Idaho has extended the residency requirement for purchasing its lifetime hunting or fishing license from six months to five years. The new law, which passed on April 1 and goes into effect on July 1, comes after frustrated Idaho sportsmen complained of out-of-staters abusing the relatively short requirements.
State Rep. James Petzke introduced the bill, HB 855, and testified on March 17 that it was designed to prevent short-term Idaho residents from temporarily moving to Idaho, qualifying for and purchasing a lifetime license, then returning home.
“The reason for this is we’ve got some people who are trying to take advantage of the system and basically move here for six months in order to get a lifetime license, then they move away,” Petzke testified. “They get a pretty significant advantage in cost savings on that and also in the tags they’re able to get. We’re just trying to clean some of that up and make sure the people that are able to get lifetime hunting and fishing licenses that they do actually live in Idaho and are committing to be here.”
Once a hunter holds a lifetime Idaho hunting, trapping, fishing, or combo license (which run from about $387 to $1,113 for anyone aged 2 to 50), they remain in the resident pool for drawing tags. They must still pay nonresident tag fees, however, according to the Idaho Wildlife Federation.
Idaho Fish and Game, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment from OL, also testified in support of the bill.
Lawmakers and Idaho Fish and Game officials have not provided firm numbers on how many short-term residents had purchased a lifetime license, presumably because it’s a challenging metric to track. Idaho sold 5,655 lifetime certificates from 2021 through 2025, according to Idaho Fish and Game data provided to the Idaho Statesman, which includes hunting, fishing, and combo lifetime license.
Although he didn’t have a sense of the problem’s scale either, Idaho Wildlife Federation executive director Nick Fasciano fielded plenty of calls from concerned Idahoans, many of whom referenced hunting influencers as a source of the abuse. He also referenced sportsmen from eastern Washington who may have temporarily moved to Idaho for six months, which would be fairly easy for remote workers, secured their lifetime license, and moved away again.
“I hear about it enough from resident hunters that it’s a concern,” says Fasciano, who also testified on behalf of the bill before it was approved and sent to the governor’s desk late last month. (Fasciano is also an occasional OL contributor.) “The idea behind these lifetime licenses is for people who want to make Idaho their home. There’s been enough consternation over the question of whether we should keep lifetime licenses at all that I’d like to find ways to help take the fire out of some of those frustrations so we’re still able to keep what’s a very good idea and helpful for a lot of people.”
The new law, proponents say, brings the lifetime license’s regulations in line with its intention, which is to offer benefits to hunters and anglers who are committed to staying in Idaho.
“Five years is a long enough period that [it means] Idaho was your home at some point,” says Fasciano. “No one’s just going to just bebop over here, functionally work remotely for five years, then head back to where they came from, right? It’s a long enough time to establish you [really] lived here.”
Idaho is one of the few Western states with a lifetime sporting license for the general public, and it’s now the second longest residency requirement after Wyoming, which mandates 10 years of consecutive residency. Slightly more than half of states appear to offer some kind of lifetime sporting license. Here’s a sample of requirements, which must usually be consecutive:
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