hope your season is going well; winter came in strong after quite the Indian summer.

It’s Banquet time again.  We truly hope most of you will support us again at our annual banquet.  Please find the banquet order form in the newsletter or go to the Banquet page on the website.  For those of you who help us each year and donate, we hope you will find yourself in a position to help again this year.  Please contact Alan at alan.smith@grousecreek.com or Travis at travis.chukar@gmail.com or 801-360-6553.

Some Foundation Highlights from this year include:

  • Central Region Guzzler project
  • Supporting and volunteering with two youth fairs
  • Supporting a new grouse infrared lek study
  • Continuing sage grouse and other grouse data collecting projects
  • Partnering with a USU forest grouse study
  • Volunteering and providing input/feedback on many upland projects in the state

We are a strong voice and partner for upland game and upland sportsmen/women in the state.  Your support at our annual banquet provides the necessary funding to support these upland projects on Utah’s public lands.  Working as a partner with the UDWR and other agencies we make your money stretch much further than if we tried to do everything on our own.  Thanks as always for your support!

This year’s annual banquet will be held at the Sheraton in downtown SLC on Feb. 25.  Please sign up early for the banquet to make sure you have a spot.  Even with our new location we anticipate filling up and the earlier you sign up the better the deals and the better we can plan accordingly.  Sign up for the banquet using the enclosed flyer in your newsletter, or go to our Banquet Page. If you can’t attend, but still want to donate, see the information on Darin’s raffle for the Chukar mount below.

Travis