Under Division proposals, the total number of doe deer permits would decrease from 5,680 offered in 2001, to 3,685 this fall.

"In general, the number of deer fawns across the state this spring is down," says Steve Cranney, big game coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources. "Several years of drought have affected many of the deer herds in the Southern and Northeastern regions, and these are the areas where we're proposing most of the permit decreases. The Northern Region was also hit with a significant winter and biologists are still in the field evaluating the extent of deer losses there.

"In some of these areas the herds have been at or over their population objective and we've had to offer quite a few doe deer permits the past couple of years to keep the herds in line with approved numbers," Cranney said. "Now that we have them there, we can cut back on the number of permits we need to offer."

Cow moose permits would increase under Division proposals, from a total of 28 last year, to 55 this year. Most of the increases would be along the populated areas of the Wasatch Front, where moose populations are at all-time highs.

Cow elk permits would decrease about 15 percent, from 12,500 last year to 10,679 this year. Doe pronghorn permits would increase slightly, from 284 last year to 296 this fall.