Chukar hunters are expressing concern about an Idaho Fish and Game proposal to expand wolf trapping to units 13 and 18.

They say traps and snares set near the breaks of the Snake and Salmon rivers could endanger their bird dogs. The department is proposing to allow trapping on private land in the two units between Nov. 15 and March 31. Seasons for chukar and gray partridge, which are plentiful in both units, open in September and run through January.

Hunters like Nance Ceccarelli of Moscow worry the lures and baits used by trappers might be too much to resist for the super-powered noses of their bird dogs.

"It's not that I'm against trapping or taking wolves, that is not the issue at all," she said. "We all need to be able to share this resource and I think they have put a very dangerous method of take out there."

Trapping is already allowed in the Lolo, Selway, Middle Fork and Dworshak-Elk City zones and parts of the Panhandle and McCall-Weiser zones from Nov. 15 to March 31. But bird hunting doesn't typically occur in those areas.

Unit 10A of the Dworshak-Elk City Zone is popular with hunters who use hounds to pursue mountain lions. The unit doesn't open to trapping until Feb. 1 to allow hound hunters some time to run their dogs without having to worry about traps.

Dave Cadwallader, supervisor of the Clearwater Region, said the department might consider the same season framework for units 13 and 18 when it forwards the proposal to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission in Boise on Tuesday.

"We might have some options there, some delayed openers on trapping season to try to accommodate everyone," Cadwallader said.

He said hunters in the region and across the state have expressed a strong desire for the department to take more steps to control the wolf population. At recent public meetings, he estimated twice as many people supported the expansion of trapping than those against it. He also said some ranchers in units 13 and 18 have asked the department to allow trapping there. Although wolves have not been a major problem in the units, he said interactions with livestock have occurred.

Cadwallader also said if the provision is approved, communication between landowners, hunters and trappers should be enough to head off any incidents.

"A trapper is not going to go on private land without landowner permission, or certainly shouldn't, and likewise a bird hunter shouldn't be going onto private land without permission and the communication that should occur between landowners, hunters and trappers is certainly key there."

Ceccarelli said dogs, especially those following a scent, would be vulnerable to traps set near property boundaries. She once found coyote traps on private land she had permission to hunt. In that case, she said it didn't occur to the landowner to inform her or her hunting partners of the traps.

"I think a lot of people, in good faith, even when they give you permission, they see (hunting and trapping) as two different things," she said. "It's going to require whenever you get permission on private land, you are going to have to ask (if trapping is being allowed on the property)."

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