With Mike Styler’s impending retirement as boss of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Utah has a golden opportunity to make enlightened advances in how it manages public lands, waters and wildlife.
One of Styler’s most notable accomplishments, as described in The Tribune article, was to “prevent the reintroduction of the gray wolf into Utah" and to remove endangered species protections from the wolf by waiving “normal contract rules to allow upfront payment [over the course of several years and amounting to several million dollars] to consultant Ryan Benson, an associate of prominent and politically connected hunting advocate Don Peay.