Urban and Community Fisheries Programs: Development, Management, and Evaluation

Utah’s Community Fishing Program: Landing Partnerships in Fisheries Management and Education

Christopher Penne and Andrew Cushing

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781934874042.ch15

Abstract.—As part of the nation’s sixth fastest growing and sixth most urbanized state, Utah’s natural resource professionals face the challenge of managing fisheries for an increasingly urban population. As the state’s population continues to grow, recreational areas are often lost to urban development. This, coupled with increasing cost of living, dual-income households, and busy urban lifestyles, reduces the ability of urban residents to travel to more distant, traditional fisheries. To address the challenges arising from changing demographics, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) created the Community Fisheries Program (CFP). The goals of the CFP are to provide fishing opportunities close to urban centers and to use these opportunities to recruit youth to the sport of fishing. Initiated in 2000, this program has been successful in partnering with city and county governments to secure fishing opportunities along the Wasatch Front, where 80% of Utah’s population resides. Additionally, program staff have teamed up with community recreation coordinators to offer youth fishing clubs in many cities. These community youth fishing clubs have increased in enrollment each year and have graduated over 10,000 youth over a period of seven years.