Field reports: Photographer fined for baiting bighorn

WILDLIFE – A Big Sky, Mont., photographer has been convicted of illegally feeding bighorn sheep near Big Sky Road in order to photograph them with the area’s iconic Lone Peak in the background.

The state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department says 35-year-old Ryan Molde was fined $1,035 and sentenced to eight days in a work program and two days in jail.

Molde also was ordered to surrender all photographs related to the feeding and is prohibited from selling any in the future.

Three bighorn sheep have been struck and killed by vehicles in the area where he was feeding them.

Associated Press

Wild fall chinook coming in big run to Snake River

FISHING – Early forecasts call for a post-dams record run of wild fall chinook headed to the Snake River, fish managers said this week.

About 17,500 naturally produced fall chinook – a stock listed as endangered – are expected to return to the mouth of the Columbia.

If the forecast holds, the return would break the record, 15,400, set last year. The low return on a record dating back to 1986 was just 772 wild fish in 1998.

The wild Snake River chinook return to the mouth of the Columbia was only 4,086 in 2009.

Staff and wire reports

Stream access hearing draws crowd in Helena

OUTCRY – A Montana Legislature room that holds 215 was overflowing with people as upset anglers turned out by the carload Tuesday to fight back against a proposal they say would limit stream access.

A bill introduced at the request of landowners would reopen a bitter dispute over a segment of the Bitterroot River that anglers say is a side channel and landowners argue is an irrigation ditch.

Sportsmen from across the state bearing shirts adorned with slogans like “Any River, Any Time” and “Kill House Bill 309” lined up for hours to speak in opposition to the bill. The crowd included a smaller number of supporters led by ranchers.

Opponents said the proposal threatens their livelihoods and pastimes by limiting stream access which could be classified as ditches under the proposed law.

Senate passes extension for cougar hunting

OUTLAW – The Washington Senate approved another extension of a long-standing pilot program that allows the hunting of cougars with dogs in certain parts of the state.

The Senate voted 37-1 to expand for another five years a pilot program created in 2004 that allowed some of these hunts to take place in some counties in eastern Washington.

The pilot program has been extended twice.

In 1996, Washington voters approved an initiative that banned such hunts.

The measure has headed to the House for further consideration.

Idaho interviews six for agency director

AGENCIES – The Idaho Fish and Game Commission began interviewing six finalists for director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department this week.

The list to replace retiring Cal Groen includes agency internal contenders Jim Unsworth, deputy director for programs; Sharon Kiefer, assistant director of policy; Virgil Moore, deputy director of field operations, and fisheries bureau chief Edward Schriever.

External finalists are Steve Ferrell, former director for Wyoming Game and Fish Department and policy advisor in the Wyoming Governor’s Office, and Michael Senn, assistant director of wildlife management for Arizona Game and Fish.

Rich Landers