McDermott reappointed to F&G board

SAGLE — Tony McDermott of Garfield Bay will serve another four-year term as the Panhandle’s Fish and Game commissioner.

McDermott, a real estate broker and retired U.S. Army colonel, was first appointed to the commission in 2006.

The Senate approved McDermott’s reappointment after a debate over the state’s wolf management policy.

Sen. Jeff Siddoway, R-Terreton, a rancher, urged the Senate to vote against McDermott, arguing that Fish and Game commissioners have done too little to reduce Idaho’s wolf population.

He wants commissioners to increase quotas for wolf hunts in Idaho.

“We’ve watched and watched as these wolves have decimated elk herds in part of the state,” Siddoway said, according to a report in IdahoReporter.com.

Using as an example the Lolo National Forest in central Idaho, he said elk herds there have disappeared leaving no game for hunters.

“The responsibility of the commissioner is to provide opportunities for the sportsmen of this state, and I submit to you that Tony McDermott has not lived up to that responsibility,” Siddoway said.

McDermott, who fielded questions during last week’s hearing, said the lower quotas set on wolves in the state’s hunting plan ensured that the proposed hunting resolution passed and that Idaho retained control over wolf management.

The state’s wolf population was too large, he said, and commissioners plan to raise future hunting quotas.

“I think our commission is a little more open to opening the toolbox a little wider,” McDermott said.

“I know that our hunters are fed up right to the eyeballs.”

Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, urged representatives to reappoint her neighbor.

“He’s made a really strong effort to hear the concerns of sportsmen,” Broadsword said.

“He’s been a good commissioner. He’s taken my constituents’ calls when most folks wouldn’t have.”

Depending on the outcome of a federal ruling in a few months, wolves could be back on the federal endangered species list, McDermott said.

Wolves were removed from the list, and a ban on hunting was lifted last spring. A delay by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy to rule on an injunction filed by environmentalists in September opened Idaho’s wolf hunt. The animal had been on the Endangered Species List in the lower 48 states since 1974.

The wolf hunt, which ends March 31 in the Panhandle, calls for no more than 220 wolves to be killed. So far, 147 wolves have been harvested in the state, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Web site.

Fish and Game estimates Idaho’s wolf population as 850.