Field Reports

HUNTING/FISHING

Idaho to boost fees

If you plan to get an Idaho hunting or fishing license, you’ll save money buying it before July 1, when most of the state’s license and tag fees will increase by about 10 percent.

The Idaho Legislature has authorized the first license fee increase in five years.

Resident adult hunting licenses will hike from $11.50 to $12.75 and adult fishing licenses increase from $23.50 to $25.75. A combination license will go from $30.50 to $33.50. Tags show similar increases.

A junior resident combination license goes from $16 to $17.50. Senior licenses jump from $4.50 to $11.75.

The fee collected by license dealers statewide will increase from 75 cents to $1 per transaction.

Rich Landers

SALMON FISHING

Idaho season opens

Idaho’s spring chinook salmon fishing season opened Saturday , and the state Fish and Game Commission has left open the slight possibility of a salmon fishing season on the Upper Salmon River, which has not been available for almost 30 years. Officials said a decision will be made later this spring.

Pre-season forecasts called for about 75,000 fin-clipped spring and summer chinook to come up over Lower Granite Dam, Fish and Game officials said.

Most of the waters opened Saturday, but the Lochsa River will open Memorial Day.

The season on the Lower Snake River closes May 30. All of the branches of the Clearwater River close July 31, as does the Little Salmon and the Upper Snake. The season on the Lower Salmon closes June 19.

Anglers apparently have to be patient and wait a bit longer to get their catch. The springers have been slow to surge up the Columbia River, officials said. Only a trickle of fish has moved up over Bonneville dam in the lower Columbia.

Staff and wire reports

WILDLIFE

Study Glacier harlequins

Glacier’s Harlequins, a one-day field course focusing on a colorful seasonal resident of Glacier National Park, is being offered May 7 by The Glacier Institute.

The Pacific harlequin is the only duck in the world that divides its time between the cold mountain streams of Glacier National Park and the heavy surf of coastal waters. Sharing the breeding pattern of the salmon, in order to breed the harlequins return each year to the same stream where they hatched. An impressive number of these birds return each spring to McDonald Creek.

Info: (406) 755-1211 or www.glacierinstitute.org.

Rich Landers

FOREST ACCESS

Potlatch closes roads

With turkey and bear hunters as well as mushroomers heading afield this spring, Potlatch Corporation is restricting access to some of its forest roads to protect them from ruts and wash-outs.

Gates to Potlatch forestlands that normally might be open will remain closed and some new gates have been installed as the result of damage caused by heavy traffic and mud-bogging earlier this season, officials said.

Potlatch recently installed new gates at Johnson’s Mill and Skyline Drive near Orofino, where mud boggers have caused considerable damage this spring.

Potlatch currently is seeking restitution from three people who were caught and prosecuted last year for mud bogging, said Shelley Tschida of Quality Services, Inc., the company that helps patrol the company land.

“Potlatch spent over $6,000.00 in 2004 repairing rutted roads in the Maggie Butte area after sportsmen breached a gate and drove into an area that had been closed to protect the wet roadways,” she said.

Rich Landers

CONSERVATION

Salmon symposium set

“Salmon 101,” a half-day symposium focusing on the history, culture and conservation of Pacific salmon, including the impacts of Snake River Dams, will feature four guest speakers starting at 1 p.m. April 30 at the Corbin Senior Center, 827 W. Cleveland Ave.

Speakers will represent the Nez Perce Tribe, National Wildlife Federation, American Rivers, Sierra Club and Save Our Wild Salmon.

Rich Landers