March 29, 2012
By Niels Nokkentved, IDFG
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission set big game seasons for 2012 during a
meeting Thursday, March 22.
The commissioners adopted Fish and Game staff recommendations for this
fall's deer, elk, pronghorn, black bear, gray wolf and mountain lion hunts, and
added a few changes of their own. Changes from the 2011-2012 seasons include:
Elk
§
Eliminate general sea-son
antlerless elk hunts in the Panhandle. Create separate controlled either-sex
hunts in Units 1, 2, 3 and 5.
§
Reduce antlerless
con-trolled hunt tags in McCall zone.
§
Increase antlerless elk tags
in Owyhee controlled hunt Area 40.
§
Restructure Landowner
Permission Hunts and antlerless hunts in units 45, 49, 52A, 56 and 68 to address
depredation con-cerns; convert Landowner Permission Hunts to extra tag hunts.
§
Shorten A-tag season in
Teton zone.
§
Create three new controlled
hunts with 20 permits each to address depredation concerns in Unit 36B.
Deer
§
Expand muzzleloader
opportunity in Panhandle 10 days.
§
Shorten the season for extra
antlerless con-trolled hunts in Clear-water Region.
§
Extend antlerless por-tion
of Unit 23 white-tailed deer season for youth only.
§
Add new deer hunt to Deer
Flat National Wild-life Refuge to address depredations on neigh-boring private
land and convert antlerless youth hunt in Units 40 and 41 to youth extra
antlerless controlled hunt.
§
Restructure antlerless hunts
in Units 44, 45 and 52, restructure youth hunts in Units 47, 54, 55 and 57, and
move rotating muzzleloader hunt from Units 47, 54 and 55 to eastern portion of
unit 45.
§
Reduce antlerless hunts in
units 43, 44 and 45 in response to hunter concerns.
§
Keep Unit 36A as an
unlimited controlled buck hunt; add Unit 29 to controlled hunt Area 37
muzzleloader hunt.
Pronghorn
§
Increase opportunity in
Units 45 and 52.
§
Convert Landowner Permission
hunts to extra tag hunts.
§
Separate out Unit 68 from
existing archery either-sex pronghorn hunts and create new unlimited controlled
hunt.
Black Bear
§
Extend Unit 6 spring season
to June 30.
§
Extend spring season in
Units 23, 24 and 25 by one week to close June 7.
§
Add units 4, 6, 7 and 9 to
the list of units where hunters could use a second bear tag.
§
Shorten the spring bear
season in units 29, 30, 30A, 36A, 37 and 37A to end June 15 instead of June 30.
Mountain Lion
§
Increase season by 60 days
in Unit 6, and 44 days in Units 7 and 9.
Moose
§
Eliminate 10 antlerless
permits in the Panhandle and reduced bull hunts in Hunt Area 1-4 to 25 permits
down from 45.
Gray Wolf
§
Increase bag limit to five
each for hunting and trapping in the Pan-handle, Palouse-Hells Canyon, Dworshak,
Lolo, Selway and Middle Fork wolf zones.
§
Extend season on private
land in Panhandle zone.
§
Add trapping season in Units
19A and 25.
§
Increase harvest limit in
Southern Mountain zone from 25 to 40.
§
Increase season length in
Beaverhead and Island Park zones to close on Jan. 31.