Future Fish Management

By Jeff Dillon, Southwest Regional Fishery Manager, Southwest Region Who's the boss? When it comes to fish and wildlife management in Idaho, you are! You buy the licenses and tags which pay the biologist and game warden, purchases the hatchery fish feed, rents the planes to count critters, and puts the gas in our trucks so we can collect information in the field and enforce the rules. You pay the bills, and you get to decide what's important. It's our responsibility to understand what the public wants and, whenever possible, to make it happen on the ground (and in the water). Fish and Game's statewide fishery management plan is a good example of transferring public opinion into actions and policies. Our current six-year plan is set to expire this year, and we've been working on the new 2007-2012 plan since last spring. The plan includes several key pieces. We list broad statewide objectives for wild trout management, trophy bass, hatchery trout, salmon and steelhead, and all the other fisheries programs. We also list specific management objectives for most rivers, streams, lakes, and reservoirs across the state. These might include catch rate goals for a particular species, increasing average size, or working with other agencies to improve habitat. So how do we set all these goals and objectives? Since you are the boss, we rely heavily on public input to be sure we're spending our time and your money wisely. We held public meetings statewide last spring, and also gathered comments through the Fish and Game website (http://fishandgame.idaho.gov). And we conducted a huge random survey of resident and non-resident anglers. About 10,000 surveys were mailed out and more than 4,300 were returned. This included more than 500 from each of Fish and Game's seven regions. This is our best way to look at statewide and regional preferences, and to see how well we're meeting your expectations. Here are a few preliminary tidbits from the angler survey. More than 90 percent of anglers feel it is important for Fish and Game to protect fish habitat, more than 85 percent agree that enforcing fishing rules is important, and about 80 percent support managing Idaho's streams for wild native trout. Trout are by far the most preferred type of fish, but a slight majority of anglers also felt we should manage more waters for trophy or quality bass. Only about six percent of Idaho anglers belong to an organized fishing club, with fly fishing and bass clubs the most popular. And, in places where reduced harvest is necessary to improve fish size, anglers generally prefer bag and size limits rather than gear restrictions. We're still summarizing and analyzing the survey results, and fish managers across the state have edited the fish management plan based on public input or new biological information gathered since the previous plan. Sometime in late November, the new draft 2007-2012 Fisheries Management Plan will be available for another round of public review and comment (look for it to be available on our website soon!). The Fish and Game Commission will vote this winter on whether to adopt the plan. We want to thank those bosses out there who have already filled out surveys, attended meetings, or commented via the web site. We invite all anglers to give the new plan another thorough review this fall.