Hunting season is here, and a question commonly asked is “where can I go hunting?” There’s a lot of good answers to that question in Idaho, starting with nearly two-thirds of the state is public land, and most of it is open for hunting.

Idaho Fish and Game game also provides more access for sportsmen and women. The department owns, manages and keeps open to the public about 370,000 acres at its wildlife management areas and provides literally millions more acres through its various agreements and lease programs that allow public access to various state and private lands.

Money for access comes from multiple Fish and Game funds, including Fish and Game’s access/depredation fee that requires a $5 surcharge for residents and a $10 surcharge for nonresidents when they buy their first annual license of the year.

All told, the agreements and leases provide statewide access to excellent wildlife habitat and places for people to hunt, fish, trap and enjoy other wildlife-based recreation.

“These demonstrate Fish and Game’s continued commitment to putting money from the access/depredation fee to good use and provide hunters, anglers and trappers with access to private and endowment lands while compensating landowners for their support of those activities,” said Sal Palazzolo, Fish and Game’s Private Lands/ Farm Bill Program Coordinator.

Here are some of Fish and Game’s programs that support public access.

Wildlife Management Areas

Fish and Game has 31 Wildlife Management Areas totaling about 370,000 acres and located in six of its seven regions. WMAs range from 275 to 85,000 acres and address specific priorities based upon the needs of wildlife in the surrounding area.

Fish and Game’s WMAs provide lots opportunities for hunting, fishing, trapping and other wildlife recreation. Some WMAs are in wetland or grassland/sage areas to provide important habitat for waterfowl and upland birds and other wildlife. While others, such as Craig Mountain near Lewiston, Tex Creek near Idaho Falls, and Boise River near Boise, offer tens of thousands of acres of mixed habitats and elevations inhabited by a variety of big game animals, small game and upland birds.

Fish and Game’s extensive pheasant stocking program also takes place mostly on WMAs, giving hunters the opportunity to pursue a popular quarry that otherwise usually requires a person to have access to private lands in order to find pheasants.

Some WMAs also host special events like fishing clinics, youth hunts, and bird watching tours. During certain times of the year, some WMAs are closed to protect wildlife from disturbance, such as wintering big game animals.

Access Yes!

This access program is a revolving collection of properties where Fish and Game leases land from private owners to provide public access. Each property may be managed slightly differently, so it’s incumbent on the user to know the ground rules for each property. The full list of properties and details is available on the IDFG Access Yes! webpage.

Through this program, Fish and Game typically provides about 350,000 acres annually, as well as a legal means to cross private property to reach hundreds of thousands of acres of public land that might be otherwise difficult to access.

Access Yes! properties are unique because they’re selected annually by panels of sportsmen throughout the state, who sift through applications submitted by landowners and select the leases that give sportsmen and women the best value for their money.

Because these properties may change annually, hunters should beware that properties they used in the past may no longer be enrolled. People can see the maps of Access Yes! properties on Fish and Game’s website, and also pick up printed booklets at regional offices that show Access Yes! locations and guidelines to use the property.

Hunters should also beware some properties require landowner notification, and others have restrictions on how many people can use the property at once, so some advanced effort may be required to hunt on these parcels.

Idaho Endowment Lands

In 2018, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission and Idaho State Board of Land Commissioner approved an agreement to continue public access for hunting, fishing, trapping and other wildlife-based recreation on about 2.3 million acres of state endowment lands.

More than 96 percent of endowment lands are accessible by foot, watercraft or vehicle. Fish and Game’s Hunt Planner Map Center is available on the IDFG website: idfg.idaho.gov.

While most Idaho endowment lands have traditionally been open to the public, endowment lands are managed to provide revenue, typically from timber sales and grazing leases, to fund for public schools, universities and state hospitals.

Fish and Game’s payments to the Department of Lands ensure those lands remain open to public access for hunting, fishing, trapping and other recreation. In other states, state-owned lands have been closed, or leased to private parties for hunting access. Fish and Game pays $.25 per acre annually, but gets credit for in-kind, law-enforcement services provided by Fish and Game conservation officers on endowment lands, which put the cost to the department at about $383,000 in 2019.

Endowment lands are working lands that provide vital revenue, and hunters are reminded that fire season typically lasts through October. According to Department of Lands officials, people cause most fires, which can burn until there’s a “season-ending weather event,” meaning enough rain or snow for fire managers to call the fire season over.

