Idaho Watersheds Project wins auction for 16,000 acre lease in Clearwater County in north Idaho.

On Tuesday August 22, 2000 Idaho Watersheds Project was the high bidder for the Lacey Meadows Allotment grazing lease in the Jim Ford Creek watershed in Clearwater County, Idaho 3 miles Southeast of Weippe, Idaho. This lease which includes over 16,000 acres of Idaho endowment land (belonging to several endowments including the public school endowment) is acknowledged by the State to have many miles of functioning-at-risk and non-functioning creeks including several of the main tributaries of Jim Ford Creek which is itself listed (on the state 303d list) as being out of compliance with State of Idaho water quality standards. Livestock grazing is acknowledged to be a significant contributor to the current degraded conditions. IWP provided a proposed 10 year management plan before the auction which proposes no livestock use for the ten year term of the lease.

The Lacey Meadows Grazing Association opened the bidding with a bid of $1,500 which IWP followed with a bid of $3,000. The association bid $3,500 and IWP followed with $5,000 after which the bidding proceeded by $500 increments to an $8,000 bid by IWP which proved to be the winning bid. IWP had previously paid the first years rent of $5,000 (for approximately 1000 AUMs) at the time of application for this expiring lease in April, 2000. In addition to the premium bid of $8,000, IWP also paid under protest, pending resolution of an appeal, the amount of $29,324 which the state has credited to the Lacey Meadows Grazing Association for a share of fencing costs incurred on the lease in the last 25 years.

Chris Clark, the vice-president of the Lacey Meadows Association announced after the auction that the Association will be appealing the lease auction to the Idaho Land Board although he gave no grounds for doing so.

IWP anticipates a possible legal battle for this lease if the Land Board decides to overturn the auction results and award the lease to the low bidder.

If awarded to IWP, this lease will increase IWP's grazing acreage under lease in Idaho to over 23,000 acres.

Idaho Watersheds Project wins auction for 5,050 acre grazing lease in Cassia County in southern Idaho.

On Tuesday October 3, 2000 Idaho Watersheds Project was the winning bidder at auction for the 5050 acre Robinson Hole ten year grazing lease located in Cassia County, Idaho between Oakley, Idaho and the Utah and Nevada border 15 miles to the south. The lease is located primarily on Middle Mountain between Goose Creek and the Almo City of Rocks National Preserve.

The existing leaseholder, Pickett Ranch & Sheep Company opened the bidding for $1,000. IWP responded with a bid of $4,000 which Pickett followed with a $5,000 bid. IWP followed with an $8,000 bid. Bidding then proceeded in $2,000 increments to a $12,000 bid by IWP after which Pickets made their last bid of $13,000. IWP won the auction with a final bid of $14,000.

In addition to the amount bid, IWP paid, under protest and appeal, the sum of $13,900 which the Idaho Department of Lands had determined to be the value of creditable improvements (primarily 5.5 miles of fencing) on the lease for which the previous leaseholder would be compensated. IWP's protest and appeal of the appraisal of value is based on the fact that some of the 5.5 miles of fencing identified in the appraisal may be as much as 50 years old and there is no written record of Pickett Ranch ever having contributed any funds to the installation of fencing at any time on the school trust lands which make up the lease.

The annual rental for this lease is just over $2,000 per year calculated at $4.95 per AUM.

IWP also provided a management plan for the lease for the ten year period which calls for no grazing by domestic livestock for the entire period.

The Robinson Hole area on Middle Mountain has one of the finest remnant aspen forests in southern Idaho which extends for several miles, most of which is located on the state lease. The removal of livestock from this lease will facilitate the recovery of the understory like snowberry in the aspen forest as well as the growth of aspen root shoots from the clones which have been damaged by both cattle and sheep use. The ten year recovery would also allow the restoration of the headwaters of Cold Creek which 40 years ago had large beaver ponds in what is now a degraded and dewatered upland meadow, as well as other riparian areas including the headwaters of Emery Creek. The lease may also have provided, at one time, habitat for Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout which has been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Significant habitat also exists on the lease for lynx which historically occupied the area and which is now listed as threatened under the ESA.

