Idaho Bills

Appropriates an additional $400,000 to the Department of Fish and Game for fiscal year 2017.

Amends existing law to revise certain license, tag and permit provisions; to provide for grizzly bear tags; to require taxidermist and fur buyer's licenses for those that engage in the business of buying certain skins and parts of specified animals; to require the retention of records for those who purchase certain skins and parts of specified animals; to revise reporting requirements regarding the taking of certain wolves and to provide for the control of depredation of grizzly bear; to provide an exception for grizzly bear to prohibitions of waste and destruction of wildlife; and to provide for reimbursement to the state for grizzly bear killed, possessed or wasted.

This bill revises several sections of Title 36 to specify provisions pertaining specifically to black bear and grizzly bear to clarify and support management of an anticipated delisted Yellowstone grizzly bear population, consistent with the 2002 Idaho management plan for Yellowstone grizzly bear approved by the Idaho Legislature. This bill does not open any hunting season for delisted Yellowstone grizzly bear. This bill also removes obsolete references requiring nonresident disabled American hunters to hunt in association with a qualified organization to receive a reduced fee license; this requirement was statutorily deleted in 2014. This bill also revises taxidermist and furbuyer license requirements to include reporting of certain grizzly bear parts or skins and raw wolf skins, and this bill provides an extended timeframe for reporting control of depredating wolves when no permit is required.

Amends existing law to provide that individuals or landowners that have been issued a kill permit by the director of the Department of Fish and Game or his designee may, in conjunction with their responsibility for field dressing the animals taken, keep one animal for their personal use and to provide that under certain conditions a second animal subsequently taken may be kept by the individual or landowner.

Amends and adds to existing law to provide for the use of moneys for fishing access; to revise provisions regarding moneys paid into the Fish and Game Set-Aside Account; to provide for the use of moneys derived from certain license endorsements; to revise provisions regarding the transfer of certain amounts from the Expendable Big Game Depredation Fund; to revise conditions and requirements regarding payment for certain damages due to depredation; to revise certain deposit provisions regarding the Fish and Game Set-Aside Account; to provide for 3-year nonresident junior fishing licenses; to provide for license endorsements to fund wildlife depredation compensation and prevention and sportsmen access programs; to revise certain license fees; to revise provisions regarding procedures associated with depredation claims; and to provide that methods of determining forage utilization and damage or loss due to wildlife may include exclosure cages or other devices.

Amends infraction provisions regarding upland game bird shooting hours restrictions.

House Bill 161, passed in 2015, revised several fish and game misdemeanors to infractions in Idaho Code 36-1401. This bill integrates fish and game commission rule with current statute so that violation of upland bird shooting hours on certain wildlife management areas designated by fish and game commission proclamation or rule is an infraction rather than a misdemeanor.

Amends existing law to revise moneys to be deposited into the Fish and Game Set-aside Account.

This bill modifies the set-aside from salmon and steelhead permits that is directed to the fish and game set-aside account designated for specific functions. This is proposed to ensure funds from the fish and game account currently used for these functions are specifically available for the set-aside functions. The change in the set-aside does not affect current fees for the affected permits but are a redistribution of dedicated revenue to more transparently support statutory functions of the set-aside account. A proportional set-aside from salmon and steelhead permits is proposed because it can be feasibly administered from resident and nonresident salmon and steelhead permits, which do not have substantially disparate prices, and will ensure the set-aside keeps pace with any future fee revisions. The related set-aside distribution from eighth class licenses (sportsman's pak licenses) is also revised for consistency.