Landowners may get to sell rights to hunters

IDAHO FALLS — The Idaho Fish and Game Commission is considering a new method of big-game tag sales that would allow private landowners to sell hunting opportunities on their land to the highest bidder.

The idea would steer the state away from its historical practice of ensuring the same prices and the same opportunities for all hunters.

The idea, supported by Fish and Game Commissioner Cameron Wheeler of the Upper Snake Region, would allow farmers, ranchers, and possibly large, corporate landowners to sell tags in exchange for public access to their property.

No timetable has been established for developing the idea, and the Idaho Legislature would have to approve any plan.

But proponents say market forces will eventually control the way people fish and hunt.

“The days of asking landowners to provide access for free are over,” said Wheeler, who lives in Idaho Falls.

His argument revolves around the premise that landowners must be given a chance to earn money from wildlife, or else hunters will be locked out of private lands.

In Idaho, big-game tags are bought in addition to the basic hunting license, which is good by itself for smaller game and most upland birds. Hunters seeking deer, elk, antelope, bear and mountain lion — among other species — also purchase tags, which must be attached to the game as soon as hunters kill and secure it.

For decades, the system has allowed the Fish and Game Department to closely monitor the number of animals killed in specific regions and to collect money for the opportunity to hunt those animals.

Idaho already has a relatively new program for hunters and landowners in which the Fish and Game Department pays landowners to allow hunters to access private property.

Under the program, called Access Yes, landowners submit bids, which are then evaluated based on the level of public access offered and the amount of fishing or hunting opportunities available on the property. So far this year, 84 properties around the state have been signed up, according to the Fish and Game Web site.

Allowing landowners to sell the big-game tags would take the idea a step further, allowing landowners to market their property to the highest bidder and to decide who is allowed on their property.

Fish and Game Director Steve Huffaker said the new proposal is a way to compensate ranchers and farmers instead of continuing to ask them to be free stewards of wildlife and to suffer “slob hunters” who trash their land, leave gates open and don’t follow standards of ethical hunting.

“Hunters may not be getting exactly what they want, but if all the private property is turned into subdivisions or shooter-bull operations, the hunters are going to lose a great deal more,” Huffaker told the Post Register newspaper of Idaho Falls.

At least one hunter is skeptical. Kent Marlor of Rexburg has served on an advisory committee of landowners and hunters for the past five years. He believes there are too many unanswered questions.

“The wildlife portion of the committee doesn’t support selling of tags without considerable strings attached,” he said.

In Colorado, landowners may sell tags to allow hunters to harvest the best bull elk or buck deer, but in exchange for the right to sell the prime tags they must also improve habitat and allow access to nonpaying hunters for cow and doe hunts.

Besides Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah have systems that allow landowners to sell tags.

Wheeler acknowledges there are “many, many, many complex questions that must be answered,” but he said landowners should be given the opportunity to make the most of their property.

“There is an economic value to these critters,” he said. “We can’t continue to ignore that.”