Though months away, the 2009 big game hunting season is the subject of a series of open house meetings hosted by Idaho Fish and Game.
Plan now to attend and provide input that will help shape this fall's hunting seasons in Idaho's Southwest Region. To learn more about the meetings, contact Fish and Game's Nampa office at 465-8465 or the McCall office at 634-8137.
All of the 2009 proposals are available for review and comment on the Fish and Game website at:
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov. A complete list of statewide proposals will be available at each upcoming open house.
Open houses are scheduled for the following dates and locations. Plan to attend an open house in your area anytime between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm:
- Monday, March 9 - Garden Valley Senior Center, 261 S. Middlefork Road, Crouch.
- Tuesday, March 10 - Fish and Game office, 3101 S. Powerline Road, Nampa.
- Tuesday, March 10 - Fish and Game office, 555 Deinhard Lane, McCall.
- Wednesday, March 11 - Hunter Education Center,109 W. 44th St., Boise.
- Thursday, March 12 - Weiser High School Library, 690 Indianhead Road, Weiser.
A number of deer, pronghorn and elk proposals will be available for review and comment on the Web site and at each open house. Proposals include:
For mule deer, two senior antlerless controlled hunts (for hunters 65 years of age and older) are proposed, one for 50 permits in unit 31 and a second for 100 permits in portions of units 40 and 41. Both would have a season of October 10 through 24.
Another mule deer proposal would reduce permit levels from 125 to 50 in the unit 39 late-season archery hunt.
"We've received annual complaints focused on hunter crowding and reduced hunt quality," Fish and Game wildlife manager Jon Rachael said. "By reducing permit levels for this hunt, we can address both those issues effectively."
Pronghorn hunts across the state face a similar issue and several alternative solutions.
"General archery season hunter numbers have doubled statewide during the last eight years," Rachael said. "Hunter crowding has become an issue and buck quality has suffered."
Four options are being considered to resolve these issues in more than 30 pronghorn units across the state, including Southwest Idaho units 40, 41 and 42. The options include controlled hunts by unit, unlimited controlled hunts, a statewide cap on the number of pronghorn hunters and a shorter season.
"We hope to see many archery antelope hunters weighing in on this set of proposals," Rachael said.
For elk, the most significant change involves the Sawtooth Elk Zone (units 33, 34, 35 and 36).
"The herd as a whole is below population objective, and a number of proposals are being considered to address the problem," Rachael said.
One proposal calls for decreasing the zone's unlimited controlled muzzleloader hunt to 50 permits to reduce cow elk mortality. Another proposal calls for capping general season A-tags at 550 and B-tags at 1,500, a 46 percent reduction in both permit types for the zone.
Other elk season proposals include establishing an antlerless elk hunt in the Weiser Flats area of Unit 31 and an early antlerless-only A-tag hunt in Unit 22; both hunts are designed to address local elk depredation issues.
The entire list of proposals including details will be on the Fish and Game Web site. Anyone interested may review each the of proposals and may attend the open house in their area.
Individuals with disabilities may request meeting accommodations by contacting Kim Cox at the Fish and Game Nampa office (465-8465) or Judy Wallace at the Fish and Game McCall office (634-8137) or through the Idaho Relay Service at 1-800-377-3529 (TDD).
