Apply April 1 for Tag Lottery

Hunters may begin applying April 1 for the new Access Yes! tag drawing. Expanding Access Yes! to provide more hunting and fishing access on private and public land will require additional funding. About $1.2 million is needed to meet the goal of providing hunters and anglers access comparable to access programs in other western states. Part of the funding will come from selling chances to win "supertags." The initial program will offer 40 tags--2 deer, 12 elk, 12 antelope and four moose--valid for the 2004 hunting season. There will be two drawings for the tags in 2004, June 15 and August 16. Hunters can apply at any license vendor, by phone, mail or online, from April 1 to May 31 (drawing June 15) and from June 1 to July 30 (drawing August 16). One "Super Slam Pak" will be available in each drawing with four tags-- one each for antelope, deer, elk and moose. The tags can be used in any open hunt (general or controlled) for the species drawn and are "extra" tags, that is, in addition to any other tag the applicant is eligible to obtain. Controlled hunt eligibility is not affected; the applicant can apply for any controlled hunt for which they are eligible in that year or subsequent years. Once-in-a-lifetime moose restrictions do not apply when buying chances in these drawings, and any harvest in these hunts does not affect eligibility to apply in any moose drawing, including future supertag moose drawings. Applicants, resident or nonresident, must either have a valid Idaho hunting license or be eligible to buy one. One supertag application will cost $6.50, a package of six will be $26.50 and a package of 13, $51.50. "Super Slam Pak" applications will cost $21.50 for one, $101.50 for six and $201.50 for 13. Deadline for receipt of applications for the first drawing is May 31 and for the second drawing, July 31. Application sales will end July 28. Access Yes! is a new program designed to improve sportsmen's access to private land or through private land to public land by compensating willing landowners who provide access. The program has been in development for several years and is modeled after successful access programs in other states. Ultimately, the goal is to provide access to more than 1,000,000 acres of private land along with access through private land to thousands more acres of public land. In 2003, Access Yes! provided access to 107,000 acres of private land and access through private land to an additional 240,000 acres of public land. Fish and Game spent $117,000 on the program in 2003. New properties for 2004 are being evaluated and should be listed online by April 15 at http://www2.state.id.us/fishgame/Hunt/ProgramsInfo/AccessYes.