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April 29, 2009 FYI

Grant Simonds represented IOGA at America Outdoors Association Camp Washington (CW) IOGA's executive director Grant Simonds joined 11 members of AOA in making visits on Capitol Hill, BLM and the USFS in Washington DC, April 20-22. Simonds also had appointments with the Idaho delegationâ€”Senators Crapo and Risch, Congressmen Simpson and Minnick. Keep in mind that congressional appointments are usually less than 30 minutes, some as short as 15 minutes.

Hats off to David Brown, AOA's executive director and to AOA's Washington lobbyists, for their expert organization of Camp Washington. One of Camp Washington's primary themes was that the processes and costs for operating small businesses on public lands are becoming increasingly expensive and making it more difficult for small businesses to provide services to the public.Â Â The following issues underscore that theme.

Primary topics with Senator Crapo and staff were potential impacts on the industry of the repeal of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA).The current law excludes outfitters from additional and unreasonable fees for road maintenance and endangered species monitoring. Our visit with Senator Crapo was timely in that subsequent to Camp Washington, Senator Baucus, D-Montana, and Senator Crapo have introduced S. 868 (to repeal FLREA). However, S. 868 is a placeholder, meaning an entirely new bill will be substituted prior to mark-up. The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act is the authority under which outfitter permits are issued and the fees retained by the managing agencies.Â Under the repeal bill, that authority would revert to the 1965 Land and Water Conservation Fund with no authority for the agencies to retain more than 15% of outfitter permit fees. The two senators have committed to work with the industry regarding our concerns with FLREA repeal. Neither AOA nor IOGA have taken a position on FLREA repeal. Additionally, since CW, Idaho congressman Walt Minnick has indicated he will be introducing a companion bill to S. 868 in the House. IOGA and AOA will be working with Minnick on language to protect the industry.

Cost recovery for permit renewal was discussed during Hill visits and with the Idaho delegation. Currently, Upper Main Salmon float and walk and wade outfitters will be assessed thousands of dollars apiece by the Sawtooth National Forest for expenses tied to permit renewal that includes consultation with NOAA Fisheries regarding endangered Chinook. AOA and IOGA support a change in the cost recovery rule that would provide a credit for the first 50 hours of work when cost recovery applies to permit administration.Â Currently, the BLM and the Forest Service collect full cost recovery from the first hour of work for permit administration when the time required to process an application exceeds 50 hours.Â In other words, if the permit application processing takes 51 hours full cost recovery applies for the 51 hours with no credit given for the first 50 hours.Â If the processing takes 50 hours, there is not cost recovery.Â Senator Crapo's staff, among others, committed to helping us correct this through future legislation.

Reinstatement of Authority for Local Fees and Taxes on Navigable Waters Senator Crapo's Chief of Staff committed to ensuring that the reinstatement of language giving the authority for local governments to establish taxes on services on navigable waters will not be included in the Senate version of the Coast Guard Authorization Bill, which will likely be reintroduced.Â

Trail Maintenance. We provided Representative Norm Dick's (D-WA) office and the House Resource Committee's staff with briefings about the deterioration of the trails system in National Forests and how outfitters can play a positive role in restoring those trails.Â We remain hopeful that stimulus funds will be used for significant trail maintenance. We are also investigating a mechanism that would allow the federal government to provide a credit to outfitters for trail maintenance. Representative Dicks chairs the Appropriations Committee for the land managing agencies, including the Forest Service.

Reinstatement of Backcountry Mail Route. In a meeting with Congressman Minnick, Simonds thanked him for his interest and concern that he has expressed in a letter to Postmaster General John Potter regarding the pending end of mail service to the approximately 25 backcountry entities including a number of outfitters (and IOGA members) that live and operate in, mostly in, and out of wilderness. Recently, the Postal Service announced that the contract in place since 1972 with Arnold Aviation of Cascade would be discontinued June 30. Minnick indicated he plans to meet directly with the Postmaster General soon. On January 28^th in a long statement before a congressional subcommittee, the Postmaster General said: â€œWe must serve every customer and every community equally. Rich or poor, from the biggest cities to the smallest towns, we must provide the same high level of serviceâ€”in both easy-to-serve locations and locations so remote they can only be reached by mule, by swamp boat, or by bush plane.â€ Interested IOGA members can contact Devin Nagy, legislative assistant to Congressman Minnick at Devin.Nagy@mail.house.gov (202.225.6611) with additional thoughts on this matter. IOGA has contacted Bill McLaughlin, the dean of the School of Natural Resources at the University of Idaho regarding this issue as the UofI's Taylor Ranch on Big Creek in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness would also be impacted by loss of this service. Â

