Idaho Fish and Game ( Sharp Shooters )

[hawkbill]

Since the last thread was deleted I thought I would get this reposted and hopefully get a little help with the articles floating around on both subjects. Not only did the IFGD pay out a 1,200,000.00 on one depredation claim to one farmer in south central Idaho, it seems they spent half the summer and fall with their new Sharp Shooter team killing 206 Elk that we're eating crops. Mike McDonald is our new Magic Valley head biologist and boy has he taken the reins. I would really like to know what his big plans for our wildlife.Our mature deer are all but gone unless you consider a three and half year old deer old.Out of control over hunting, endless overlapping seasons and unlimited over the counter archery tags, depredation tags where shooting is happening around subdivisions and from state highways. At the last IFGD meeting Mike McDonald talked about corn and corn production for an hour. McDonald talked about the Elk Tags available, controlled hunt tags, over the counter tags, land owner tags,depredation tags, x tags, xx tags and theirs probably a few I missed but the last tags he mentioned were kill tags he said and that's where we kill them our self. Then he went on to say that the only law he has to enforce is to protect the private land owner. Really Sharp Shooters? How could they possibly manage our wildlife when all this time is spent in a few small areas. I love hunting and allways have is this the new Oppurtunity Hunting?

 

[customweld]

I'm definitely not a fan of what's going on, but what's the answer? It's quite obvious that elk behavior has changed and they are spending too much time in the ag/ urban interface. IFG is required to minimize the impact of damage to private property.

 

[Mallards_Only]

If the herd can sustain culling a certain number by "sharpshooting," then it can sustain depredation tags issued on a lottery basis and allowing those with the tag to hunt ag land where the elk are reportedly a problem and farmers are getting massive payouts from IDFG. Wonder how many of these farmers would still want make this crop damage claim if it meant they would have to allow limited hunting on their property. Sure is nice to get an extra $1.2M to help your income for the year and for doing nothing. And don't start making the claims that IDFG management have driven this. Many factors have driven this, including wolves. That's part of farming. Just like the weather, there are many things you can't control that affect your yields. In CA for example, when rice prices bottomed out, farmers who originally NEVER wanted to lease blinds for duck hunting all of a sudden changed their minds and started doing so to increase income. Now, nearly every rice farmer in the Sac Valley leases blinds and even though rice prices have rebounded, they won't give up that extra income. Seems that all their reasons for not liking duck hunters went out the window when all the cash started flowing.
There needs to be a massive lobbying effort against this crap at the legislative level. McDonald should start feeling some heat from the top down.

 

[boise]

If you want to change the way the fish and game deals with these situations maybe you go around them and legislators. Ballet initiative on fencing. Under Idaho range laws we are a "Fence out" state. Meaning if you don't want Johnny's cows in your field you are responsible for fencing them out. Pass a fench out wildlife law and then you could avoid depredation payouts and "slaughter ".

 

[hawkbill]

There are a lot of factors involved , I remember when the wolf packs started reaching 14 members per pack, that's when the Elk really started moving into the towns subdivisions and out into the desert and Ag fields.

 

[Mallards_Only]

Maybe the farmers should sue the organizations responsible for wolf reintroduction for the damages they are sustaining to their crops and livestock.

 

[customweld]

Idaho Fish and Game fall under the Resource and Conservation Committee. 9 of the members are either farmers, ranchers or agri-business. The Chair is a farmer. Until new reps are voted in, this will continue. Here is Idaho Farm Bureau's policy book for 2020. Fish and Game sections starts on page 34, number 69.
https://www.idahofb.org/uploads/IFBF PolicyBook2020B.pdf

 

[hawkbill]

It’s hard to go after legislators, commissioners and congressman with out putting a grass roots sportsman group togeather and getting a legislator on our side. then you’ve got the farmers and ranchers who allow hunting and the big land owners who allow no hunting, are they going to call in Guthrie and the Sharp Shooters, to take care of all problem Elk. I say we go after the Fish and Game hard and Mcdonald Evan harder for miss management of controlled hunts. He runs every thing from a computer model he set up anyway. Maybe we need our own Fish and Game and the farmers can have the old fish and game ( Sharp Shooters) or Farm Squad.

 

[customweld]

It’s hard to go after legislators, commissioners and congressman with out putting a grass roots sportsman group togeather and getting a legislator on our side. then you’ve got the farmers and ranchers who allow hunting and the big land owners who allow no hunting, are they going to call in Guthrie and the Sharp Shooters, to take care of all problem Elk. I say we go after the Fish and Game hard and Mcdonald Evan harder for miss management of controlled hunts. He runs every thing from a computer model he set up anyway. Maybe we need our own Fish and Game and the farmers can have the old fish and game ( Sharp Shooters) or Farm Squad.

It is hard to unseat a legislator. Unfortunately they ultimately have more control over the IFG than what people realize. As long as they are having depredation issues, this is going to continue.

 

[Mallards_Only]

This is why IWF or RMEF needs to get involved. Without an organization with the means and experience to deal with the bureacracy of govt entities, it's likely to go nowhere.

 

[OLDHORNHUNTER]

I saw that same article posted in several places funny how they shot 206 & looks like a pile of elk quarters stacked on pallets at the processors place. BUT according to F&Gs story those 206 were killed over a several month span ?? Also they claim the highest kill was 6 in one night again looking at the pallets of elk seems someone is not telling the real story !! If they were put in a cold storage they would have taken the hide off 1st that is only common sense .

 

[Mallards_Only]

Saw the story again on the Boise area news channel. Hopefully, it will generate some more outrage from hunters around here.

