The director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has declined to withdraw an assertion that Hailey environmentalist Jon Marvel shoved a Fish and Game commissioner following a public meeting last month.
In an interview on Tuesday, Feb. 5, just over a week after the department made its accusation, Director Cal Groen said the department would let the emotional nature of the dispute between Marvel and the department simmer down for a while.
"We're dealing with really difficult natural resources issues," Groen said. "I think we need to keep a reasoned approach to them, not an aggressive or emotional approach."
Conflicting stories emerged last week in the aftermath of a leaked Department of Fish and Game memo that accused Marvel of physical and verbal abuse directed at Fish and Game Commissioner Wayne Wright.
The department alleged in a memo distributed to department personnel that Marvel "pushed, shoved or contacted" Wright. Bystanders outside Fish and Game, however, said such an allegation was ridiculous. All five witnesses interviewed by the Idaho Mountain Express last week said the two men were only having an obviously heated disagreement.
Marvel is executive director of Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project, an organization that has won numerous court battles over public land and wildlife management. The group was founded by Marvel in 1993.
The Dec. 17 meeting in Hailey, where the alleged incident occurred, was held to collect public feedback on Idaho's management of reintroduced gray wolves. The alleged altercation occurred after the meeting and after a majority of those who had attended had left.
Five days after the memo was leaked, Marvel wrote a letter to Director Groen and Commissioner Cameron Wheeler requesting that the allegations be withdrawn and an apology issued.
"The commission and department chose to act as judge, jury and figurative executioner and carry out what can only be described as a star chamber-like proceeding without any due process," Marvel wrote. "Such behavior is unworthy of an Idaho state department toward a citizen of Idaho."
Groen said he had received Marvel's letter but that the department has not yet responded.
"I appreciate the letter," Groen said. "At the same time, I think we have a responsibility to move forward in the best interests of Idaho's resources. We're fine where we're at. We just want to get back to business that we as a state are going to have to face. We're going to have to do it in a reasoned approach. I think our wildlife heritage is too important."
Fish and Game Deputy Director Virgil Moore said in an interview last week that the reason it took Fish and Game six weeks to respond to the incident was to allow for discussion among agency officials and the Fish and Game Commission, which met earlier in January.
"We chose a mode that we thought would adequately protect the safety of our employees by simply empowering them to remove themselves from this," Moore said.
Moore and Groen both said it was unintended that the department memo slip into the hands of the media. Groen also said the measure was not intended as a smear campaign.
But by Friday, Feb. 1, at least one Idaho interest group had taken note.
"If you're not man enough to face your foe, just sneak up and shove him in the back," wrote Frank Priestly, president of the Idaho Farm Bureau, in a Feb. 1 opinion essay that was distributed to Idaho media outlets. "That's the newest method of getting your point across being employed by environmental extremist Jon Marvel, who made headlines this week after he shoved an Idaho Fish and Game commissioner from behind at a public hearing."
Priestly wrote that the alleged incident is representative of the fanaticism that Marvel represents.
Posed with questions about Priestly's opinion, Groen reiterated that it is not the department's goal for the dispute to grow beyond itself.
"We don't want it to snowball," he said. "We're just looking for a professional relationship. It's not even our intent to go to the public, to the media with it. There are just a lot of emotions surrounding these natural resources issues right now.
"We're just trying to be professional here. All parties have legitimate agendas."
Jon Marvel
