Upper Lochsa trade proposed
A land exchange involving the Clearwater National Forest and Western Pacific Timber, LLC, is proposed in the upper Lochsa River area.
Up to 28,000 acres of scattered national forest parcels in northcentral Idaho could be exchanged for 40,000 acres of private lands in the Lochsa’s headwaters. Forest Service officials say the goal is to consolidate “checkerboard” ownership patterns to create larger blocks of public lands, which are easier to manage for forest resources and wildlife.
An open house meeting on the proposal is scheduled Tuesday, 6 p.m.-8 p.m., at the Job Service Conference Room in Moscow.
Maps of the potential land exchanges are online at www.fs.fed.us/r1/clearwater .
Rich Landers
FISHING
Bait ban sought on Clearwater
Wolves and Indian gillnetting were hot topics at the recent Idaho Fish and Game Commission public hearing in Lewiston. But several local anglers zeroed in Clearwater river steelheading.
Former commissioners Keith Stonebraker of Juliaetta and Will Godfrey of Lewiston asked the panel to take steps to improve steelhead fishing. Godfrey proposed a no-bait rule during the July-Oct. 15 catch-and-release season on the Clearwater. Many anglers believe steelhead take bait harder than they do flies or lures and are more prone to injury.
The two ex-commissioners also asked the commission to look into using some wild steelhead in hatchery spawning activities to help produce harder-fighting fish.
Lewiston Tribune
OUTPEOPLE
Wildlife names new director
A 23-year veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – with a law degree and station experience in Washington, D.C., the Midwest, Southwest, Alaska and Pacific Northwest – has been named the agency’s Pacific Region director based in Portland.
Robyn Thorson succeeds Ren Lohoefener, who became Director of the Service’s California-Nevada Region.
Thorson will oversee agency activities on 1.3 million acres at 64 national wildlife refuges, 17 national fish hatcheries and seven state and tribal hatcheries managed in the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan, eight fisheries stations, and 11 ecological services field offices.
Rich Landers
WILDLIFE ENFORCEMENT
Wildlife director resigns in NM
The embattled head of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department has resigned a month after the state Game Commission revoked his hunting license for illegally killing a deer. State conservation officers had called for him to step down.
Associated Press