Idaho Fish and Game is working with lumber companies to make sure the public has access to private timber land. It’s all part of the department’s new “Large Tracts” land lease program that targets parcels 50,000 acres or larger.
Using a lease agreement, Fish and Game and PotlatchDeltic will provide the public access to more than 567,000 acres of private land. Hunting, fishing and trapping will be allowed on the land in Benewah, Clearwater, Idaho, Latah and Shoshone counties.
The second agreement, to be finalized next month, includes Stimson Lumber Company and a group of other forest owners. That will let the public hunt and fish on 300,000 acres in Bonner, Boundary, Benewah, Shoshone and Kootenai counties.
The Department will pay $1 per acre each year to allow the public access. The money comes from a fee from residents and non-residents when they buy their first annual license each year. The leases will renew annually for at least three years.
That money also pays for public access to more than two million acres of state endowment lands.
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