Fewer nonresidents hunting Idaho elk, deer

IDAHO FALLS - The amount of money taken in through the sale of nonresident deer and elk tags is down nearly $3 million from its peak in 2008, state wildlife officials said.

Jim Unsworth, deputy director for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said the agency has put in place a six-month hiring freeze on all open positions, eliminated at least two high level positions, and is looking at cutting some programs.

"It's hard to put a finger on specifically what's not happening," Unsworth said. "What's happening is just less of everything. At some level, somewhere, something's not getting done, and eventually the public's going to notice it."

He said the economic downturn is why fewer out-of-state hunters are heading to Idaho. Most of the agency's money comes from the sale of tags, licenses and permits.

Unsworth said items that could be cut include aerial surveys of big-game populations. That could lead, he said, to a reduction in the number of deer or elk that game managers would allow to be killed because regional supervisors tend to be more conservative when setting harvest numbers if they don't have reliable estimates about herd populations.

He said the end result is a downward spiral in revenue.

"You do put yourself in a spin," he said. "At some point you become irrelevant politically. The great old tried and true 'hit the nonresidents up for revenue' isn't working."

Besides state revenue from out-of-state hunters falling, guides in the state have also seen fewer clients, said Mike Scott, owner of White Cloud Outfitters of Challis.

He said besides the economy, wolves killing elk and an increase in the cost of tags and licenses also decreased business for guided elk hunts.

"It was a triple whammy," Scott said. "Hopefully, there's nothing more."

But he said his business also offers other types of hunts as well as salmon and steelhead fishing trips.

"We're kind of fortunate. We don't have all our eggs in one basket, so to speak," Scott said. "If you're diversified, it definitely helps that you don't have to make your entire living off two months of the year."