Benewah County, Idaho Hunting

Benewah County by hunting unit

IDFG gives units numbers, not names, and the lines follow roads, rivers and ridges.

Seasons here follow unit lines rather than the county line: 4 units cross it, Unit 5 biggest at 55%. The county also takes in narrow edges of Units 8A and 4.

Of the counties sharing units with Benewah County, Kootenai County leads with 3.

Unit shares from the IDFG Game Units layer overlaid on Census county polygons (GIS shares of land area, both ways); elk zone of each unit from the IDFG Elk Zones layer; wolf zones from the IDFG Wolf Zones layer; CWD units from the 2026 brochure; bear tables from the 2026 brochure. Checked November 12, 2026.

CWD and wolf rules for Benewah County

Hunters in Benewah County face no CWD zone or testing requirement in 2026.

Benewah County wolf lines by unit

The county's units belong to 2 wolf zones (Panhandle and Palouse – Hells Canyon); seasons follow units and whether the land is public or private. Wolf trapping requires the trapping license and wolf trapper education, and transmitting trail cameras are allowed for checks from July 1, 2026.

CWD zone, transport and testing rules from the Big Game 2026 Seasons and Rules p. 9; 2026 changes from IDFG, What hunters need to know about CWD requirements for 2026; county units from the IDFG CWD zone rules; wolf rules from the 2026 brochure; wolf zones from the IDFG Wolf Zones layer. Checked November 12, 2026.

Benewah County hunt numbers by species

Tags are 2026 counts for the whole hunt.

Hunts whose units reach the county in 2026 total 33, made up of 10 deer, 12 elk and 11 moose. The tag total for these hunts is 1,230 in 2026, counted by hunt rather than by county.

A second application period, August 5 to 15, covers tags left after the first draw, and controlled tags must be bought by August 1. The once-in-a-lifetime species use the 2025 and 2026 brochure dates for the 2026 hunt.

Benewah County: controlled deer (10)

Controlled elk in Benewah County (12)

Benewah County moose hunt numbers (11)

Hunt numbers, types, units, dates, bags and 2026 tags from the IDFG Hunt Planner hunt pages (each hunt number links its page) matched to the Idaho Big Game 2026 Seasons and Rules and the Moose, Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goat 2025 and 2026 brochure; counties are whole units, so a hunt area can be smaller. Application periods from the 2026 brochure, the moose, sheep and goat brochure and the spring bear page. Checked November 12, 2026.

Benewah County land by owner

Solid points on the map are places in the county; hollow ones lie just outside it.

Open public ground in Benewah County totals 47,606 GIS acres once overlapping layers are counted once; that is 10% of the county. National forest carries the most weight, with 32,189 acres inside Benewah County. Forest land is run by 2 ranger districts; the St. Joe Ranger District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests has the most here, about 22,633 acres.

The field office with the largest BLM footprint in Benewah County is the Coeur d'Alene Field Office, at 15,259 of 15,259 acres. The 53,904 endowment acres are trust land managed for revenue, so they get their own row. Reservation and trust land (242,218 acres) is closed to state-licensed hunters without tribal permission, and it is not in the public total.

Tribal land in Benewah County, closed to non-members

• Coeur d'Alene Reservation242,218 GIS acres · closed

Benewah County WMAs, refuges and access areas

Public places past the Benewah County line

• Kroetch Land & Timber Company: Evans Cr, Willow Cr, and Rosewood Drive (Access Yes!)15 miles, Access Yes! property
• Hugas Creek & St. Joe River Basin (Access Yes!)17 miles, Access Yes! property
• Mica Creek Drainage on St. Joe River (Access Yes!)19 miles, Access Yes! property
• Palouse River Upland Game Youth Area – North (Access Yes!)28 miles, Access Yes! property
• Palouse River Upland Game Youth Area – East (Access Yes!)28 miles, Access Yes! property
• Palouse River Upland Game Youth Area – West (Access Yes!)28 miles, Access Yes! property

Benewah County places closed to all hunting

• Heyburn State ParkState park, closed
• Mary Minerva McCroskey State ParkState park, closed

Acres are GIS measures of polygons with water over 2 square km removed, not official acreage: IDFG WMA layer, PAD-US 4.1 (forest, grassland, BLM, refuge, park, endowment, Reclamation, military, DOE and tribal land), IDFG Access Yes! 2026 layer, IDFG Large Tracts layer; refuges counted only when listed in 50 CFR 32.31; tribal rule from 18 U.S.C. 1165; closures from the 2026 brochure; Craters of the Moon from the NPS laws and policies page. Checked November 12, 2026.

Benewah County event listings

Kinds ahead here: DU conservation dinner, RMEF chapter banquet and hunter and bowhunter certification. Count: 3 dates ahead. 1 had no open seat when IDFG’s class page was checked.

Your club’s date not shown? Submit it

Around Benewah County

Four county guides picked by the shortest centre-to-centre distance, then three statewide planning pages.