IWP anticipates a possible legal battle for this lease if the Land Board decides to overturn the auction results and award the lease to the low bidder. Don and Doug Pickett, who represented Pickett Ranch & Sheep Company in the auction, indicated that they would appeal the auction results to the Idaho Land Board.

If awarded to IWP, this lease will increase IWP's grazing acreage under lease in Idaho to over 28,000 acres if IWP is also awarded the 16,000 acre Lacey Meadows lease won at auction in August 2000.

IWP was ably represented at the auction by IWP Executive Director, Jon Marvel, IWP Board President Kelley Weston, and IWP staff biologist Miriam Austin.

Idaho Watersheds Project becomes the manager of 440 acre ranch with over 50,000 acres of public land grazing permits

Idaho Watersheds Project has recently signed a management agreement with the conservation buyer of a 440 acre ranch located on more than one mile of the East Fork of the Salmon River in Custer County, Idaho. IWP's management responsibilities extend to grazing permits on over 45,000 acres of Forest Service administered lands and over 8000 acres of BLM lands.

The long-term intention of the owner and IWP is to restore the damaged riparian and fisheries habitat on the river which has been degraded by over 100 years of livestock ranching and to provide recovery of the upland areas of the ranch in order to maximize wildlife habitat. The river provides spawning and rearing habitat for threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, and year-round habitat for similarly threatened bull trout. One spawning redd of Chinook salmon was confirmed in the river on the ranch this year. The ranch bottomlands provide critical winter habitat for the remnant White Cloud Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep herd which has dwindled to perhaps 50 individuals. Other species for which the ranch can provide habitat include wolverine, wolves (5 wolves were shot by federal gunners this year within 5 miles of the ranch), river otter, golden and bald eagles, sage grouse, elk and mule deer.

The 40,000 acre Salmon River Breaks Forest Service grazing allotment which is being acquired as part of the sale of the ranch includes seven northern tributary creeks to the Salmon River extending from Thompson Creek on the east to Basin Creek near Stanley on the west. All of these tributary watersheds provide remnant habitat for bull trout, salmon, steelhead and westslope cutthroat trout as well as wolves, bear, wolverine, elk, deer, mountain goat, and perhaps fisher.

IWP looks forward to many years of developing a showplace on these private and federal lands for the values associated with clean water and healthy wildlife habitat.

TV Campaign Started by IWP 

On Sunday October 15 Idaho Watersheds Project initiated the first screening of a 30 second television public service announcement on cable television broadcasts of National Geographic Explorer in six Idaho cities and in Seattle. The ad will continue to run on the same program on four consecutive Sundays. IWP will also be acquiring television time for this public service announcement in New York City on Sunday evening, October 29, 2000 which is the day the New York Times Magazine will have an article about wolf reintroduction in Idaho.

The excellent 30 second spot was produced by John Plummer Broadcast Video of Ketchum, Idaho.

The video starts with much helicopter engine noise and the image of a helicopter taking off. A voice-over starts speaking and states: "In April of this year, five wild wolves were gunned down by federal agents in central Idaho to preserve welfare ranching." Additional images follow of shells being loaded into a shotgun by gloved hands and the gun being snapped shut. Then two shots ring and a booted man walks away with the gun followed by images from the air of the Idaho mountains and of a running wolf and the sounds of a wolf howling. Images of cattle grazing on creek banks follow with the voice-over continuing: "Learn the truth about ranching on your public lands" followed by the IWP logo and URL which fades out leaving an image of a wolf patting at stream water with its paw.

IWP would have enjoyed having James Earl Jones or Robert Redford as the voice-over, but all­in-all the video turned out very successfully. IWP is hopeful that we can put the video up on our web site as streaming video for web surfers to see. IWP has put up several pages on our web site as well as links to other sites underlining the fact that public lands ranching is the reason for the killing of wolves (an endangered species in the US) and other native predators.