Idaho Fish and Game to vote on bear hunting rules today, seeking balance

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission is scheduled to vote on a temporary hunting rule package today that seeks to balance traditional black bear hunting practices with the need to protect grizzly bears.

The public has been given little or no chance to review the rules written by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. As of Wednesday evening, the details of the rule package were not included in the posted agenda for the meeting to be held by telephone at 8 a.m.

Roger Phillips, spokesperson for department, said the new rules would require black bear hunters to take an online grizzly bear identification test; require hunters who use bear baiting stations to report any grizzly bears they see; and if a grizzly bear does visit a bear baiting station, the new rules would require that the station be shut down for the remainder of the season.

“We are trying to protect Idaho’s bear baiting and also establish regulations that will protect grizzly bears in the future as we seek delisting,” Phillips said.

The department and commission are rushing the rules through what is normally a lengthy process that includes public participation in an attempt to get them on the books prior to the fall hunting season. Phillips said the temporary rule is likely to be amended or added to in the future.

“We like to go through a more rigorous process with our hunters and we hope they are going to be able to be engaged with us in this process but we felt there is a need to take some action now that will benefit hunters in the long run,” he said. “It’s not meant to be punitive of bear hunters. This is an opportunity to preserve bear hunting in Idaho.”

Phillips said some aspects of the rule would bring Idaho’s bear hunting regulations in line with those of Montana and Wyoming. Together, the three states contain all of the occupied and most of the unoccupied grizzly bear habitat in the Lower 48 States. All three states are working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove ESA protections from grizzly bears.

The temporary rules may be tied to that process as well as a threatened lawsuit from environmental groups. Idaho has traditionally allowed black bear hunters to use bait but the practice is forbidden in areas that overlap with occupied grizzly bear habitat in the Selkirk Mountain range near the Canadian Border and near Island Park, west of Yellowstone National Park.

Last month, a coalition of environmental groups said they intend to sue the state for allowing bear baiting in places where grizzly bears may be present and for not requiring hunters to pass a bear identification test.

In June, a hunter killed a grizzly bear at a bait station near St. Maries. The hunter suspected the bear visiting his bait might be a grizzly and showed pictures to Idaho Fish and Game officials. They mistakenly told him it was a black bear and he later shot it. When the hunter learned it was a grizzly he reported it to the agency and was not cited.

In 2007, an outfitted hunter in the Kelly Creek drainage of north central Idaho shot and killed a grizzly bear he mistook for a black bear. The hunter was using bait.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing petitions from Wyoming and Montana to delist grizzlies in two different geographic areas. The Wyoming petition pertains to bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem — an area around Yellowstone National Park that is predominantly in the Cowboy State but also includes parts of Montana and Idaho. The Montana petition relates to grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem — a vast area in and around Glacier National Park.

The federal government accepted those petitions last year but rejected one from Idaho that asked it to strip grizzly bears of their threatened status not just in Idaho but across the entire Lower 48 States. Idaho sued and the federal government has since agreed to either revise the current listing of grizzly bears or begin rulemaking to remove them from Endangered Species Act protections altogether by Jan. 31.

The federal agency has been unwilling to clarify what either option might entail. Idaho contends the federal government erred when it listed grizzly bears under the Endangered Species Act. The listing named the area where the bears are protected as the entire Lower 48 states. Idaho says by law the listing area should have been much smaller and only included areas where grizzlies once roamed and where sufficient habitat remains to support their recovery.

Idaho has about 200 grizzly bears, mostly in the northern part of the state’s Panhandle and in the Island Park region. Montana and Wyoming each have about 1,000 grizzly bears.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273.