If campfires are allowed where you plan to hunt, make sure your campfire is cool to the touch before leaving so you do not start a wildfire. Also, protect state lands from damage by keeping off-highway vehicles on established roads and designated trails.

Hunters are also reminded free camping is allowed on state endowment lands for no more than 14 consecutive days. If you plan to camp longer than 14 consecutive days, please contact an IDL area office to find out if a permit can be obtained.

Large tracts corporate timberland leases

Fish and Game has partnered with timber companies to provide public access to their lands. Currently Fish and Game has a contract with PotlatchDeltic to provide public access to 567,002 acres of private land for hunting, fishing, trapping, wildlife viewing, hiking, and recreational travel on open full-sized roads.

There’s a map of PotlatchDeltic lands available on the IDFG website. People should beware these are working timberlands, and some areas may be closed for logging activities and other work. Some restrictions apply, such as additional permits are needed for camping and ATV/OHV use. Information on specific rules, including PotlatchDeltic general policies, regulations and restrictions as well as permit requirements for camping and offroad OHV use and more is also available on the website.

A separate lease includes more than 300,000 acres belonging a group of forestland owners and managers in Bonner, Boundary, Benewah, Shoshone and Kootenai counties that include Stimson Lumber Co., Hancock Forest Management and Molpus Woodlands Group and others.

Fish and Game pays $1 per acre annually for the access. Some of the contracts for access to the parcels have not been finalized, but are expected to be done by mid-October.

Five principles for responsible land use

• Whether you’re on public land or private land (with permission), consider these guiding principles for being a responsible user:
• Treat all lands with respect. Leave them as good or better than you found them.
• It’s your responsibility to know whose land you’re on, and follow the rules for that property.
• Be careful with fire, and respect burn restrictions when they’re in effect. Never leave a burning or smoldering campfire. It should always be completely extinguished.
• Do not damage roads and trails, and abide by travel restrictions, such as closed roads, nonmotorized trail restrictions, vehicle restrictions, camping restrictions, etc.
• If you see someone damage lands, or violate travel restrictions, be a good witness. Get a vehicle license number, vehicle description, or other information. Report them to the county sheriff’s office, or other law enforcement agency. Avoid a direct confrontation with the violator.

CORVALLIS, Oregon (AP) — Peter Idema has been running the trails and logging roads of Oregon State University’s Dunn Research Forest near his Soap Creek Valley home for more than 30 years.

But around 10 a.m. on Aug. 31, a routine run took an unexpected twist when he rounded a curve on a lonely stretch of road and saw a cougar about 40 yards ahead.

He did his best to scare it off, yelling and waving his arms, but the cat crept steadily toward him, finally approaching so close that he was able to kick it in the head.

The startled mountain lion vanished into the woods, and Idema, thinking the animal was gone, turned and began running for home. But when he looked over his shoulder, he saw the cat was back — and gaining on him rapidly.

That’s when he fell.

Just then, however, two hikers with a dog appeared on the scene, and this time the cougar left the area.

The 68-year-old Idema says he was badly shaken by the experience. If the other two people hadn’t arrived when they did, he believes he would have been mauled — or worse.

“I thought I was going to die twice,” he said. “I really feel like if they weren’t there, I’d have been in deep trouble.”

The incident came just over a year after what is generally believed to have been Oregon’s first recorded fatal cougar attack, the deadly mauling of a 55-year-old Gresham woman named Diana Bober who had been hiking alone in the Mount Hood National Forest.

Like that case, Idema’s cougar encounter immediately set off alarm bells in two distinctly different camps: those who believe people need to be protected from cougars and those who believe cougars need to be protected from people.

Oregon State University immediately shut off public access to Dunn Forest, about 10 miles north of Corvallis, although neighboring McDonald Forest remained open for recreational use.

The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, based on Idema’s description of what happened, declared the cougar an aggressive animal. The Oregon State Police and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services were called in.

Specially trained dogs picked up the cougar’s scent, then lost it, then found it again. Four days later, on Sept. 4, the mountain lion was treed by dogs not far from where the encounter with Idema had occurred, and a Wildlife Services employee killed the cat with three blasts from a shotgun.

The recriminations began almost immediately.

ODFW was criticized for overreacting, with some people arguing the cougar could have been relocated rather than killed. Some questioned whether the agency had even killed the right animal.

