IDFG: A bad land swap

March 10 at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game office, the department will try to explain why it GAVE AWAY the St. Maries Wildlife Unit, 1,400 acres of pristine multi-species big game hunting for 670 acres of polluted pasture land called the Black Lake Ranch. This is a superfund site, as admitted by IDFG personnel at a public breakfast held in February.

On IDFG’s website, St. Maries is considered the best piece of multi-species Big Game Land the state of Idaho actually owns. Why trade it away? If Black Lake Ranch, which is a bankrupt property, is such a good deal, why not let it stand on its own merits? If Black Lake can be developed for hunting it will have to be something other than rifle hunting as the parcel is so small with no tree cover that it is unsafe for big game rifles.

The one issue Kathy Cousins and J J Yellrey of IDFG put forth for the swap is the St. Maries WMU needs some logging to upgrade the habitat and prevent fire danger and Fish and Game is not in the timber business. Well, I beg your pardon for calling me stupid, whose business is it to manage Big Game Habitat in the state of Idaho? Do you really expect me to believe you can’t manage timber habitat but you are fully capable of reclaiming a superfund site?

Hunters, let your voice be heard. Complain to state legislators as well as Fish and Game.

TONY KASTELLA

Dalton Gardens