Field reports: Idaho Fish and Game pitches revenue plan

HUNTING – The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is proposing raising resident fees for all licenses, tags and permits by 20 percent.

But the plan also includes locking in 2013 prices for hunters and anglers who buy a license every year.

Fish and Game Deputy Director Sharon Kiefer presented an update on the proposal to the Fish and Game Commission at its quarterly meeting on Thursday.

Kiefer says that if every sportsman bought a license every year, the agency would be in good shape as far as revenue. She says most of the agency’s revenue comes from licenses and fees, as well as excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment.

The agency hasn’t met revenue goals since 2008, officials said.

Hunter shoots grizzly after bear charges

HUNTING – A hunter shot and wounded a female grizzly bear that charged within 50 feet of him on Wednesday near Condon, Mont.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials said the hunter reported the shooting immediately.

Wardens who responded found a deer carcass the bear and her two cubs had been feeding on about 75 yards from where the shooting occurred. Wardens and biologists followed the wounded bear’s tracks in the snow and said it did not appear the bear was mortally wounded.

FWP recommends that hunters and others in bear country carry bear spray.

East Side reps favor wolf delisting

WILDLIFE – Representatives from Eastern Washington were among 75 Congress members who recently signed a letter to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service supporting the agency’s plan to remove the gray wolf from endangered species protections throughout the lower 48 states.

The federal agency’s comment period for its proposed delisting runs through Dec. 17.

Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Doc Hastings said they strongly support removing the species from ESA protections in the western two thirds of Washington and Oregon.

The legislators said they agree with the federal agency’s findings that wolves in Canada and the U.S. are part of the same population.

The letter said the states are ready to take over wolf management and noted that “unmanaged growth of wolf populations has resulted in devastating impacts on hunting.”

Wind energy group fined for killing birds

WILDLIFE – A wind energy company has agreed to pay about $1 million in fines and mitigation actions in the deaths of 14 golden eagles and 149 other protected birds in Wyoming.

The American Bird Conservancy says it’s the first prosecution of a wind company in connection with bird deaths.

The Department of Justice on Friday announced a settlement on the prosecution of Duke Energy’s wind developments.

The charges stem from the discovery of the dead birds by the company at its private-land wind projects in Converse County between 2009 and 2013.