Outdoors briefs

Idaho Fish and Game personnel will hold open houses in Challis and Salmon where hunters can hear about proposed changes and offer their feedback. The Challis meeting is scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9 at the Challis Community Event Center. The Salmon open house is from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10 at the Fish and Game office.

Big game seasons pegged for discussion include deer, elk, pronghorn, black bear, mountain lion and wolf.

Wildlife biologists will have displays about each proposed season. People who want to review the proposals before the meetings can find them on the Fish and Game website, http://idfg.idaho.gov. Comments may also be submitted through that website.

Comments from people who attend the open houses will be summarized and presented to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission members before their March 16 meeting, at which they set final seasons. 

Aerial surveys of game animals continue

Idaho Fish and Game personnel are continuing their aerial surveys of deer and elk in the Salmon region. 

The surveys are conducted to determine population trends and age and sex ratios, which are used to set hunting seasons and quotas. 

The effort includes use of a helicopter to capture deer fawns and elk calves and attach radio collars to the animals so their survival or deaths can be monitored. Later this winter, Fish and Game officials plan to capture some bighorn sheep in the lower Panther Creek area and fit them with radio collars, too.