Panhandle swan season will make 50 tags available

An experimental swan hunting season was established for parts of the Panhandle last week by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission.

The Commission established the first-ever swan hunt in Benewah, Bonner, Boundary and Kootenai counties, with a total of 50 tags offered — beginning Aug. 1 — on a first-come, first serve basis.

The three-year experimental swan hunting season in the Panhandle will begin in October and would target tundra swans in an effort to minimize the harvest trumpeter swans, which were once considered threatened. Although biologists and waterfowl hunters have noticed increasing populations of migrating tundra swans during the waterfowl season, few trumpeter swans migrate through the area, according to Fish and Game.

— Ralph Bartholdt