COEUR d’ALENE — The new chairman of the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, Will Naillon, announced Tuesday that he will not be re-applying for another term on the commission.

Chairman Naillon and ex-chairman Mark Doerr are both up for reappointment. Gov. Butch Otter is responsible for appointing commission members. Usually he re-appoints commission members when their terms expire if they are still in good standing with his office. This year Gov. Otter has asked Naillon and Doerr to reapply for their positions along with other potential candidates.

“I believe that if the governor wanted me on the commission, he would have simply have re-appointed me,” Naillon said in an email to the Hagadone News Network. “The governor is not bound by any procedure on the appointment of F&G commissioners and could simply appoint myself or anyone else at his discretion. I feel that reapplying would be somewhat redundant, as my voice for wildlife and representation of the sportsmen of Idaho has been well documented over the last four years.”

There is talk that the move to find new commissioners has been influenced by a few legislators who are interested in commercializing some of Idaho’s game tag programs.

In 2015, the commission sent a fee increase bill to the Legislature to get more money out of hunting tags. The bill came back with three amendments attached to it that would have let private landowners sell special hunting tags for profit, changed the way the lottery system awards controlled hunts and essentially auction off nonresident hunting tags.

Doerr and Naillon refused to accept the amendments and rescinded their fee increase request rather than allowing the hunting tag amendments to be debated.

Assuming Naillon is not re-appointed, the commission will hold another election for chairman during its July meeting.