Lawmaker Seeks To Stop Air Hunts

The flat hilltops and gullies of western Idaho may be suited for airplanes, but hunters are apparently using the aircraft-friendly landscape to exploit a loophole in state law that forbids aerial hunting. House majority leader and avid hunter Mike Moyle says landowners in Washington and Payette counties last year complained that hunters were using small airplanes to shoot big game animals.  They'd land on a flat patch of ground nearby, load up their quarry and be flying again within a matter of minutes.  Idaho law forbids hunting from helicopters, but doesn't expressly prohibit using planes. Moyle's bill, introduced Monday, would forbid using all aircraft for hunting, transporting hunters and gear, or the taking of any animals on the ground on the same day.