Committee adopts conceptual amendment to limit bill to grizzly bears; HB186 advances amid agency and stakeholder debate

House Bill 186, the "bear coupon" proposal, drew extensive public and agency testimony and passed the Agriculture, State & Public Lands & Water Resources Committee with a conceptual amendment limiting the bill's scope to grizzly bears. The committee vote was 5–4.

Representative Wharfe, the sponsor, framed the measure as a tool to assert state management and to press for delisting of grizzly bears. He said the coupon would be attached to resident elk licenses and would apply to bears outside the federal grizzly bear recovery area. "I believe that the state is sovereign," Wharfe said, adding that the coupon was intended as a statement to accelerate management authority and to give sportsmen a means to take incidental bears while elk hunting.

Game and Fish Deputy Director Doug Bridal and Chief Game Warden Dan Smith testified against the bill in its current form and offered procedural and technical…