Myrtle Creek Game Preserve considered for animal harvesting

BONNERS FERRY — The city is seeking restoration of wildlife management at the Myrtle Creek Game Preserve for fishing, hunting and trapping.

The request will be outlined in letters approved by the City Council that will be sent to the Idaho Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Idaho Legislature.

City council has approved the writing of a letter to the Idaho Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Idaho Legislature at the May 3 meeting.

This request is for the restoration of wildlife management at the Myrtle Creek Game Preserve for fishing, hunting and trapping.

Due to Idaho Code, the Myrtle Creek Game Preserve is closed for hunting and fishing. Idaho Fish and Game Commission may open certain waters and lands lying within the preserve to hunting, fishing or trapping during prescribed seasons after “receiving concurrent written approval” from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Bonners Ferry City Council.

Fish eradication treatment by Idaho Fish and Game in the preserve can only be done with written permission from both the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Bonners Ferry City Council land under the direct supervision of IDEQ.

IDEQ has written a letter in support of opening Myrtle Creek Game Preserve for fishing, hunting and trapping, saying it did not anticipate any adverse impacts of water quality.

Chuck Roady presented to the council his proposal for broadening the use of Myrtle Creek Game Preserve to allow hunting and fishing in order to harvest and maintain the health of the animal populations, mainly deer.

He said at the turn of the century, wildlife preserves like Myrtle Creek were established to raise the wildlife populations by isolation drainages through the state of Idaho. At one point there were approximately 30 such drainage preserves, there are now four, he said.

The initial philosophy was that isolated preserves would protect wildlife. Roady said this is an antiquated approach and the fish and wildlife have to be managed as huge ecosystems and much larger areas for long-term wildlife resource management.

In addition, Roady said in his research he found very little scientific data supporting that hunting and fishing negatively impacts water quality in municipal and community watersheds.

“The thing that really got me interested is the presence of disease around here,” he said.

He said diseases such as Chronic Wasting Disease, have appeared in deer in Idaho and as close as Lincoln County, Mont. The concern is having isolated areas, like the preserve, that could allow diseases to run rampant due to not being able to harvest animals.

Harvesting is a proven management method, he said. Local predator populations of bears, lions and wolves have increased dramatically in recent years and need to be managed in an ecosystem approach, not by individual watersheds.

The Kootenai Valley Sportsmen’s Association and the Foundation for Wildlife Management wrote letters to the city, IDEQ and the Idaho Department of Fish and Wildlife in agreement to Roady’s proposal.

With the movement of animals, the preserve is not an island out there on its own, but a part of a large ecosystem, Roady said. When deer contract Chronic Wasting Disease, Bluetongue or Epizootic hemorrhagic disease they move toward water.

Roady stated that an infected animal that dies in water is more likely to contaminate watershed water than hunting, which should be a preventative and management measure to better maintain the populations and ecosystem at large.

He wants to restore active wildlife management, which would include fishing, hunting and trapping.

“More than anything we need to manage it,” he said. “And we don’t want to have to do that on an emergency basis at the last minute.”

Chip Corsi, Idaho Fish and Game Region 1 supervisor, said the 2,300-acre Myrtle Creek Reserve is a mix of public and industry land. Currently, sportsmen are paying to have access to it. He said opening up the reserve would allow more opportunity for others to enjoy the land.

A resident said that he walks the hill regularly and comes across people from outside the county hunting in the preserve already. They are not aware that it is closed for hunting. He agreed that it should be open to harvest and maintain the wildlife populations.

Another Fish and Game official said he’d love to see sportsmen from the area and outside the county have access to Myrtle Creek. He said that it would boost the local economy as visiting sportsmen would also spend money in town.

Councilman Ron Smith said IDEQ’s letter of support and hearing there it would be unlikely to have adverse impacts to water quality made him comfortable voting ‘yes’ to the proposal.

Councilwoman Valerie Thompson said she was in favor of opening the preserve as a preemptive measure of the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.

The council approved in a 3-0 vote to write a letter to the Idaho Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Idaho Legislature requesting Myrtle Creek Game Preserve be open for fishing, hunting and trapping.