Idema has been raked over the coals as well. Some people have questioned the details of his story or bashed him for venturing into cougar habitat alone. Others, in social media posts and letters to the editor, have suggested he triggered the attack by running from the cougar, stimulating the predator’s hunting instinct, even though he didn’t turn his back on the animal until after his kick had sent it scurrying into the forest.

The one that stings the most is an anonymous letter, apparently from a neighbor, hand-delivered to his home.

‘Aggressive encounter’

One of the people involved in making the decision to kill the cougar was Brian Wolfer, ODFW’s district manager for the south Willamette watershed.

After hearing Idema describe the animal’s actions, Wolfer said, it was not a difficult decision.

“I’d call it unusually aggressive behavior for a cougar,” he said. “The cougar didn’t jump on him, it didn’t bite him, it didn’t scratch him, but it was definitely much more aggressive than we would usually see. We called it an aggressive encounter.”

Once that determination was made, Wolfer added, ODFW had no choice but to destroy the animal.

“Our policy is we do not relocate cougars that are deemed to be a threat to human health and safety, and by statute, a cougar that’s aggressive toward a person is considered a human health and safety threat,” he said. “To take a dangerous animal and place it somewhere it could encounter another recreationist, that’s just not something we can risk.”

Wolfer said he’s “fairly confident” the right cougar was killed.

Because the cougar didn’t bite or claw Idema, there was no DNA evidence to test. But Wolfer said tracking dogs picked up the scent of a single mountain lion at the place where the encounter happened, and the cat that was treed and killed was within a mile or so of the site.

“We can’t be a hundred percent certain,” Wolfer said. “But we do know that cougar was in the area a few days later, and it fits the description.”

The dead cougar was taken to the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at OSU for a necropsy. The final report is not yet in, but Wolfer said the preliminary results provide some general information.

The animal was a 75-pound female that appears to have been close to 2 years old, Wolfer said — not a full-grown adult, but a juvenile approaching the size of a mature female.

The initial examination showed no signs of rabies, distemper or other ailments, and the animal did not appear to have been injured or starving.

In light of that information, Wolfer said, there’s no obvious explanation for the animal’s behavior toward Idema — but he added that there’s no reason to think the runner’s own actions could have provoked an attack.

He points out that Idema didn’t turn and run from the cougar until after he thought it had left the area. Instead, he faced the cat, made a lot of noise and made himself look big by raising his arms over his head and waving them around.

All of those actions should have marked him in the cougar’s brain as distinctly different from the animal’s usual prey, four-legged species such as deer or elk. And when the mountain lion continued to approach him, he fought back by kicking it.

“From what we know, it looks like Peter did a whole lot of things right,” Wolfer said. “I have a hard time believing he did anything to instigate that behavior.”

Dissenting opinions

Not everyone thinks ODFW’s reaction to Idema’s experience was justified.

One of them is Brooks Fahy, executive director of the Eugene-based advocacy group Predator Defense.

He accuses the state agency of having “an aggressive cougar-killing program” and sees the Dunn Forest incident as a case in point.

“I think ODFW killing that animal was over the top, but that’s what they always do,” he said.

“All the hype about cougars, all the panic, is absolute rubbish — they’re afraid of us.”

Fahy points to the fact that Idema was not harmed by the mountain lion he met in the forest and says the animal may merely have been curious. He notes that Oregon’s standards for when to kill a cougar are lower than those in some other states.

“If you look at California and their requirements, they would not have killed that animal,” he said. “In my opinion, this was unnecessary — just close the area down for a few days and tell people to be careful.”

By any measure, fatal cougar attacks on humans are extremely rare. While estimates vary, available information seems to suggest that there have been between 24 and 27 fatal cougar attacks in all of North America since 1890.

But encounters between humans and cougars appear to be on the rise, in part because there are more cougars in the woods these days — and more people recreating in cougar habitat.

In Oregon, cougars had been all but wiped out by the 1960s, when the population was down to an estimated 200 animals. These days, ODFW estimates there are approximately 6,400 mountain lions in the state.

That’s a sore point for some wildlife advocates, who claim the agency is deliberately inflating the numbers by using questionable modeling and counting animals of all age classes, something that isn’t done for any other wildlife species.

“That’s a misleading number,” said John Laundre, a professor of biology at Western Oregon University and a member off the Predator Defense board of directors.

“That 6,400 includes kittens, and that’s not right.”

