Field Reports; Wildlife commission meets in Spokane

Trapping, land acquisitions and waterfowl regulations are on the agenda for the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting to be held Friday and Saturday at the Mirabeau Park Hotel and Conference Center, 1100 N. Sullivan Road in Spokane Valley.

Friday morning, the commissioners will tour Sprague Lake, which is being proposed for a fisheries rehabilitation project that could begin this fall at a cost of roughly $400,000.

The nine-member commission, which sets policy for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, is scheduled to take action on whether to acquire three properties in Okanogan County, including 3,337 acres of the shrub steppe habitat in northern Okanogan County.

The commission will hear briefings and take public input on other topics, although no action is planned until later in the year. The topics include:

“Proposed public conduct rules to protect fish and wildlife resources and ensure public safety in state wildlife lands and at water-access sites

“ North Potholes Game Reserve access restrictions

“ Waterfowl hunting rules on use of decoys and calls

“Game-tagging requirements

The commission also is scheduled to hear briefings on:

“ Public safety cougar removals

“ Special trapping permits

“ Deer and elk damage claims

A more detailed agenda is online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/com/ meetings.htm.

Rich Landers

HUNTING

Lost tags prompts concern

The number of replacement tags being issued to hunters in Montana has risen significantly in recent years, prompting concerns that unscrupulous hunters may be abusing the system to kill additional animals.

“Every year we’re seeing more and more replacement licenses,” said Jim Kropp, head of the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ enforcement division. “I don’t think Montanans are getting that much more forgetful.”

At the request of the Montana Game Wardens Association, legislation is being proposed to raise the cost of a replacement tag and make the process of getting one more difficult.

Kropp said the current ease of replacing licenses has three effects: it makes people less careful about losing them, it allows people to buy extra tags, and it makes it easier for poachers to transfer their tags to unlicensed people.

He said that in the past few years, the number of duplicate licenses issued has risen from about 4,000 a year to 7,000, “and they’re not all lost.”

Wardens are also finding duplicate licenses involved in large commercial poaching operations, Kropp said.

Wardens already use the automated licensing system to track people who regularly purchase duplicates. The system provides exact records of when, where and how many licenses and tags a person has bought.

One pro-hunting group is not impressed with the bill.

The automated licensing system was supposed to make it easier for hunters to buy licenses “and it sounds like this is a step back from that,” said Gary Marbut, head of the Montana Shooting Sports Association.

He said that if FWP has problems enforcing poaching laws, it should address them in other ways.

“I’m not sure that warrants making it more difficult for everybody,” Marbut said. “Nothing is going to stop people from doing illegal things except better enforcement.”

Associated Press

FISHING

Hawaii bans bottomfishing

Hawaii has closed all state waters to bottomfishing from May through September in order to protect seven species of fish.

“This temporary closure is in response to a declared state of overfishing of seven bottomfish species in the main Hawaiian Islands,” said Peter Young, Department of Land and Natural Resources chairman.

Associated Press

INVASIVE PLANTS

Fines await weed slackers

Idaho property owners who ignore noxious plants may be fined up to $10,000 under a new state law.

Idaho has long held property owners responsible for invasive plants. An untended backyard filled with spotted knapweed or a grazing pasture dotted with flowery Dalmatian toadflax all count as violations.

But in 2006, state lawmakers passed a stricter enforcement law that went into effect this spring. The Legislature this year approved $10 million to combat noxious weeds over the next two years.

Idaho has 57 weeds on the list of noxious weeds, which are causing a significant reduction of forage available for wildlife, as well as livestock.

Staff reports

PREDATORS

Targeting black bears

Hunters this summer will be allowed to kill as many black bears as they want in an area near Anchorage in an expansion of Alaska’s predator control program, aimed mostly at wolves until now. Permits are free.

The bag limit already was a liberal three black bears a year.

Residents in the remote towns and villages across Cook Inlet from Alaska’s largest city have complained that bears and wolves are killing too many moose calves, leaving them with too few to hunt for food.

Rich Landers

WILDERNESS

Mining allowed inside wilderness

Forest Service officials have authorized gold mining on a 20-acre site in the Uncompahgre Wilderness Area east of Ouray, Colo.

Mining is normally prohibited in a federally designated wilderness area, but Uncompahgre National Forest Supervisor Charlie Richmond said last week the mining claim dates to 1938, decades before the 1964 law establishing wilderness areas.

The Robin Redbreast Gold Mine claim is small, and miners plan to use mules and a helicopter to haul supplies in and toxic waste rock out.

The Forest Service will require the Millers to upgrade and maintain the trails they use and to reclaim the mine after it closes.

Associated Press