Tribe, State Reach Agreement On Wildlands

A truce has been declared between the state and the Nez Perce Tribe in the fight for wildlife on 60,000 acres on Craig Mountain south of Lewiston.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission on Friday approved an agreement its members said should cool the simmering feud. It avoids directly addressing the treaty rights issue.

Partially in response to the fight over the Craig Mountain acreage, the tribe imposed a $10 fee for non-members on the Clearwater River last fall.

To break the impasse, the tribe and state agreed to mediated negotiations arranged by the Bonneville Power Administration, which is turning the lands over to the state.

Both sides agreed to focus on the $17 million Dworshak Dam Mitigation Agreement than to wrestle indefinitely about tribal rights, said Commission Chairman Keith Carlson of Lewiston.

The agreement follows up one in 1992 between the state, Nez Perce and BPA. It spelled out how Bonneville would reimburse the other two for wildlife losses caused by the flooding of Dworshak Reservoir in 1973. The state received 60 percent of the mitigation, mostly in the form of the 60,000-acre Craig Mountain parcel purchased by Bonneville for $7 million.

The agreement allows tribal members to hunt on the parcel known as the Howard Ranch. The tribe will regulate its hunters there.