In a surprise decision, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission voted to fire Director Steve Mealey during its regular March meeting in Idaho Falls, today. The vote was 4-3 with the dismissal opposed by Commissioners Burns, Siddoway, and Wood. The dismissal was supported by Commissioners Hadley, Meiers, Brown, and Carlson.
This termination ends (for the time being) the enormously controversial directorship of Steve Mealey, the former Boise National Forest Supervisor. Many hook and bullet groups as well as conservation groups in Idaho had called for Mealey to be fired or resign because of his failure to speak out for wildlife and wildlife habitat issues in the face of political opposition by the heavily Republican and ag-dominated Idaho legislature and Governor. The termination came in the face of a threat by members of the Idaho Legislature to drop any consideration of a a currently pending fee increase for the Department of Fish and Game if the Commission fired Mealey who is a favorite of the livestock and ag interests which dominate the Idaho Legislature. Idaho Watersheds Project Board member, Gene Bray, who spoke at the February meeting of the Commission in Boise, directly asked that Mealey be terminated from his job because of his directives which gagged Department biologists from speaking out on Snake River dam removal and other endangered species issues such as grizzly bear reintroduction and bull trout habitat management. At that meeting Director Mealey shouted at conservation minded citizens and the meeting was gaveled to a close in an uproar.
New Idaho Governor, Dirk Kempthorne, will have the opportunity to appoint four members of the Fish and Game Commission this year (a majority) and perhaps Mealey will be back when they get done.