Idahoans Give a Hand

Idahoans support their fish and wildlife with more than just license fees. More than 4,600 of them contributed hours, equipment and materials in 2000. Many of the important Fish and Game goals require far more hands than the department has or can even hire. Idahoans understand that and thousands are willing to lend those extra hands. They gave more than 73,000 hours last year. In 2000, volunteers and reservists worked on about 100 different tasks in Fish and Game, helping out with everything from computer data entry to gill netting fish in population surveys to restoring big game winter ranges to counting deer and sage grouse. Besides the labor and expertise, these people sometimes brought with them the boats, trucks, chain saws, horses, buses and other necessary equipment required to do the various jobs. For record-keeping purposes, all this was given a cash value of more than $955,000, a dollar figure that underestimates the real value to Fish and Game. Many goals simply would not be reached without the citizen help. Setting a dollar value is important, however, partly because these contributions count in obtaining funding. For example, volunteer/reservist hours were valued at $49,746 in fisheries work, a figure that was matched in cash from a Dingle-Johnson grant in 2000. For further information, call Mary Dudley at 327-7095.