idaho roads and trails / motorized hunting rule help

[gunsllinger]

i hunt an area where the motorized hunting rule applies and there is absolutely no signage at all. i dont have a phone capable of the idaho roads and trails app thing, but i do have a garmin etrex 20. i was wondering if there was a chip or anything avaliable for that that would help me with trail use designations?

 

[bigdesert10]

You're pretty safe so long as you just stay on well established roads large enough for a full-sized vehicle. That includes two-track. Here's the address to the brochure:

https://idfg.idaho.gov/old-web/docs/hunt/atvBrochure.pdf

 

[gunsllinger]

according to the fish and game officer that sighted me last year on a very very well established 2track that i have taken my full sized long box truck down a hundred times that is very much not true. the forrest travel plan designates the exeptable uses for each road and if you have a rifle on your four wheeler on a road not specificaly designated for full sized vehicles you can be cited for a number of things including poaching. none of the roads are required to be signed and it absolutely does not matter how established the road is

 

[gunsllinger]

the "established road" wording confuses a lot of people because they dont realize it also states that that established road must be designated for use by full sized vehicles by the land management agency. this designation is found for where i hunt on the idaho roads and trails website and app wich legally counts as all the posting they need so however established a road may be is irrelevant if it is not designated for full sized vehicles on the motor vehicle use map online

 

[bigdesert10]

I'd fight that citation based on the language in their brochure that describes how to identify an established road. It's pretty ambiguous. The couple of fish cops I talked about it with explained it the way I did above.

 

[bluetick78]

bigdesert10, every F&G officer I've talked to referred me to the land management agency for travel restrictions, then told me to look at the regulations to determine if big game hunting was allowed with the aid of motorized vehicles in that unit. It's pretty simple, you look at the BLM or FS maps in print or online and then reference that info to the F&G regs. I've never had a problem. The rules are pretty clear.

 

[Scoony]

Idaho has a series of free USDA Forest Service maps the show what roads can be used by type of vehicles. We had the actual maps as well as downloaded the maps through Avenza Maps app. Both the actual maps and the app really helped us get around Idaho last year.

You should be able to contact the nearest forestry office and get the maps from them.

 

[gunsllinger]

I'd fight that citation based on the language in their brochure that describes how to identify an established road. It's pretty ambiguous. The couple of fish cops I talked about it with explained it the way I did above.

this is what frustrates me there are a lot of great roads to WALK where we hunt but everyone miss interprets the very clear law turning it into a wast of time to walk 2 hours down a road in the dark to be passed by fifteen rzrs as the sun comes up. but i dare not give myself the same advantage because ill be the one to get sighted. the game starts running when a rzr gets 2 miles away so its ruined anyway

 

[FreeRange]

The only way to be 100% safe is to get the Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) and the best way is via Avenza on your phone because you can overlay your location onto it. The way I learned about it was a warden in Idaho told me that's what he uses for enforcement. There is no requirement that closed roads be posted or gated so far as I can tell. Also as far as I understood it from the warden who I spoke to last year, they have a much harder time citing anyone on BLM land as travel management rules are much more vague on BLM compared to FS.

 

[bigdesert10]

The only way to be 100% safe is to get the Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) and the best way is via Avenza on your phone because you can overlay your location onto it. The way I learned about it was a warden in Idaho told me that's what he uses for enforcement. There is no requirement that closed roads be posted or gated so far as I can tell. Also as far as I understood it from the warden who I spoke to last year, they have a much harder time citing anyone on BLM land as travel management rules are much more vague on BLM compared to FS.

Good points. It's always good to err on the side of caution.

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[bigdesert10]

this is what frustrates me there are a lot of great roads to WALK where we hunt but everyone miss interprets the very clear law turning it into a wast of time to walk 2 hours down a road in the dark to be passed by fifteen rzrs as the sun comes up. but i dare not give myself the same advantage because ill be the one to get sighted. the game starts running when a rzr gets 2 miles away so its ruined anyway

I'm right there with you man. I'm part of the apparent minority that doesn't even own an atv. There's areas I won't even hunt anymore because of the constant hum of 2-strokes.

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