The Idaho Fish and Game Commission approved temporary rules Thursday designed to protect the practice of baiting black bears while bolstering the state’s case for delisting grizzly bears and perhaps reducing its vulnerability to a threatened lawsuit. The new rules require bear hunters to pass a test that tasks them with distinguishing black bears from grizzly bears before they can purchase a bear hunting tag. Black bears can be hunted in Idaho but grizzly bears are protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and cannot be hunted.
Because the rule requires changes to the state’s point of sale licensing system, the rule won’t take effect until Jan. 1. A second two-part rule requires bear hunters to alert the Idaho Department of Fish and Game if any grizzly bears visit their baiting sites and to stop using and remove the bait site for the remainder of that season.
That rule takes effect Sept. 1. Kathleen Trevor, an assistant deputy attorney general who represents the department, said accidental killings of grizzly bears by black bear hunters has happened about 10 times over the past 20 years and has not affected the population of the threatened species.
But she said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended the bear identification test after a hunter mistakenly shot and killed a grizzly bear at a bait station near St.
Maries in June. A coalition of environmental groups believes bear baiting threatens grizzlies by exposing them to accidental killings and b.