Getting politics out of Fish & Game decisions is probably a hopeless task, precisely because so many of the issues facing wildlife are inherently political. But can there be too much political influence in fish and game decisions? In the spring of 2002, organizers of an initiative petition got fifty thousand signatures in a little over a month. Their selling point was that the initiative would remove undue political influence.

In the summer of 2002, several Fish & Game Commissioners wrote columns that many thought were uncharacteristically rancorous. These columns show the level of political tension affecting the Idaho Fish & Game Commission. They are re-printed from The Idaho Statesman below.

Commissioner Marcus Gibbs Blasts Commissioner Don Clower and Initiative

June 26, 2002 Some have recently advocated that the Fish and Game Commission, and the former director´s resignation, be used as a political campaign issue in the forthcoming elections. This comes on the heels of the general conclusion that the so-called Fish and Game "reform" initiative has failed to gather the necessary signatures to be placed on the ballot.   More...

Marcus Gibbbs

Commissioner Don Clower Responds to Commissioner Marcus Gibbs' Column

July 1, 2002 In response to Commissioner Marcus Gibbs´ Reader´s View, the proposed Fish and Game initiative only failed to gather enough qualified signatures because of a lack of time and no other reason.   More...

Don Clower

Where does Commissioner Clower stand?

July 3, 2002 The rebuttal by Don Clower to Fish and Game Chairman Marcus Gibbs' comments follows the pattern of mixing facts with half-truths that we have frequently seen in recent months. Clower strides the political stage in this election season as a sort of modern combination of Zeus and Diogenes to the delight of the editorial board rooms, but unfortunately the facts are the casualty   More...

John Burns

Commissioner Roy Moulton Discusses the Coyote controversy

July 8, 2002 I usually don´t respond to media criticism, but the drumbeat over the coyote issue probably justifies one.   More...

Roy Moulton

View an interview of Senator Laird Noh regarding Fish and Game politics, as he saw them in February 2002.