Fish and Game plans a one-tag fall grizzly bear hunt
AP Photo/Jim Urquhart, file In this July 6, 2011, photo, a grizzly bear roams near Beaver Lake in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Idaho officials have scheduled two public meetings as part of a process to potentially open a grizzly bear hunting season this fall that would allow the killing of one male grizzly.
Idaho wants to offer a single grizzly bear tag for the fall hunting season.
With the grizzly bear population in eastern Idaho fully recovered and removed from federal protection, Idaho Fish and Game plans to host meetings on April 17 in Idaho Falls at the College of East Idaho, and April 19 at Boise’s Riverside Hotel, regarding the proposed fall hunting season. Both meetings start at 6:30 p.m. MDT.
Fish and Game wants to offer a single tag for one grizzly bear for the upcoming fall season. The department will discuss the proposal and gather public input at next week’s meetings.
Fish and Game’s grizzly bear conservation strategy, as well as management of the bears outside Yellowstone National Park — but inside the greater Yellowstone area — includes hunting. Bears are observed year round in Clark, Fremont, Madison, Teton and Bonneville counties in southeastern Idaho near Yellowstone park. The bears have also been seen year round in counties In North Idaho’s Panhandle region including Shoshone, Bonner and Boundary counties.
Next week’s meeting will include a presentation and an open house to gather information and take comments, and comments can be submitted online at idfg.idaho.gov.
Although hunting is part of the grizzly bear conservation strategy, bears in the Panhandle will remain under federal protection, according to Idaho Fish and Game.
The department’s management and hunt proposal are part of an agreement with Montana and Wyoming that bases future hunts on the amount of land in the grizzly’s range outside Yellowstone park. Because Idaho has the smallest portion of land in the grizzly’s range outside Yellowstone, hunting opportunities in Idaho will reflect the minimal range. This year, that means only one tag may be offered in Idaho if the public approves of the plan.