Counting kittens in the total creates a false perception in the public mind, he said, which is why other states don’t do that.

Using the state’s all-ages total and normal mortality rates and age class distributions, Laundre estimates the total number of adult cougars in Oregon at around 3,300, which he calls a healthy cougar population for the state.

So what’s the point of putting out the higher number?

Fahy claims ODFW is deliberately trying to stoke fear among the public, in part to sell more hunting licenses. He points out that Oregon issues some 60,000 cougar tags each year.

“The agency is funded in large part through tag revenue,” he said.

Predator Defense also disputes the wisdom of trying to control mountain lion populations through sport hunting, pointing to studies that suggest it can actually lead to more cougar attacks on humans by orphaning juvenile animals that have not yet learned to hunt properly or have an underdeveloped fear of people.

“This is where we get into the social disruption aspects of hunting,” Laundre said.

“We’re beginning to see that managing large predators like cougars with hunting is contributing to the problem that it’s trying to solve.”

ODFW pushes back

State wildlife officials reject those claims.

Derek Broman, a carnivore biologist with ODFW, said the agency has decades of data to back up its population modeling and is always careful to note that its numbers include all age classes. And he disputes the assertion that ODFW is aggressively promoting hunting or targeting cougars that pose no real threat.

While Oregon does issue 60,000 cougar tags each year, he said, roughly 70% of those are bundled in “sports packs” with licenses for other game animals and are the cheapest tags ODFW sells. Broman also pointed out that, since Oregon voters banned the use of hounds in cougar hunting, the kill rate is quite low — only about 240 mountain lions a year are killed by hunters in the state.

On average, he added, 25 to 30 mountain lions are killed each year in Oregon for human safety reasons, most of them by members of the public rather than the agency (state law allows private individuals to kill a cougar that takes certain actions deemed threatening). Another 120-130 a year are killed because of livestock predation, again mainly by the public.

The notion that ODFW has an aggressive policy of killing cougars simply isn’t true, he insists.

“We would have much higher numbers if that were the case.”

As for the idea of repealing the ban on hound hunting, he said, the agency takes no position on the matter.

“We’re about making sure there are healthy cougar populations and addressing conflict as it arises,” Broman said. “That’s the big takeaway.”

Maintaining perspective{/span}

Despite the uproar over the Dunn Forest incident, Wolfer said it’s important to keep things in perspective. Yes, he said, there are cougars in the woods of western Oregon, even on the fringes of urban areas such as Corvallis. But that doesn’t mean people should be afraid to go there or be worried about infringing on the animals’ habitat.

”We need to have a connection to the outdoors and wild areas of Oregon to want to protect those places,” he said.

”People are going to enjoy the outdoors and should enjoy the outdoors, but they need to be aware of what to do if they encounter a cougar.”

That means doing some of the same things Peter Idema did:

. Face the animal rather than turning your back.

. Make yourself appear large by standing up tall and waving your arms.

. Speak in a loud, firm voice.

. Back away slowly, but don’t turn and run.

. If attacked, don’t play dead — fight back.

Idema calls his close encounter with a cougar “a life-changing experience” but says it isn’t going to deter him from running in the woods near his house.

”I’m not going to let it stop me,” he said. “But I am going to be a little more cougar-aware.”

He’s more likely to run with a group now, and less likely to run in the early morning or evening hours. He’s started carrying one of those really loud emergency whistles, and last week he bought a canister of bear spray.

Idema has always known there were cougars in Dunn Forest, but he tries not to worry too much about it. After three decades of running in the area, he points out, he’s still had only one cougar encounter.

{span class=”print_trim”}”I always figure the odds are safer (running in cougar country) than running on the road and getting hit by a car,” he said.

The popularity of e-bikes is burgeoning in the U.S., but knowing where they’re allowed can be complicated.

Dennis O’Hara bought his e-bike believing he would have full access to bike trails. When he went to the U.S. Forest Service Office to inquire about trail access around Logan, Utah, he said he was told his e-bike was prohibited on the regular bike trails he had already been riding.

“I go on the bike trails — I go on hiking trails. I didn’t know that they were prohibited,” O’Hara said. “I spent 4,500 bucks thinking that I could use e-bikes on the trails.”

O’Hara, 71, said his age along with accessibility was part of his reasoning for buying an e-bike. For O’Hara, it made cycling on trails and around town “far more” accessible. He and his wife can now ride their bikes together — prior to purchasing an e-bike, O’Hara said bike rides were much more difficult.