Forest Service Capacity Analyses and Needs Assessments. In our meeting with the Forest Service we learned that there is an interagency task force with NPS and BLM dealing with capacity analyses. Â We asked if the agency knew about the effort to put outfitter permits under the National Recreation Reservation System, which is in the planning stages in Idaho (Middle Fork, Main, Selway and Hells Canyon-Snake).Â Simonds also inquired about a provision in a letter that some Idaho outfitters recently received regarding a new process in which outfitters must obtain a FS number prior to mailing in your entire insurance policy to be reviewed at a national level. This process was â€œnewsâ€ to those FS persons in our meeting. IOGA will seek to further clarify this matter.

BLM. In our meeting with the BLM recreation staff, we learned that BLM will move forward on Management Policies for the National Landscape Conservation System, which was established for the purpose of conserving the ecological, scientific, and cultural values of just about any BLM lands that has any kind of designation.Â BLM does not plan to revise BLM permitting directives to coincide with those issued by the Forest Service.

When asked, Simonds provided Idaho's delegation with reports of the prognosis for bookings for 2009. Preliminary reports indicate that the extraordinary circumstances presented by the worst recession since WWII indicates that on average bookings are off 35 to 40 percent. Simonds also provided a heads up regarding current Forest Service efforts to renew outfitter permits on the Middle Fork and Upper Main where endangered Chinook present additional hoops for the Forest Service including consultation with NOAA Fisheries. Â

This report on Camp Washington is largely attributed to AOA's David Brown and supplemented by IOGA's Grant Simonds.

Safari Club International set to roll out outfitter insurance program. SCI has researched the outfitter market and will have a very competitive program. A formal announcement is forthcoming.Â In the meantime, outfitters looking for insurance may go to www.huntandtravel.com/guideins.htm or may contact Sportsman's Insurance Agency, Inc., Ormond Beach, FL directly at 800-925-7767.

Please remember that to be eligible for insurance through this program the outfitter mustâ€¦

Be a member of SCI (they can join SCI on line) and
Be a member in good standing of your association (IOGA).

IOGA presence at Inland Northwest Outdoor Show, April 18-19, Clearwater Casino, Lewiston. Thanks to IOGA members Leo and Dee Crane for setting up and manning the IOGA booth. Leo and Dee handed out 250 IOGA directories. Leo and Dee raffled off a Dworshak Reservoir fishing trip which promoted traffic to the IOGA booth. From Dee's report, â€œWe were pleased with the publicity that was given IOGA and its members who were also at the show. Betsy Thill, Show Coordinator, Lewiston Chamber of Commerce did a great job putting this 1^st annual show together.â€

IOGA through its Idaho Travel Council grant is participating in the ITC spring co-op newspaper insert program that features a newspaper insert promoting Idaho tourism that is scheduled to run in Seattle, Portland, Spokane, Salt Lake City and Idaho dailies on May 31. The total circulation is 500,000 with 1.5 million readers. A follow-up email blast, a listing on VacationFun.com for 120 days with leads delivered weekly is included in this co-op. The IOGA ad promotes â€œIdahoâ€”The Wild Rivers Stateâ€, the IOGA website (www.ioga.org) and 800.494.3296 number to request a directory. A similar ad a year ago generated 1,808 inquiries. http://emailer.itzemailengine.com/r.pl?ZHSkgSTXZfytw3mx_9677b9759d07e377

The annual Idaho Conference on Recreation and Tourism is scheduled for May 5-7 in Sun Valley. Sessions include: Who is the Idaho Traveler; Social media, blogging and digital marketing; What you need to know about You Tube, Facebook and Twitter; Research and media trends; Culinary tourism; Millennial Mindset; Greening your organization and more. For complete conference agenda, lodging and conference registration visit http://www.commerce.idaho.gov/travel/idaho-state-conference-on-recreation-and-tourism.aspx

Welcome to IOGA Â New Members ---April 16 to April 28, 2009

Outfitters

Daniel & Diana ButlerÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Spring Cove Outfitters

283 E Spring Cove Road

Bliss, IDÂ 83314

208.352.4374

springcove@rtci.net

www.springcoveoutfitters.com

Hunting:Â Deer & Elk.Â F& G Unit 45.Â New Opportunity

Mike & Dawn Richie

Richie Outfitters