The House Resources Committee has voted 9-5 to amend HB 532, Rep. Judy Boyle's "conservation permit" bill to require permits for those without hunting or fishing licenses to use Fish & Game lands, rather than pass the bill as-is or kill it outright. Some on the panel argued for each of those other alternatives. In the end, members agreed to propose an amendment to make the permit a "family pass," with just one $10 permit required per family ($20 for non-Idaho residents), rather than one for each person.

Boyle promoted the bill from the start as applying only to adults, but Rep. Dell Raybould, R-Rexburg, pointed out during today's committee hearing that the bill never said that, opening the possibility that a family of five could have to pay $50 - or $100 if they're from out of state - "to go out and sit by a crick and have a picnic." Boyle then agreed an amendment was appropriate to spell that out. She defended her proposal, saying, "People are not forced to go out on Fish & Game land to begin with - if they want to picnic somewhere else they can do that. This is a fairness issue to the sportsmen; we have always paid for the department."

Reps. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, and JoAn Wood, R-Rigby, spoke out against the bill. "It's just not a good time to be sticking this kind of thing on anybody," Barrett said. Wood said, "I feel like we're going to throw a bomb out there - this is going to be very unpopular with our people, according to the letters that I'm receiving from home that cannot believe that we would even consider doing this."

Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, moved to kill the bill, saying non-hunters already pay for Fish and Game land through their utility rates, as utilities including Avista and the Bonneville Power Administration pay large amounts for fish and wildlife projects. "That's one way the public pays for that whether they ever walk on the land or not," Eskridge said.

Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d'Alene, an avid bird-watcher, moved to pass the bill as-is, saying it might not be perfect but it made sense for users to pay to help maintain the land. "When I go out to use one of these areas, I take something home - it's not a physical object, it's an experience," he said. "And the quality of that experience is what I value. ... I like to look at wildflowers and not weeds, and I think these are lands that need to be managed."

Rep. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, made the successful motion to amend the bill, saying non-hunters should pay just as hunters and fishermen do. The bill now moves to the amending order in the full House, with the committee's proposed amendment attached.