Idaho Fish and Game Commission adopts grizzly and black bear rules

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission approved temporary rules Thursday designed to protect the practice of baiting black bears while bolstering the state’s case for delisting grizzly bears and perhaps reducing its vulnerability to a threatened lawsuit.

The new rules require bear hunters to pass a test that tasks them with distinguishing black bears from grizzly bears before they can purchase a bear hunting tag. Black bears can be hunted in Idaho but grizzly bears are protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and cannot be hunted. Because the rule requires changes to the state’s point of sale licensing system, the rule won’t take effect until Jan. 1.

A second two-part rule requires bear hunters to alert the Idaho Department of Fish and Game if any grizzly bears visit their baiting sites and to stop using and remove the bait site for the remainder of that season. That rule takes effect Sept. 1.

Kathleen Trevor, an assistant deputy attorney general who represents the department, said accidental killings of grizzly bears by black bear hunters has happened about 10 times over the past 20 years and has not affected the population of the threatened species. But she said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended the bear identification test after a hunter mistakenly shot and killed a grizzly bear at a bait station near St. Maries in June.

A coalition of environmental groups believes bear baiting threatens grizzlies by exposing them to accidental killings and by conditioning them to human food. The groups that include the WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project, Friends of the Clearwater and Wilderness Watch recently informed the state they intend to file a lawsuit under the Endangered Species Act.

Trevor indicated both rules may help the state in its efforts to have grizzly bears stripped of ESA protections. When animals are removed from the list, their management transfers from the federal government back to individual states. Before delisting can occur, the states must demonstrate they have adequate regulations in place to conserve the species in the absence of federal protections.

“This is somewhat a relatively straightforward way to demonstrate that the state will continue to have the ability to adequately regulate grizzly bears and to address things that have been happening on a voluntary basis and basically put them into a regulatory form that is clear for additional Fish and Wildlife Service and court review,” the lawyer said.

The commission approved the rules unanimously.

Greg LeDonne, Idaho Director of the Western Watersheds Project, said the new rules appear to him to be a response to the notice of intent to sue. But he said it’s not enough.

“I think it still creates conflict where grizzly bears are going to come across bait sites and for grizzly bears to be habituated to human food.”

Garret Visser, conservation coordinator for the Idaho Wildlife Federation, a coalition of hunting and fishing groups, said he supports the bear identification rule and his organization intends to monitor the bear baiting rules before passing judgment.

“We are going to look at how things go and if there is an opportunity for additional rulemaking and tweaks, we will be engaged in that,” he said.

The commission also approved a special hunt designed to collect samples from whitetail deer near Bonners Ferry so the department can determine the prevalence and geographic scope of chronic wasting disease there. The agency announced Wednesday that a whitetail deer near the town tested positive for the fatal disease.