Confusion and contention have mounted since Aug. 29, when U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt signed a secretarial order allowing e-bikes to be regulated similarly to regular bikes — as per the order, e-bikes and regular bikes would be permitted and prohibited in the same places. While setting out to simplify the regulation of e-bikes, the order also aimed to open up recreational access to a wider swath of Americans, “especially those with physical limitations.”

Glacier, Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks have expanded their access for e-bikes, according to the order. The order also instructs the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation and Fish and Wildlife Services to “expressly exempt” e-bikes from being defined as off-road or motorized vehicles.

However, national forest and wilderness areas — lands not managed by the Department of Interior agencies, but rather the United States Department of Agriculture — are not required to adopt the secretarial order. Many of the trails in Utah’s Cache Valley reside on these lands.

“We’re considering e-bikes as still a motorized piece of equipment,” said Larry Velarde, the trails, dispersed recreation, and travel management program manager for the U.S Forest Service’s Intermountain region. “And so they are still not allowed on our non-motorized trails.”

Velarde said confusion often comes from city or county trails that traverse onto abutted BLM or Forest Service lands. Though e-bike riders on non-motorized trails could be subjected to a fine, Velarde said he would hope other measures would be taken first.

“What I hope would be happening,” Velarde said, “is that we would be educating our public out there first before we start pulling the ticket book out — because, to me, that’s an easy mistake.”

According to an email from Velarde, out of the Forest Service’s 158,000 miles of roads and trails, nearly 40 percent are accessible by e-bike. E-bikes are managed as motorized vehicles and they’re allowed in the same places as motor vehicles.

Cache County Trails Planner Dayton Crites said the issues are tricky with many gray areas, but there remain some interesting options for e-bike riders.

“One of the neat things about e-bikes in our region is that all of a sudden you can climb up stuff that you couldn’t climb before,” Crites said. “No matter how fit you are.”

Crites said he’d recommend Card Canyon West, the fire road system behind Logan Peak, Richards Hollow and Steel Hollow as fun spots for e-bike riders. Though he said it’s important for cyclists to know their limits.

“These are advanced trails,” Crites said. “So you kind of have to be cautious.”

O’Hara believes the Forest Service’s decision to treat e-bikes as motor vehicles is a little misguided — his bike is quiet and clean and doesn’t thrash the environment. But the potential for getting fined won’t stop him from riding his bike where he pleases.

“I’m going to ignore it,” O’Hara said. “I’m not going to worry about it, honestly.”

Idaho is a big state with a diverse mix of habitats, elevations and climates, and the state contains a variety of upland game birds. Upland bird populations can vary tremendously on an annual basis, and their health and numbers typically depend on favorable weather conditions, which are often very localized.

That means upland game birds are tough to forecast on a statewide basis except to say there’s ample opportunity for upland hunters to pursue a large variety of birds across a variety of landscapes.

“Like many other years, hunting can vary widely geographically, but from a statewide perspective, I’m optimistic about this fall,” said Jeff Knetter, upland game and migratory game bird coordinator. “Spring weather conditions were more wet than average, which often times means excellent brood-rearing conditions.”

To provide an idea of what’s available this hunting season, Fish and Game’s wildlife biologists in each region have compiled an update of what they’re seeing and hearing on the ground with bird populations, so hunters can get a look at their favorite areas and quarry.

Here’s a look at upland bird hunting in each region:

Panhandle Region

Panhandle upland bird hunters might have to look a little harder for birds this year. Snowpack in the lower and mid elevations was above average, which likely affected over winter survival. There was record rainfall in the spring and this affected brood survival. The end result is there will be fewer young birds out there. The summer has been hot and dry. Birds will be concentrated around reliable water sources. Predicted fall conditions call for continued hotter than normal temperatures with average rainfall.

Clearwater Region

The 2018-19 winter was fairly mild to start, but winter conditions returned late with cold temperatures and heavy snow across the Clearwater region. The impacts of these conditions on upland game bird survival are largely unknown, although no abnormally high mortality rates were detected.

During the spring 2019 nesting and early brood rearing period, weather conditions were cool and abnormally wet through spring into summer. Cool and wet weather can provide for excellent summer brood-rearing habitat, but can also result in chick mortality, depending on the timing and intensity of precipitation events. Overall, population trends were mixed, depending on the species.

