Guest Opinion: Idaho Big Game Management at a Pivotal Crossroads

The following is a personal perspective written by Larry Hatter, a participant in IDFG’s Hunting and Advanced Technology (HAT) Working Group.

If you care about the future of hunting in Idaho, almost certainly, you have knowledge of the most polarizing topic since wolf introduction three decades ago.  This subject has pitted neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend and brother against brother, almost as effectively as the Mason-Dixon Line.  In fact, I almost expect to look out my living room window and see blue and gray clad hunters lobbing artillery shells at each other any day now.   The topic of which I speak is none other than the management of advanced technology across the hunting landscape in the state of Idaho.

I personally have had a front-row seat in the undertaking of this process.  I was honored to be one of the twenty-three individuals chosen to represent the sportsmen of Idaho on the Hunters and Advanced Technology Working Group.  Our unenviable task was to try and wade through a mountain of personal feelings from group members and concerned sportsmen to come up with a management recommendation for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.   

When I say the process was exhausting, I truly mean it.  We heard from nearly every sporting group of note and read the vast majority of comments submitted by Idaho hunters.  I have nothing, but respect for each member of the group.  How twenty-three individuals of such different backgrounds could sift through that much information and still come out with a united recommendation was nothing short of remarkable.  

Regardless of their opinions, what was true of all group members was we cared about what we were leaving for Idaho’s future generations.  That shared responsibility persuaded many members who enjoyed some of the technologies in question, myself included, to put their swords down and realize, for our children to enjoy Idaho the way we have, some concessions would need to be made.  

Currently, the recommendations have made it through the public comment period and been approved by the IDFG Commission.  Now they await debate in Boise with the future of Idaho’s big game management hanging in the balance.

I want to give the Idaho Department of Fish and Game a lot of credit at this point.  They took tremendously divisive management decisions and involved the people of Idaho.  This has been no small task.   If there is one fact that must be made crystal clear to all Idaho sportsmen, it is that our state cannot continue to manage game in the same manner as thirty years ago.  Like it or not, over that time period, we have a new apex predator (wolves) which has changed the landscape and the other apex predator (homo sapiens) have nearly doubled in numbers.  Let me say it again.  The population of Idaho has almost doubled in the last twenty-six years!  The number of ungulates in the state has, by all accounts, probably decreased.   

So, to what end do these irrefutable facts lead?   Simply put, hunters have an important decision to make.  Will I sacrifice some of my technology to be able to get a deer or elk tag every year?  Because let me tell you, if we are not willing to give up some of our luxuries, the only other alternative will be a system that sees every resident of Idaho eventually applying for all deer and elk tags and praying they get an opportunity every year.   

In the future, our children will never experience the traditions and excitement of hunting with dad every fall. Instead they’ll be streaming the new viral song, waiting for their next online order to show up, and spending more time behind a screen instead of in nature. And the thing that will annoy them the most? Having to listen to their broken-down old man talk about the good old days in Idaho when you stopped at the gas station on your way to elk camp to buy your tag. 

Human beings, more often than not, are a reactive instead of proactive type of critter.  History is littered with examples of humans refusing to confront the reality until it is too late - the American Bison being one of the most sobering examples.  But today, Idaho has an opportunity to act differently. This is our chance to look past our own selfish ambitions and realize there will be no hunting future in Idaho unless we make some sacrifices today.  

I fully support the recommendations which have been submitted  for consideration to the Idaho House of Representatives.  It's my hope they pass expeditiously, providing a glimmer of hope that Idaho's hunting future may one day be as bright as its past.  

Larry Hatter - Father and Uncle, Life-long Idahoan