Hunting and fishing licenses: Should Idaho's public wildlife be for sale?

For 76 years the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Commission has sought to reduce the role of politics in wildlife management.

But this year, the seven-member panel finds itself at odds with landowners, who have gone to the Idaho Legislature seeking the ability to sell the deer and elk tags they get in appreciation for the role their land plays in maintaining Idaho wildlife. House Majority Leader Mike Moyle said that without this and other provisions, the Department of Fish and Game's request to increase hunting and fishing fees is dead for this year.

Idaho hunting and fishing groups oppose allowing landowners to sell tags for thousands of dollars, which they say is essentially letting individuals profit privately from what is considered a public resource. These sporting groups are preparing for another march on the Capitol, like the hundreds of hunters and anglers who rallied in February to protest proposals to transfer of federal land to the state.

The six-member commission, established by voter initiative in 1938, is considering withdrawing its innovative fee proposal until next year if it can't get a "clean" bill that doesn't have the landowner tag sale and other provisions attached.

"To me this is just another example of legislative overreach," said Mark Doerr, of Kimberly, a Fish and Game commissioner for the Magic Valley region who is also the owner of Precision Aviation in Twin Falls.

• How we got here

Fish and Game has not had an increase in hunting and fishing fees for more than a decade. It says it needs to look at a fee increase and other new revenues to be able to keep up with needs for managing Idaho wildlife for hunters and anglers as well as birdwatchers, hikers and others who appreciate Idaho's outdoors and animals but who don't buy licenses or tags.

Fish and Game proposes to increase the price of a license between $1 and $6 per year, starting in 2016. But it would encourage casual hunters and anglers to buy licenses every year by promising to hold off any increase for license holders who buy licenses annually. The commission hopes the proposal can boost license sales by 10 percent by giving intermittent license buyers the incentive to buy every year.

But the House Resources and Conservation Committee nearly killed the bill earlier this year, agreeing to print - i.e., introduce it - only after Moyle supported it.

Now he's working with other lawmakers in the House and the Senate on a new bill. That bill would not just allow ranchers to sell the tags they get in recognition of the wildlife that resides part of the year on their land, but also require the commission to sell tags to the highest bidder for some big game, as it now does for bighorn sheep.

It also would change the big-game tag lottery system to give hunters who apply, but don't win a tag, "bonus points" that increase their odds of getting a tag in future lotteries.

But the pay-to-play provisions concern wildlife advocates who want to protect the open-to-everyone tradition of hunting and fishing.

"The risk is sportsmen will lose their voice in wildlife management," said Will Naillon, a Fish and Game commissioner from Challis who is a mining environmental specialist.

• Appreciating landowners

At issue is the section of Idaho code that established the commission in 1938. Hunting, fishing and trapping rules were placed under the commissioners' authority "because it is inconvenient and impractical for the Legislature of the state of Idaho to administer such policy."

But Republican Sen. Bert Brackett, a rancher from Rogerson, points to the last line of the code section: "The commission is not authorized to change such policy but only to administer it."

That, he said, means the Legislature should make policy on issues such as the sale of landowner tags, which he supports.

Fish and Game's 27-year-old Landowner Appreciation Program allocates a portion of controlled-hunt tags to a lottery exclusively for landowners. The program rewards them for providing habitat for deer, elk and pronghorn.

The special hunts in units where no general hunting is permitted are prized by sportsmen and landowners.

To enter the lottery, a landowner must have at least 640 acres in that area; landowners with 5,000 acres or more can get an additional entry in the lottery.

All eligible landowners can get leftover tags for their area on a first-come, first-served basis after the lottery is over.

Landowners who draw an appreciation tag can give the tag to another person, but they cannot sell the tags.

In 2014, the commission considered a proposal to eliminate the lottery and just give tags to eligible landowners based on how much habitat they provide. That proposal also would have given landowners the right to sell the tags.

In some areas, such as the Bennett Hills southeast of Mountain Home, a lack of public access has resulted in large trophy mule deer, which could bring thousands of dollars for the tags on the open market. Landowners would have to provide access to hunters with tags in those areas.

Forty percent of the tags in Unit 45, which includes the Bennett Hills, already goes to landowners.

The Fish and Game Commission got resistance from many hunters who opposed any sales of wildlife and halted consideration of the plan in 2014 until the commission could find consensus on the issue, Naillon said.

Whether it's the department or the landowners pocketing the money, the selling of tags at market rates changes the nature of American hunting from a sport for all to a sport catering to a small group that can afford to pay more, said Pat Cudmore, the now-retired Fish and Game employee who started landowner programs.

"We're making it a rich man's sport," said Cudmore, now president of the Nampa chapter of Quail Forever, a conservation group.

But Brackett said selling wildlife is already happening - with landowners selling trespass rights to hunt on their land for thousands of dollars and then giving the appreciation tags away free.

Selling the tags, Brackett said, "is a much more orderly process than selling access," he said.

• Ranchers differ

Wildlife belongs to all the people of Idaho, and all hunters should get an equal chance for Idaho's prized big-game animals, said Michael Gibson, executive director of the Idaho Wildlife Federation. But as important as protecting equal access to tags, he said, is keeping the decision-making power with the commission and the experts in its department, not with the politicians in the Legislature.

"We support the fee-increase bill, but we support a clean bill without riders on it," Gibson said.

Republican Sen. Steve Bair, a farmer from Blackfoot, is frustrated that the commission didn't act on tag sales in 2014.

Several summers ago, he said, a herd of more than 60 elk came from public land into his hayfield and ate so much hay he couldn't harvest a second crop. He estimated the loss at $13,000.

"To me, it's fair for landowners to be compensated for feeding the state's wildlife," Bair said.

Republican Rep. Merrill Beyeler, a rancher from Leadore, said he has always given hunters who ask permission to hunt his land. He doesn't want or need to sell tags or access, he said.

"Someday, I may need the support of sportsmen to continue to use public lands," Beyeler said.

So far, Moyle hasn't introduced the new bill with the tag-sale provisions. But Commissioner Doerr said if a bill with tag sales and bonus-points does emerge, the commission may consider waiting until next year to go for the fee increase. That would force them to oppose the current bill calling for the increase.

At least one sportsmen's group, Twin Falls' Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, is advocating a delay for another year to get consensus on all of the issues, said President Scott Allan.

For many rural Idaho legislators, landowner tags are an especially tough issue.

For 25 years, sportsmen and landowners have been unable to find common ground. The Idaho Farm Bureau presses the landowner side, while sportsmen's groups are vocal against selling wildlife.

"It's a difficult issue for me," said Republican Sen. Dean Cameron of Rupert, who describes himself as a sportsman. "I have landowner constituents, and I have a lot of sportsmen in my district."