Southwest Region

Spring and early summer conditions were excellent for brood production for most upland birds. Quail, chukar and gray partridge had good carryover survival after a good production year. Chukar, gray partridge, and quail production should be good to excellent with great harvest conditions this fall. Pheasant numbers along established brood routes are down, but production was excellent.

Preliminary indications are that Dusky grouse had very high carry over survival (lots of adults in harvest) with good brood production. Ruffed grouse had excellent production; most ruffed grouse harvested in Southwest Idaho thus far have been juvenile birds. Sage-grouse are down compared to last year and had poor nest success due to heavier than normal spring rains during peak hatch. Overall, upland bird hunting, except sage-grouse should be good to excellent with scattered pockets of abundant birds.

Magic Valley Region

An unusually wet and cold spring was generally unfavorable for upland bird nesting. Brood rearing conditions were generally favorable. Department personnel are reporting average to below average numbers of broods for all upland game species. Generally, bird numbers will be slightly down compared to the 2018 season and lower than average.

Southeast Region

Conditions in the winter were above average throughout the region. The early nesting and brood rearing season received good precipitation resulting in excellent grass and forb growth. Observations have been mixed with some reporting large broods while others are seeing very few young birds and broods.

Upper Snake Region

Winter conditions in 2018-2019 varied across the region. Those areas east of I-15 saw fairly severe winter conditions with significant snow accumulations and crusting. The west side of I-15 had more average to moderate conditions. Average to above average snow levels and cooler spring temperatures saw snow pack persist later than usual.

These conditions could have had negative impacts to nest success, but should have provided good habitat conditions for brood survival if broods did successfully hatch. Late summer was warmer and dry, but likely not enough to counter the moist spring and good habitat conditions coming out of spring and early summer. All things considered upland bird production and hunting should be about average in the Upper Snake for fall 2019.

Salmon Region

The 2018-19 early and mid-winter was mild, but late winter and spring was cooler and wetter than average. Nesting success and chick survival appears normal for the region. Due to heavy over-winter losses in winter 2017, with the exception of Forest Grouse, most game bird populations are below the long-term average.

After years of trying and failing to book sites at Idaho’s more popular campgrounds, some people have just given up.

The campsites can be reserved through Recreation.gov, the vendor that handles booking and permitting for the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and more.

Reservations at many campgrounds open up on a rolling basis — six months ahead of time for individual sites and a year ahead of time for group sites. That means summer dates often first become available in winter. At popular Idaho campgrounds like those at Redfish Lake, it’s impossible to know how many hopeful campers are vying for the sites on Recreation.gov.

While a select few campers will succeed, others will scramble to add sites and dates to their online shopping carts, only to be met with a message declaring that all of the sites already have sold out within seconds, the Idaho Statesman reports.

“I’ve quit trying to make reservations at Redfish,” Roxann Jensen wrote on a Statesman Facebook prompt about booking campsites. “I gave up after experiencing ‘no spaces available’ year after year after year. I’m totally disgusted with this.”

Janelle Smith knows the frustration. Even she hasn’t been able to snag a spot at Redfish, and as a spokeswoman for Recreation.gov, she’s no stranger to the website’s reservation system.

“When you can’t get a site for years running and it sells out in minutes, we get that that’s frustrating,” said Smith, who is based in Boise.

Theories abound on why those campgrounds book up in the blink of an eye. Smith and other experts said they can’t know for sure why one camper gets a spot over another, but the answer could be simple: Some campgrounds are just that in demand.

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO BOOK IDAHO CAMPSITES?

On a prompt in the Idaho Nature Lovers Facebook group, campers from across the site shared their experiences using Recreation.gov.

Patsy Diann Secrist said she’s heard of campers who book an entire week at a site starting on a Monday.

“They go to the website 6 months in advance and reserve from the Monday before through the desired weekend,” she wrote. “Then later on cancel the Monday through Thursday….weekend reserved.”

Some said they deliberately avoid popular spots because they’re so crowded, while others said they’ve simply given up. Still other commenters said they’ve noticed the rush for sites like Bull Trout Lake, Redfish Lake or Deadwood Lookout but have managed to snag a reservation.

“Have been able to book campsites in the past … at Glacier View Campground at Redfish Lake but only at 1:00 a.m. 6 months in advance,” wrote Shawn Murdock. (In most cases, Recreation.gov releases campsites at 8 a.m. Mountain Time six months ahead of the booking date.)

