01/18/06 Groen named F&G Director

Cal Groen of Lewiston is the new director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department. Groen has been with Fish and Game since 1990. The Fish and game Commission selected Groen from five finalists to succeed Steve Huffaker who retired at the end of 2006. Groen will oversee a 74 million dollar budget and more than 500 employees when he begins his new assignment. Huffaker was one of the speakers at a Statehouse rally organized by the Idaho Sportsmen's Advisory Caucus. 31 different sporting groups want action on elk farms and they want input on political decisions that affect hunters and anglers. Randy Smith may get to the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after all and with Democratic support. Nominated more than a year ago Smith had been in limbo but now he's been nominated again by President Bush but this time for a seat vacated by Idahoan Thomas Nelson. Senator Diane Feinstein held up Smith's nomination to replace Steven Trott, claiming that seat should go to a Californian. Officials involved in the battle against noxious weeds are praising Governor Butch Otter's plan to pump ten million dollars into the effort. Eight million acres are weed infested but there's only enough money to treat about 130 thousand acres a year. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott