If you want to weigh in on Idaho’s moose management plan, now’s your chance. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) is collecting public comments until Jan. 12. The proposed six-year plan will be in place 2020 through 2025. It will provide guidance in “protecting and managing moose populations in Idaho” along with “developing season setting regulations,” according to the agency.
With moose populations dwindling across certain areas of the state, IDFG has concentrated the new plan on figuring out why that is happening. According to the agency, the proposed plan includes the following:
Increasing knowledge of moose survival, recruitment, habitat use, genetics and the impacts of disease, habitat changes, predation and recreational activities.
Improving the quality of moose population monitoring data to better evaluate population trends. Create guidelines for moose translocations in Idaho.
Collaborating with private landowners and land management agencies to incorporate measures in land use and resource management plans that benefit moose.
Providing harvest opportunity while maintaining stable to increasing moose populations statewide.
The draft plan and comment form are available HERE. The plan will be presented to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission during its March 19-20, 2020 meeting.
5 Comments
Dan Drake
12/28/2019, 5:52:03 AM
Seems a kin to the ""mule deer initiative"". Alot of scientific mumbo jumbo language that never equates to any action exept cutting tag numbers. What will.any of the proposes fix? Nothing. They just need to do it to prove to some committee that action was taken. Thousands of dollars later and many reports will find that they need to study more about it.
Matt Finnie
12/24/2019, 2:35:16 AM
Guys, listen, the wolves suck, I get it. But Moose numbers are dwindling EVERYWHERE, well, almost; and in many of those places, wolves don't exist, or at least, they have always existed, and therefore don't function as an explanation for recent trends. Something is killing off the moose IN ADDITION to the re-introduced wolves, and nobody seems to know what it is. We need, ALL OF US, to be wolf hunting where legal, but we also need to fund scientific research into the other causes, ASAP!!!
Samuel Rogers
12/24/2019, 12:11:53 AM
why oh why is the moose population dwindling in Idaho? Probably has nothing to do with seeing several dead moose strung out dead on a forest service road, killed by wolves, without a bite of meat taken... but how would a biologist ever figure this out?