A former member of the Utah Wildlife Board faces nearly a dozen charges for baiting game animals through his hunting guide business.
Wade Raymond Heaton, 51, knowingly broke the law by using corn feed to lure animals toward paying clients waiting in deer blinds, according to court documents filed in Kane County this week. Heaton, also a Kane County commissioner, joined the Utah Wildlife Board in 2019 and served until his resignation in October 2023 — 2 months after wildlife officials began investigating reports of illegal baiting.
Prosecutors charged Heaton with a pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony. Heaton also faces six counts of wanton destruction of protected wildlife, three counts of conspiracy, and one charge of taking, transporting, selling, or purchasing protected wildlife.
Authorities also charged six other Utah men — all guides for Heaton’s business, Color County Outfitters — with some of the same poaching-related charges. But Heaton had presided over the illegal baiting for years, likely before Utah lawmakers made the practice illegal in 2021, according to a probable cause affidavit from Mark Ekins of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
“Wade Heaton orchestrated and directed the baiting of deer and coordination of hunting trips involving the baited sites,” Ekins wrote.
A Lucrative Hunting Business
Clients of Heaton’s company told investigators they paid from $3,000 to $40,000 to hunt deer with his guides, often in Southern Utah’s Paunsaugunt hunting unit. The clients were assigned specific deer to hunt, along with photos to recognize them. The targeted animals were also given nicknames by Heaton and his guides, including Belly Dump, Cialis, and Tokyo Drift.
Most importantly to investigators, Heaton worked with his guides to lure the deer to specific locations using corn feed, court documents said. They even cut down tree limbs to improve the line of sight from deer blinds. Investigators frequently cited WhatsApp text messages from Heaton as evidence of his intentions.
“Let’s all carry 1-2 keylicks of feed and feed whatever we drive by,” Heaton allegedly wrote in a text message from August 2023. “Put what you feed on this text.”
One client said that Heaton’s guides directed them to “cattle stations” and told them not to worry about the scattered corn as the stations “had been approved by the Division of Wildlife,” Ekins wrote in the affidavit. The same client was captured on video shooting the deer with an arrow while it was “standing at the feed bucket and eating out of it.”
Other text messages suggest that Heaton was trying to avoid the attention of public officials.
“A reminder of our decision about feed … We are going to keep the hunters as removed from it as possible,” according to a text from Heaton in August 2021. “No feeding with a hunter in the truck. Keeping the feed out of sight of the public.”
Heaton did not respond to requests for comment.
‘What’s Best for the Wildlife?’
In early 2021, the Utah Legislature approved a law banning the practice of baiting for big game hunting. Most neighboring states had already passed similar bans years earlier.
“In a nutshell, baiting big game is illegal if your intentions are to lure an animal to an area to hunt or harvest it,” DWR Law Enforcement Capt. Wyatt Bubak said. “Baiting wildlife can artificially distribute animals on the landscape, which can potentially result in habitat damage and increased disease transmission. There are also concerns related to the ‘fair chase’ of baiting animals when hunting.”
Heaton’s company, Color Country Outfitters (CCO), has been in business for over 25 years, according to the website.
“Color Country Outfitters has specialized in the highest quality mule deer hunting … CCO consistently produces tremendous mule deer year-after-year,” the site says. “CCO has exclusive hunting rights on more than 30 private ranches located in arguably the best mule deer hunting area in the West.”
Heaton resigned from the Utah Wildlife Board in October 2023, just a few days after state officials began investigating claims of illegal baiting in Southern Utah, according to a joint investigation by The Salt Lake Tribune and The Utah Investigative Journalism Project.
”My life has continued to become busier and more complicated,” Heaton wrote, “and I no longer feel that I have the time needed to serve on the Wildlife board.”
In the June 2, 2022, Utah Wildlife board meeting, Heaton gave his perspective during a discussion about how to balance private landownership with public access to hunting. “The citizens of Utah own this wildlife. This is a public resource,” he said. “Our goal needs to be the wildlife. What’s going to be the best thing for the wildlife?”
