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A BALANCING ACT
Idaho Department of Fish & Game celebrates 125 years of protecting, preserving, and perpetuating Idaho’s wildlife
BY JODIE NICOTRA
1899. Nine years after Idaho entered the Union as the 43rd state, the Fifth State Legislature established the Fish and Game Department. The State Game Warden has one job—to keep the state’s wildlife from being wiped out by overenthusiastic hunters and fishers.
A lot has changed in 125 years. Rapid urban development, climate change, and new science and technologies all make a state wildlife manager’s job more complex.
As the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) has learned over the years since it was founded, fulfilling its mission to the state’s wildlife in the face of these challenges requires one thing above all else—balance.
“I think the one thing we’ve learned about wildlife management over the past 125 years is that nothing is ever fixed,” said Roger Phillips, an IDFG public information specialist. “We can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’ve got that one figured out, now we’re going to walk away from it.’ It’s always evolving. And we’re adapting to changes, we’re always trying to listen to the public’s wants and desires and balance that with the needs of wildlife in our state.”
Working For The Idaho Public
Ever since it was formed, the IDFG has embraced its nature as a public agency.
“We work on behalf of the public, and all of the wildlife belongs to the public. We’re just the ones that manage it for them,” said Phillips.
IDFG is governed by a commission of seven citizens appointed by the governor. The commission authorizes IDFG to gather public feedback on proposed plans. The commission reviews the feedback, then either approves the plan or sends it back to IDFG for reworking.
“The hunters and anglers and the general public are very much a part of how we make these decisions,” Phillips said.
WORKING FOR ALL OF IDAHO’S WILDLIFE
While most people associate IDFG with hunting and fishing licenses, the agency’s duty is to protect, preserve, perpetuate, and manage all wildlife in the state—not just game species.
“We want to make sure there are healthy habitats, healthy ecosystems, and healthy wildlife populations for all of our citizens to enjoy,” said Ian Malpeai, a marketing manager for IDFG.
Getting that balance means drawing up six-year plans for fisheries and elk herd management, of course. But it also means projects like the famous 1948 IDFG program that parachuted “problem” beavers into the Idaho backcountry, where they got busy creating a good riparian habitat for ecosystems that benefit all species.
More recently, the IDFG created a wildlife overpass over Highway 21 outside Boise to allow safe passage for migrating mule deer, moose, and elk herds.
But the department also embraces more cutting-edge methods in its efforts to conserve wildlife.
“We’d like to talk about some of the innovative science we’ve done,” said Malepeai. “We can talk about Lonesome Larry and creating a whole salmon population from one fish that came back and being able to make them genetically diverse. That was world-class research pioneered here in Idaho that’s now being used all over the world.”
The department also has developed a way to estimate wolf population sizes using artificial intelligence. Rather than the more dangerous method of flying biologists in with helicopters or having people count individual animals, IDFG has set up remote cameras to track populations.
The department’s anniversary celebrations include the release of a moving video that imagines a world without Idaho’s “wild others” and celebrates the IDFG’s legacy in conserving Idaho’s wildlife for all.
“It’s always a balancing act, a juggling act,” Phillips said. “We drop things sometimes, and sometimes the public has unrealistic expectations. But for the most part, I think we’ve done a pretty good job over the years.”
