By SEAN ELLIS

Capital Press

BOISE — A bill that would have given the Idaho cattle industry authority to raise a brand inspection fee by as much as 25 cents a head to help fund predator control efforts has died.

House lawmakers voted 42-24 against the bill March 12.

The bill was authored by the Idaho Cattle Association, which asked lawmakers for the authority to raise a 5-cents-per-head assessment that is collected along with the brand inspection fee.

The money from that assessment is given to Wildlife Services, a USDA agency that resolves animal depredation issues in Idaho. Idaho Wildlife Services will lose $225,000 in federal funding this year and ICA members want to ensure the agency is adequately funded so it can control increasing depredation problems caused by wolves.

During public testimony on the bill, lawmakers opposed to it said that even though ICA members support the legislation, they didn’t think producers should have to pay for a problem caused by the federal government– wolf depredation.

“We’re not willing to punish the victim,” said Rep. Judy Boyle, a Republican rancher from Midvale who voted against the bill.

However, Boyle and other lawmakers opposed to the legislation are sympathetic to industry’s plight and are looking for other ways to fund wolf-control efforts in Idaho.

“We are looking for other avenues of funding besides charging the people who have the damages incurred upon them,” Boyle said.

A bill introduced by Boyle March 8 could result in Wildlife Services receiving about $100,000 a year from Idaho Fish and Game Department’s depredation account, which receives 75 cents from every deer, elk and antelope tag sold.

Boyle said federal funding for Wildlife Services will be reduced even more in coming years and “we have to figure out how to do this on our own.”

ICA Executive Vice President Wyatt Prescott said the industry will continue to look for other ways to fund Wildlife Services’ predator control efforts and a different version of the bill is likely to be introduced next year if additional funding isn’t secured by then.

Wildlife Services’ predator control efforts are valuable to cattle producers “and we’re trying to find a way to help them,” he said. “We’re looking at all the solutions we can.”

Prescott said he understands why lawmakers opposed the bill but he is disappointed that they didn’t choose to give industry a tool that it asked for to solve a major problem.

“Legislators didn’t feel like industry should pay for a problem the federal government caused,” he said. “But the problem is that in the meantime, you still have ranchers getting ate out by wolves and other predator problems.”

The proposal divided ag interests.

ICA, which has almost 1,000 members, supported it, but Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, which represents 4,000 beef producers, many much smaller than ICA members, opposed it.