Idaho is on the verge of losing massive access for hunting and fishing | Opinion

Some of my fondest memories are fishing and hunting on public lands and waters in Idaho. A new proposal in the United States Senate places those memories, and the lands and waters that made them possible, at risk.

I shot my first bull elk on public lands in the Gem State of Idaho. I have attended meetings at the Capitol, donned waders and within minutes cast to wild trout in the Boise River. I recall an afternoon where my friend caught two 18-plus-inch trout in successive casts on a side channel of the South Fork of the Boise River. One of my mentors took me out, and in the afternoon shadows of the canyon wall, we caught native redband trout in the Owyhee River. As a seasonal employee for the Forest Service, I recall sneaking away to an unnamed tributary in the Clearwater National Forest where willing cutthroat always made me think I was a good angler.

All these memories share two things in common. First, they either happened on public lands or rivers that flow through public lands. Second, each of these places or their headwaters are at risk of being sold off and privatized.

The United States Senate is considering a bill that would require the sale of two to more than three million acres of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service. Proposals to sell or divest public lands from public hands come up every 10-15 years. Typically, it is hunters and anglers who do not wish to beg or pay to be able to hunt and fish that lead the charge to beat those bad ideas back.

The authors of the Senate bill claim that the sale of these lands are to help alleviate the “housing crisis.”

Malarkey.

Make no mistake. These public lands will not be sold to build low-income or moderately priced homes. They will be purchased by people who will fence them off, build dream homes and post them as: “Private property. No hunting or fishing.”

Idaho’s, all of America’s public lands, are the backyard of the little guy. They represent most of the land that any of us will ever own and pass down to the people we know will follow us. They are the places where we take our families to fish, hunt, camp, hike and to otherwise marvel at the wonder of God’s creation.

It is the height of cynicism to suggest they should be sold to alleviate the “housing crisis.” To be certain, there are certain communities where it would make sense to trade or even sell high-conservation-value state or private lands for public lands adjacent to towns and cities that need to grow. That process, however, should play out in public where costs and benefits can be objectively evaluated.

Happily, most of the Idaho congressional delegation are champions of public lands. Rep. Mike Simpson distinguished himself by working with a few of his Republican colleagues to keep the public land sale provision from appearing in a companion bill in the House of Representatives. He also championed the Boulder-White Clouds wilderness law. Sen. Jim Risch is the architect of the Idaho roadless rule, which protects nine million acres of Idaho’s best backcountry hunting and fishing areas — all on public lands. Sen. Mike Crapo helped to designate hundreds of thousands of wilderness and recreation areas in the Owyhee Canyonlands.

It will take the collective voices of Idaho’s sportsmen and women and the Idaho congressional delegation’s passion for, and experience with, public lands to keep the United States Senate from approving the sale of parts of Idaho’s rich public land and water legacy.

Hunters and anglers and Idaho’s elected leaders will need to stand together to help stop a uniquely bad idea from becoming the law of the land. Idaho’s outdoor traditions depend on it.