IDAHO SPORTSMEN COMMENT ON HB507
House bill 507, introduced in the 2022 Idaho Legislative Session, was a direct result of a long-standings issue among bowhunters and the Idaho Fish and Game Commission.
While the Commission members have changed over the years, based on gubernatorial appointments, the issues surrounding archery equipment have lingered. Repeated requests for the Commission to change their stance on the use of lighted knocks and expandable broadheads have failed. Despite requests from members of the Idaho House of Representatives to the Commission to take up the issues, including recently, the Commission has not adjusted their position.
Idaho has yet to adopt the use of this equipment, resulting in Idaho being the last state in the union that prohibits the use of lighted nocks and expandable broadheads. While we would certainly prefer to have had the Commission take up the issue, which would allow all interested parties to negotiate, and create the ability to negotiate, some form of regulated use of this equipment, that hasn’t happened for many years. As a result of this continued conflict, Rep. Brandon Mitchell (R-5) introduce HB 507.
The merits of the bill allow Idahoans to choose to use lighted knocks and expandable broadheads while archery hunting. There is no obligation to use this equipment, and other equipment previously allowed remains legal. Broad support by many sportsmen to allow use of the equipment, combined with the reality of Idaho being the only state that prohibited its use were incongruent and didn’t make sense to us. Additionally, we trust hunters to make decisions for themselves on what equipment suits their abilities and preferences.
For many years, the sporting community has held sacred the enactment by ballot initiative, of the Fish and Game Commission and their role in managing wildlife. The wisdom of this model is evident in the vast access and many opportunities throughout Idaho’s diverse regions. This is something that, like many other groups, Idaho Sportsmen supports and has worked to protect. We fully understand and appreciate where other interested groups were coming from with their opposition to this bill. But even those who opposed the bill based on this being a commission only decision, mentioned many of their members supported the actual policy in question and/or the allowance of this equipment.
Like it or not, the Idaho legislature has clear policy making authority over title 36, where the Fish and Game laws reside. These laws are regularly changed to meet the needs of Idaho throughout the generations. In most years, Idaho Fish and Game presents agency supported legislation to modify the sections of code that need updated. Similarly, many laws have been brought before the Natural Resource Committees in the House and Senate to improve, change, delete or even revamp laws that the Commission, and sportsmen abide by. This process is not new or unprecedented.
When it comes to wildlife management, and the role of the Commission versus the Idaho legislature, it has long been the position of sportsmen of all kinds that the commission should be fully responsible, and we respectfully ask the legislature to stay out of biological or social decision making that will impact future access and opportunities for Idaho Sportsmen. This can seem to many, to be a fine line but we are confident in the Department, the Commission and the Idaho legislature and their ability to abide by this clearly drawn line going forward.
Since its founding in 2020, Idaho Sportsmen has worked diligently to provide a voice for Idahoans who legally and ethically hunt, fish, trap and recreationally shoot.
Idaho Sportsmen carefully tracks and monitors all rules, policies, appointments, and appropriations that have a nexus to related issues for sportsmen as well as agency’s board and commission decisions. From the Anderson Dam recharge project to wolf depredation control actions and everything in between, we strive to be a voice for the many sportsmen in Idaho who love to recreate in our great state. We communicate regularly with agency staff and leadership, legislators, and their support staff, the Idaho Governor’s Office, and many others to ensure we are in the know. Our board and committees are comprised entirely of volunteers. Many of whom have decades of personal and professional experience in natural recourse policy and contribute their time, talents, and treasure, to advancing access and opportunity for all sportsmen in Idaho.
We wish to express thanks to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Commission for their dedication, commitment, and willingness to serve the sportsmen, women, and youth of Idaho. While we may have differed on this issue, we hope to continue the relationship of trust we have built and worked to maintain. We also want to thank the Idaho legislature. The policy making process can be emotional, complex, and nuanced. It is far easier, especially in the current political climate, to not serve in elected office, so again thank you for your service to the state of Idaho. We strive to continue our professional and courteous relationships with all of you as elected officials and to ensure we can properly inform you of issues and our positions on them, but we fully understand your responsibility is to your constituents.
Thank you all for your continued support and helping us ensure we have and keep quality access and opportunity, to Idaho's world class outdoor hunting, fishing, trapping and recreational shooting. While some may disagree on the specifics of this bill or its process, we cannot lose sight of what we have here in Idaho and what other states are facing. When sportsmen are united and working together, we can prevent many of the issues seen in states where policymakers and groups are seeking to remove or limit access and opportunity. We simply cannot lose sight of the bigger picture.
Below is a transcript of the testimony on HB 507 of Executive Director Benn Brocksome representing Idaho Sportsmen. A link to the meeting agenda and recording can be found HERE.
Good afternoon, Chairmen, members of the committee, Benn Brocksome on behalf of Idaho Sportsmen.
We do stand in support of the legislation, with a caveat, and as you work out the bugs on your process to sign up to testify it might be worth putting an asterisk for nuance. That nuance is that, as you’ve heard, the ability for season settings and methods of take to be managed by the [IDFG] Commission is sacred to sportsman in Idaho, and we respect that process and hope you would too. It is also a call to the Commission to be a little more pragmatic in dealing with some of these issues so that the folks who are working on them don’t circumvent process and go to one of you all as their elected official to solve a problem that we are trying to work on, so maybe just an awareness on both sides.
But as to the bill itself and the use of this equipment, as was mentioned, it is already being used in every other state. There is a lot of data in those states, and we will accrue our own data and watch this carefully over the next couple of years… but as it stands right now, the policy itself, we would support.