“One of the problems is that it is a hot spot that everyone tries to go because it’s the one place everyone talks about and it’s the same place everyone returns year after year,” Murdock said.

Julie Thomas, spokeswoman for the Sawtooth National Forest where Redfish is located, said the forest is busier than ever this year.

“Redfish Lake is always a favorite,” she said in a phone interview, adding that it often sells out for the entire summer.

Some have pointed the finger at bots, saying the same technology that scoops up event tickets for marked-up resale is responsible for the hard-to-book campgrounds, though there’s no evidence that the sites are being relisted and sold elsewhere.

“Certainly bots exist in any sort of reservation systems,” Smith said in an interview. “They’re out there. We use Captcha and developers monitor for bots and arrest those as best they can.

“It’s something we’re working on,” she added. “We’re implementing industry best practices.”

Smith said it’s more likely that some users are just faster than others at snagging their ideal spot. It also could be another symptom of Idaho’s recent population boom that’s affecting everything from traffic to property taxes.

’900 PEOPLE WANT 30 SITES’

Tom Zadick is the regional recreation manager for Recreation Resource Management of America, which contracts with the Forest Service to manage campsites in Arizona, Colorado and Idaho. His team manages campgrounds in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, where Redfish Lake’s popular Glacier View, Outlet and Point reservation campsites are.

He knows how difficult it can be to find an opening at one of the campgrounds.

“I’ve heard the horror stories of entire families sitting in a room with a dozen computers, hitting refresh (on the website) trying to book something and maybe one person will get it,” he said.

Zadick said the hard-to-book campsites are the result of “a perfect storm” of growing popularity, limited supply and the occasional person who abuses the system by reselling a site or overstaying their reservation.

“We have more demand than supply,” Zadick said in a phone interview. “The sites at Glacier View, Outlet and Point are some of the most requested in the United States. When 900 people want 30 sites, a lot of people are going to be turned away.”

According to Zadick, the popular campgrounds are world famous, drawing visitors from out of state and even as far as Europe and Asia, though he said about 50 percent of campers at Redfish are Idahoans. He compared the level of demand at Redfish to that at Lake Tahoe — except Tahoe has far more sites to accommodate that demand. And the traffic is spilling from Redfish Lake to the surrounding Sawtooth National Forest.

“We’re seeing visitation numbers three times what they were a few years ago,” Zadick said. “Campsites that never used to fill up are full from Wednesday night through the weekends.”

And when that many people are vying for a few spots, things can get tense, especially at the handful of nearby walk-in campsites.

“We’ve literally had people almost in fistfights at Sockeye,” Zadick said.

He said some guests are “literally trolling the (walk-in) campgrounds, and the second someone leaves, they jump in.” Others sleep in their cars near walk-up campgrounds in hopes of securing a spot when another group leaves the next morning.

Zadick said his company is working with the Forest Service and Recreation.gov to find a solution for the overcrowding and competition. There’s a chance all the campgrounds in the Redfish Lake area may become reservation sites. Other popular camping areas have adopted lottery systems for reservations.

“There’s various opinions around how we can correct (the issues),” Zadick said. “I don’t know that there’s any easy solution.”

Before any potential changes are made, they’ll go through a public comment period.

“Frustrated comments don’t do any good,” Zadick said. “We know it’s not a perfect system. The public could help us help them. We’re open to suggestions and constructive criticism.”

HOW TO BOOK IDAHO CAMPSITES

There’s no magic bullet for booking your ideal campground, but Smith and Boise National Forest spokeswoman Venetia Gempler offered a few tips that could make it easier to reserve a spot:

Come prepared: Smith advised doing a “dry run” of the Recreation.gov website so you’re familiar with the steps for making a reservation. The site switched to a new vendor last October and was completely overhauled, so it may look or operate differently than the last time you used it.

Smith also said it’s helpful to know what site you’re hoping to get and which dates you want to book.

“I’m not the kind of person who books my summer down to the day six months out, but certainly people do,” Smith said. “Be ready to just book right away.”

Be flexible: While most work schedules make weekend camping convenient, that also means weekends are the busiest. If you’re willing to schedule a trip during the week, you may have better luck. In addition, Smith pointed out that popular holidays like the Fourth of July and Memorial Day weekend are also more difficult to book.