 

[hawkbill]

I agree old horn hunter, it’s amazing all the Elk quarters on pallets that have not been skinned, are they cutting them up in a field with a chain saw and throwing them in a freezer trailor. I beleive I will contact the state attourney general and find out how much money was spent on McDonald’s Sharp Shooter study.

 

[OLDHORNHUNTER]

Yeah that was another question I had HOW much $$ did they pay these so called Sharp Shooters . I dont buy it if this was months of kills as they claim, why are all the quarters in the same pic ? Where is the info on the so called Impact study have not seen once line of results .

 

[excaliber]

I was in Hailey working this week and the local news had a segment about the elk cull in Shoshone on that ranch. The Biologist Mike McDonald said he wanted to kill 1000 elk each season for two years in that unit.
Is there even that many elk in that unit?
They shot them at night.

 

[buckhorn]

F.... Idaho game department. And whoever that McDonald’s clown is.
Things are so screwed up there I feel like not hunting there anymore except that I bought a lifetime license before I moved out of that state.

 

[customweld]

That picture was awful. As long as the legislature is beholden to Idaho Farm Bureau, this isn’t going to change. You can be pissed off all you want at IFG but they get their marching orders from legislators.

 

[hawkbill]

I just saw some other pictures of unskinned quarters piled up. I have never seen anyone take such crappy care of wildlife. The old Buffalo market hunters took better care of their meat and they had to pack it to the train. As far as McDonald not releasing the students name for his masters project. The so called student is an employee of the fish and game and has been for sometime but if McDonald does not want to release his name that’s fine, McDonald can take all the credit himself, just like he is going to for mismanaging the controlled hunt units in his region.

 

[Bluehair]

X2 on hating that picture. It just doesn't seem right. Shame on everyone involved.

 

[hawkbill]

Since old McDonald cut the sportsman out last February and works exclusively with farmers and ranchers and nobody really knows what’s going on but him. He wants to eradicate all Elk off of private land and our controlled hunts up here in the central Idaho are suffering and tied into this whole mess. I do not know why you wouldn’t want to bring the sportman and farmers and ranchers togeather and work out a solution. Think about this McDonald, what if we as sportsman went after all grazing rights on public land to have beef and sheep removed for good!

 

[Blindnonresident]

Hug a rancher.
He feed your wildlife all winter.

 

[customweld]

And the public feeds his livestock all spring summer and fall.

 

[critterstalker]

And the public feeds his livestock all spring summer and fall.

The ranchers pay for the right to feed they're livestock on public land to.

 

[grizzly]

The ranchers pay for the right to feed they're livestock on public land to.

Get rid of the legacy favoritism and socialistic government subsidized welfare and open it up to fair market bidding... then we can talk.

 

[N_Corey]

How much do they pay for grazing rights?

 

[excaliber]

About $1.41 per AUM a month as of 2018. What a scam.

https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-and-forest-service-announce-2018-grazing-fees

 

[N_Corey]

My feeling has always been if ranchers want depredation money from F&G then their land must be open to access for the public to hunt. Otherwise cut off the welfare checks and let them deal with it on their own.

 

[smokepoll]

N Corey, so+1 on this. I had a Bull tag in one of the Magic V. areas a couple of years ago. Was so excited. Arrived early and started doing some door knocking for Ag land access. I was shocked at the amount of no's I got. I finally had one rancher take pity. He said go ahead but most of the elk are all going to be in farmer X and Y's property and they are not going to let you on.... He then actually said, but they are happy to line up for the depredation pay out.

 

[usafvet]

Smokepoll: I had the same problem when I was doing an antelope hunt the other year. Absolutely asinine that they can collect money that we as sportsman put into the pot but wont let us hunt on their land to help with the depredation.... They only care about making money and have no care for the sportsman other than their select few buddies they let come hunt on their land.

 

[Blindnonresident]

Many large ranches don't allow hunting at all.
Many also don't want the Government involved with anything.

 

[customweld]

This is from the IDFG Depredation Handbook:
Owner or lessee must have allowed hunters reasonable access to the property or through the property to public lands for hunting purposes during the preceding hunting season or as a measure of response to depredation, provided such access did not negatively impact their operations.

 

[SummitsCalling]

This is from the IDFG Depredation Handbook:
Owner or lessee must have allowed hunters reasonable access to the property or through the property to public lands for hunting purposes during the preceding hunting season or as a measure of response to depredation, provided such access did not negatively impact their operations.

By reasonable, do they mean paying $10k+ treespass fees for bulls? Maybe it should be changed to "Selective access if you pay" ?

 

[customweld]

By reasonable, do they mean paying $10k+ treespass fees for bulls? Maybe it should be changed to "Selective access if you pay" ?

Its left up for interpretation!

 

[freebird63]

Does Don McFarland allow hunters on his land?? if not then he should have never gotten that check for over a million bucks. How high up do the Idaho sportsmen & sportswomen need to take this??

 

[hawkbill]

To start I would contact Mike Mcdonald biologist for Magic valley fish and game and tell him how you really feel about your hunting and his time spent with the Sharp shooters and on private farms instead of managing our wildlife. Next call your fish and game commissioner and tell him how you feel about your hunting and farmers and payouts. If you all are really concerned about your hunting and management then we put a grass roots sportsman group together and go after the legislators.

 

[hawkbill]

You can also pick up the new brochure from Idaho fish and game on caring for your meat in the field.

 

[Blindnonresident]

If the government thinks they are going to cut me a check for the privilege of accessing my property they can stick it.

Just sayin.