Last year, my father, an Oregon resident, decided to come to Idaho for an elk hunt. We ended up hunting like mountain goats in the steep terrain of the Palisades Zone. The first day of the hunt, he saw more wildlife than he could have asked for. It was his first experience seeing moose, and a mountain goat just so happened to meet him on a trail. We saw some elk too.
Besides that experience, the next day he ended up harvesting the largest bull he had ever shot. So will he be coming back again?
No. At least not for several more years.
Out-of-state tags and licenses are the big money maker for the IF&G, and they are down nearly $3 million from the peak in 2008. That means cuts from the department, including a hiring freeze, the elimination of some jobs and programs, and some department activities that could affect how game is managed in the future.
Jim Unsworth, Deputy Director for the IF&G, stated that one of the first things to go is the aerial surveys of game. Without reliable counts in the books, regional supervisors stay conservative when setting tag quotas and harvest targets.
That means less tags offered.
Which also means, less revenue for the IF&G.
There are three reasons given for why out-of-state sales are down: 1. wolves; 2. the downturn of the economy; and 3. high prices for out of state tags and licenses.
There is nothing the IF&G can do about the economy. But they do appear to be letting the public have at it with the wolves. Most of the state does not have a quota set on the harvest of wolves, and now trapping will be allowed to start this week. Hopefully, this will result in a small wolf population so that elk populations can recover. And maybe out of state perception that Idaho elk hunting is a waste of time due to wolves will be a perception that fades out in the coming years.
Will they lower the prices for out-of-state tags and licenses? If so, there would seem to be enough people out there willing to come to Idaho to hunt if it were just a little more affordable. My father included. Perhaps that action would bring enough revenue in to make IF&G's downward spiral spin a little less fast.
More details here.
~ J. Bunch
IF&G Revenue Down: How It Could Affect You