Have a backup plan: Keep in mind four or five sites that you’d be alright with camping at so you can book there if your first choice falls through.

“We only have so many sites,” said Thomas, the Sawtooth National Forest spokeswoman. “The only advice we can give is … you might have to have some other options.”

If you don’t get your preferred site, consider exploring. Dispersed camping is allowed on public land for campers who don’t mind giving up amenities like toilets. There are also many campgrounds across the state that don’t sell out, as well as walk-in campsites without reservations.

Smith also pointed to Recreation.gov’s trip building tool, which lets you choose a starting point and destination and see which campgrounds or experiences are available along the way.

And if you just have to have that campsite on the shore of Redfish Lake, you could try using bots in your favor. Websites like Campnab will scrape Recreation.gov regularly and send you alerts if a date opens up (for a fee, of course), and similar browser extensions exist, too.

A Utah man who has been in a wheelchair for more than three decades has created a pheasant hunt for people like him who need help getting into the outdoors.

Clint Robinson broke his neck after being thrown off a horse at a rodeo 32 years ago. He’s done his best to keep getting into the outdoors to hunt and fish, the Daily Herald in Provo reports.

The event he calls “Wheelchairs in the Wild” pairs people that have physical disabilities with hunters who help them with whatever they need. Many go in off-road vehicles.

“What we’re trying to do is get new injured, handicapped people back out into the field, trying to get them back out, enjoying the outdoors and wildlife that’s out there and show them that there’s other things that they can do besides sitting in the house doing nothing,” Robinson said.

The youngest hunter at last year’s event was 13-year-old Missy Cowley who has spina bifida. Her father loves to hunt but didn’t know how accommodate her wheelchair. Her mother, Cindy Cowley, said it was amazing to find a program that allowed her daughter to go hunting.

“We always told her when she was little, you can do everything you want to do … but we just got to figure out a way,” Cindy Cowley said. “(But) we really did not know how we were going to get her up there to (hunt).”

Missy Cowley said it was a great experience that also allowed her to meet other people who use wheelchairs.

“I was like, this is awesome. I can actually do it,” Missy said. “It was really fun. And I love being outdoors.”

Division of Wildlife Resources law enforcement officer Jerry Schlappi, who helped with the event, said Robinson is a perfect role model showing other wheelchair users with disabilities that they don’t have to give up what they love.

“He’s never let his disability or whatever slow him down,” Schlappi said. “I think his whole thing is just giving people an opportunity and showing them that they can still do it.”

With many upland game bird seasons opening soon, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game is asking hunters to donate a fully feathered wing for each bird they harvest.

Because juvenile and adult birds molt their wing feathers differently, biologists can use this information to estimate chick production that year.

Hunters can provide their wings to Fish and Game in a variety of ways, one being by mail. Close to 3,000 hunters who hold a sage/sharp-tailed grouse permit will receive a packet in the mail with specific directions and a pre-paid return envelope. Hunters who did not receive a mail-wing envelope can still participate by contacting their nearest Fish and Game office.

Hunters can also drop their wings off at department-run check stations or in “wing barrels” located at popular access routes throughout the hunting season. Unfortunately, check stations and wing barrels sometimes miss grouse hunters in more remote areas of the state. The mail-in wing program targets those hunters that may not pass by a check station or wing barrel.

For sage-grouse, the story biologists can read in a wing is even more detailed. By examining the shape, condition, length and color patterns on wing feathers, biologists can determine the bird’s sex and whether it was an adult or juvenile. If the bird was an adult female, biologists can even tell if she successfully produced chicks that year. This information helps Fish and Game understand population trends and improves management of the species.

For sharp-tailed grouse hunters that receive wing envelopes or encounter a wing barrel and kiosk at their favorite hunting site, Fish and Game also wants to know where the bird was harvested, date of harvest, days hunted, and number of hunters if hunting in a group.

The forest grouse hunting season is already open. California quail, chukar and gray partridge hunting opens Saturday, September 21. The sage-grouse season also opens on September 21, and is open for seven days in Twin Falls and Cassia counties, and part of Owyhee County. The sage-grouse season is only open for two days (September 21 and 22) for most areas north of the Snake River. Hunters should be aware that some parts of the state are closed to hunting sage-grouse, including much of eastern Idaho and northwest Owyhee County. 

Sharp-tailed grouse hunting starts Oct. 1.