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Committee advances proposal to require agricultural producer on winter-feeding advisory panels
Summary
The Resources & Environment Committee voted to send RS 3183 to print. The bill would require at least one agricultural producer on most Fish and Game winter-feeding advisory committees and that committee members live in the district they serve.
The Resources & Environment Committee voted to send RS 3183 to print after testimony that the bill would require most Idaho Fish and Game winter-feeding advisory committees to include at least one agricultural producer and that committee members come from the district the committee serves.
The measure was presented by Dexter Lake, who identified himself as representing the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation. Lake said the change responds to concerns raised in Bear Lake-area meetings where elk depredation had occurred and local producers were not represented on feeding committees. "A lot of the producers there didn't know about it and they realized that there really wasn't an ag representative on that committee," Lake told the committee. "This piece of legislation would require...that at least one member be an agricultural producer." He added the bill would also require committee members to be residents of the district where each committee is formed.
Committee members asked practical questions about the number and makeup of feeding committees and how an "ag producer" would be defined. Lake told the panel that Fish and Game has about five districts and that he believed at least four of those districts have feeding committees. He said Farm Bureau and other agricultural organizations would be relied on to recommend qualified producers rather than inserting a formal statutory definition of "ag producer." "For terms of our membership we have regular members and associate members...we would refer one of our regular members that have an interest in preventing or guiding winter feeding," Lake said.
Senators pressed whether limiting membership to residents of a district could make it harder to fill the panels; Lake said Fish and Game welcomed assistance from organizations such as Farm Bureau and the Cattle Association to identify candidates.
Senator Hart moved to send RS 3183 to print; Senator Harris seconded. The motion passed by voice vote.
If printed, RS 3183 would proceed through the normal bill-drafting and committee process before any final action on the floor.
