Bad ideas in Idaho: Ex-jock puts wildlife in a can, while state mines in nat’l rec area
Ray Ring
Senior EditorRulon Jones used to crash through walls of human flesh, in his 10 years as a pro-footballer, looming on the Denver Broncos’ defensive line. Now he buys ranches and uses them to sell “100% guaranteed” hunts. At his 12,000-acre Broadmouth Canyon Ranch, near Liberty, Utah, according to his website, he charges his customers $5,900 for a trophy elk, $4,900 to take a mule deer, $2,900 to take a buffalo, and $2,900 to take a cougar.
His plan for a similar operation in Idaho indicates how he can guarantee hunters’ success. He’s installing an 8-foot-high fence around his 2,000-acre ranch near Blackfoot, to form an enclosure trapping wildlife, and then he’ll run canned hunts. For background on killer fences, check a High Country News think piece on a movement to reform Western fences.
Jones describes his high-end Idaho hunting opportunity to the Associated Press:
”It’s very much a fair chase thing … It will be a challenging hunt.”
Haw haw haw. Very unfunny, Mr. Jones.
Meanwhile, a couple hundred miles north, the Idaho Transportation Department has begun digging a gravel mine on an unfortunate piece of state land within the boundaries of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. The Sawtooth Rec Area has all the qualities of a top national park — edgy peaks, pure waters, uncanned wildlife — along with traditional-scale ranches on the private land.
In an outraged editorial, the Idaho Mountain Express says the state agency “should be ashamed.”
The Ketchum weekly goes on:
The sight is shocking to those who know the history of the SNRA and who understand the economic importance of the area to tourism.
Taxpayers spent millions of dollars to protect the scenic vistas in the SNRA from commercial and residential development. The Forest Service spent millions of man-hours figuring out how to protect the vistas and rural nature of Idaho’s heartland for future generations. It created rules for everything from cabin rooftops to sprinkler systems to ensure that they are in harmony with the wild surroundings. It fought legal battles to ensure that nothing scarred the land that is precious to Idahoans and all Americans.
Of course these particular bad ideas don’t represent the thinking of most Idahoans. Both need wider criticism.