![]() We appreciate the shared vision and collaboration of the Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest.” It is a huge deal to see these projects come to fruition. “Maintenance of these important trails for sportsman access has been a high department priority for many years. “Partnering with the Forest Service to address deferred maintenance on trails, using funding secured through fees associated with license sales, has helped open miles of access for sportsmen,” Jenkins added. “We continually hear from sportsmen that access is a huge concern for them,” said Don Jenkins, Regional Wildlife Habitat Manager with Fish and Game. Two of the access sites are popular and well used by both hunters and anglers along the Salmon River corridor the other is a popular fishing pond that needs to be upgraded to be more accessible.įunding from Fish and Game and other partner agencies makes these projects possible, and state and federal agency employees work together with partners and volunteers to accomplish the work on the ground to benefit hunters, anglers, and other recreationists across the forest. The projects will consist of trail and trail bridge maintenance across the Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest and, additionally, three hunter and angler access sites. ![]() The multi-year project is funded by matched access and trail funding from each agency as well as funding from the Great American Outdoors Act. They say it is a significant change to wolf management in Idaho - the kind of significant change that could prompt the federal government to step in.Idaho Fish and Game will be working in partnership with the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests to provide increased hunting and fishing access in North-Central Idaho’s forest service lands. Some opponents of SB1211 have raised another red flag about the legislation. We encourage the legislature to keep the state’s promise to the people and defer important management decisions to the commission and Idaho Fish and Game biologists.” Wolf bill stokes fears over federal influence “Idahoans established the Fish and Game Commission by public initiative in 1938 in order to ensure that wildlife management is guided by science over politics and that the professionals entrusted with directing important decisions regarding Idaho’s remarkable fish and wildlife resources are empowered to do so. “BHA does not endorse advancing wildlife management policies and decisions by legislation or voter referendum, including Idaho Senate Bill 1211. “Idaho Backcountry Hunters & Anglers strongly supports the authority of the Idaho Fish and Game Commission to manage all wildlife populations, set harvest and population objectives and regulate method of take and the application of management tools, including hunting and trapping,” Koch said in the statement. It also would allow the Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board to hire private contractors to kill wolves they deem a threat to livestock or, as part of the new provision, wildlife. The bill would remove the current 15-per-year limit on hunting and trapping wolves, and extend the trapping season on private land to run yearlong. Senate Bill 1211 does open a door to the much-cited 90% decrease in Idaho’s wolf population. They have a different concern with the bill - that it could set a dangerous precedent letting legislators, not Idaho’s Fish and Game Commission, set hunting and trapping seasons and rules, and could even set the stage for management of Idaho’s wolf population to go back into the hands of the federal government. While much of the alarm on social media is over the claims that 90% of Idaho’s wolves will perish if the bill becomes law, numerous Idaho hunting groups and wildlife experts say that’s not likely to happen. Woodson’s TikTok profile links to a petition titled “protect wolf populations in Idaho” that had more than 7,000 signatures by Thursday evening. Thousands of comments on the video also decry the legislation, which originated in the Idaho Senate about a week ago and has since passed the House and Senate.
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