May 13–Under a new proposal, landowners in Idaho’s Landowner Appreciation Program (LAP) could sell deer, elk and pronghorn tags given to them for participating in the program.
Fish and Game’s Landowner Appreciation Program allocates a portion of controlled hunt tags to a lottery specifically for landowners who provide habitat for wildlife in units where there are no general big game hunts.
A public meeting on the LAP proposals is scheduled 6 to 9 p.m., June 4, at the Southwest Regional Fish and Game office, 3101 S. Powerline Rd., in Nampa. There will other meetings Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Jerome and Lewiston.
Under current rules, landowners who draw an LAP tag can designate the tag to another individual, but can not sell that tag. But that could change for the first time in the history of the program under the new proposal.
Big game tags have become a hot commodity, with prime tags selling in other states for tens of thousands of dollars.
Under the proposals, controlled hunt tags would be guaranteed to landowners rather than allocated through a lottery.
The number of tags allocated to each landowner would be directly tied to the amount of habitat for deer, elk or pronghorn provided by the landowner, F officials said.
Additional tags would be issued to landowners who sign agreements for allowing hunter access and participating in habitat improvement and depredation management.
In the past, landowners had to provide public access to their lands in exchange for LAP tags, but that stipulation was dropped at the request of landowners.
Also under the new proposal, F is considering limiting where certain recipients of the LAP tags can hunt. Currently any recipient can use the tags in any part of a hunt area in which a landowner has drawn an LAP tag. Direct family members and employees of the landowner would continue to have that opportunity.
But hunters who purchase LAP tags from landowners and are not related to or employed by the landowner would be limited to private land within the hunt area, according to the proposal.
Comments can be submitted online from May 19 to June 6 at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/about/?getPage=33