Idaho Fish and Game to negotiate skeet club land purchase

COEUR d’ALENE — After debate about the Coeur d’Alene Skeet and Trap Club’s annual rent cast doubt over its future existence, it appears the club will remain where it’s been since 1965.

Kootenai County commissioners confirmed last week that Idaho Fish and Game will negotiate purchasing the land where the club sits, 36 acres near the Coeur d’Alene Airport in Hayden.

Commissioner Leslie Duncan said she plans to work with the county’s legal counsel on deed restrictions for the property.

“Some of the things that came to mind was (Fish and Game) would have to give a concession lease for 25 years or more, cleanup at the end of the lease, county has first right of refusal to buy back the property and keep their current tenants,” she said in a public meeting last Tuesday.

The purchase was made possible after House Bill 304 passed into law in late March.

The bill, which goes into effect July 1 and involves appropriations to Fish and Game for fiscal year 2024, authorizes the stage agency to purchase between 40 and 60 acres of land owned by Kootenai County adjacent to the airport “to continue the land’s use as a skeet and trap shooting range.”

Fish and Game will spend up to $5 million in federal funds received by apportionment under the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act, as well as the minimum amount of non-federal funds required to match the federal dollars.

The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act outlines how funds collected from the sale of firearms, ammunition and archery equipment are to be allocated to the states for the purpose of wildlife restoration.

States and territories use these funds to support access for wildlife-related recreation, hunter education and development and the construction and operation of target ranges, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“It looks pretty positive to us,” Ed Wagner, Coeur d’Alene Skeet and Trap Club president, said Monday.

The club’s lease has been the subject of debate since 2021, when former airport director Steven Kjergaard told county commissioners that the club should move toward paying market rate to rent the land.

Under its current lease with the airport, the club pays $1,036 a year to rent the property.

Rental rates for a new lease proposed by the airport last January would begin at $120,000 and increase each year for a decade, topping out at $480,000 — an amount Wagner said the club has no hope of paying.

Now that Fish and Game has stepped in, Wagner said he and other club members feel encouraged.

The Coeur d’Alene Skeet and Trap Club has a membership of around 300, locals and shooters who travel from across the region to visit the club.

Youths on local high school teams also practice at the club. Their numbers are growing, Wagner said, from around 40 last year to more than 70 this spring.

“The atmosphere is pretty good out there,” Wagner said. “A lot of new people are showing up out of the blue. A lot of new faces.”

By Dec. 10, Fish and Game must provide a report on any actions related to the property purchase to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, the Senate Resources and Environment Committee and the House Resources and Conservation Committee.