Greenfire: Save the Date, Seize the Day

It's a chance to camp under the stars along the East Fork of the Salmon River. And it's an opportunity to see and understand watersheds restoration in the cradle of the Salmon­Challis National Forest.

We invite all WWP members and supporters to WWP's inaugural Greenfire Revival Sept. 14-16 at our new preserve on the East Fork of the Salmon River in central Idaho. Activities include birding excursions, field tours, book seminar, watersheds discussions and a grand tour of the 440-acre Greenfire property.

Three meals will be provided Saturday and breakfast is included Sunday. The Al Yates Trio will supply dance music Saturday night.

For registration, directions and more information, call WWP at (208)788-2290 or send e-mail to wwp@westernwatersheds.org. Suggested donation is $50. Space is limited, so please register early.

For on-line registration and a schedule of events, visit the Greenfire section of our website at www.westemwatersheds.org.

WWP, I CL Sue SNF To Protect Wolves

On August 7, 2001 Western Watersheds Project and the Idaho Conservation League filed a lawsuit in federal District Court in Boise, Idaho, against the Sawtooth National Forest for failing to protect wolves.

The lawsuit is a result of SNF's failure to comply with the 1972 federal statute that created the 750,000-acre Sawtooth National Recreation Area, and the Sawtooth National Forest Plan, which was completed in 1987.

Both legal authorities require the U.S. Forest Service to give priority to wildlife, recreation and fisheries over livestock grazing in the SNRA. The lawsuit asks that the court order the USFS to determine if its management of livestock significantly impairs recreation, fisheries and wildlife, including wolves, before continuing to authorize annual livestock use in the SNRA.

The increase in the number of wolves and wolf packs in central Idaho since wolf reintroduction commenced in 1995 has resulted in more wolf-livestock interactions. One consequence has been the killing of 35 wolves by federal gunners, unknown private parties and trappers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Division. Eighteen wolves have been killed on or adjacent to the SNRA in the past few years. Two weeks ago, two males wolves of the White Hawk pack were gunned down from a helicopter near Horton Peak in the SNRA.

A similar lawsuit is being considered against Grand Teton National Park, where cattle grazing is still permitted in occupied wolf, lynx and grizzly bear habitat.

WWP Wins Federal Restraining Order

On July 13 Western Watersheds Project won a precedent­setting order in federal District Court in Boise, Idaho, that bars any diversion of irrigation water from Otter Creek in central Idaho.

The ruling represents the first federal legal intervention in Idaho that gives precedence to the Endangered Species Act over state water rights in Idaho.

Otter Creek is a tributary of Panther Creek, which flows into the Salmon River. It is occupied habitat for bull trout, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

In May, WWP and the Committee for Idaho's High Desert entered into a compact with the water right holder, rancher Verl Jones of Challis, Idaho, in which Jones agreed not to divert water this year from Otter Creek. On July 10, Jones' attorney, Bruce Smith, notified the court that Jones planned to divert water from Otter Creek despite the binding agreement with WWP and CIHD.

Federal District Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill granted WWP and CIHD's request. The conservation groups were represented by WWP legal counsel Laird Lucas and Mindy Harm of the Boise office of the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies.

WWP Applies for 7,000-Acre Grazing Lease

On June 14 Western Watersheds Project applied for a controversial, expiring 10-year grazing lease on more than 7,000 acres of Idaho public school endowment land in a contiguous block of the headwaters of Goldberg Creek and on the lower reaches of Donkey Creek in the Pahsimeroi Valley of central Idaho.

The lease was cancelled by the Idaho Department of Lands on Oct. 17, 2000, for repeated, willful noncompliance with a 1995 grazing management plan by the leaseholder, Sulphur Creek Livestock, and its manager, Judd Whitworth. In his lease cancellation letter, Department of Lands director Stan Hamilton noted that Sulphur Creek Livestock exceeded the permitted stocking level on the lease for three years, repeatedly placed livestock on the lease before the permitted turnout date, kept livestock on the lease after the removal deadline, degraded the resources of the state land and failed to meet management objectives.

Readers will recall that WWP already sued Judd Whitworth for an irrigation diversion on Mahogany Creek in the Pahsimeroi Valley that dewatered the creek and killed bull trout.

Conservation Groups Sue USFS and BLM

Western Watersheds Project and the Committee for Idaho's High Desert on June 7 filed a federal court lawsuit under the Endangered Species Act against the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management over hundreds of stream diversions on USFS and BLM lands in the Upper Salmon River basin. The suit was filed in federal District Court in Boise, Idaho.

The lawsuit maintains that the Salmon-Challis National Forest and the Salmon and Challis Field Offices of the BLM have failed to ensure that diversions on federal lands by ranchers and other private parties do not harm salmon, steelhead or bull trout - all species listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. The suit also contends that the diversions are "taking" the listed fish in violation of ESA. The suit asks that the court order the agencies to comply with the law to avoid killing ESA listed fish.

All of the diversions in these lawsuits are unscreened and unmeasured, and often take all of the water from tributary streams to the Salmon River. Twenty-six separate tributaries of the Lemhi River, one of the most important salmon spawning streams in Idaho, are dried up every summer by diversions which irrigate low-value forage crops such as grass hay and alfalfa.

WWP and CIHD did not sue the neighboring Sawtooth National Forest, which has taken positive steps to ensure that diversions in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in the headwaters of the Salmon River comply with the law.

Federal Court Settlement Stops Diversion on Mahogany Creek

Western Watersheds Project and the Committee for Idaho's High Desert have won their first victory in a campaign to restore stream flows in the Upper Salmon River basin for threatened and endangered fish. The case is the first of as many as 100 legal actions WWP may bring to test the supremacy of the Endangered Species Act against state water law.

In a preliminary injunction hearing on May 3 before federal District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise, Idaho, the conservation groups reached a court-approved stipulated agreement with rancher defendants which will end forever the annual dewatering of Mahogany Creek.

While the case did not result in an injunction against the use of a state water right, that water right has effectively become impossible to use. The settlement does not bode well for the hundreds of other ranching water users in central Idaho whose wasteful practices have resulted in the dewatering of dozens of streams that are critical habitat for listed populations of salmon, steelhead and bull trout.

Federal Judge Awards WWP Another Victory

On April 12 federal District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill denied a motion for summary judgment by LU Ranching and granted a summary judgment motion by Western Watersheds Project, which concurs with a BLM decision to institute a 53 percent reduction in grazing use in the Cliffs Allotment in Owyhee County, Idaho.

The failed management of the 20,000-acre Cliffs allotment has been a contentious issue for decades. Finally the BLM and the federal court have taken a position to protect public resources without regard to the expense to public lands ranchers who have been abusing these public lands for more than a century.

WWP notes that with this decision in place, the BLM can reduce grazing as much as required to protect public resources without concern for the economic viability of any ranching operation.

Conservation Groups Seek Protection for Rare Idaho Flower

Western Watersheds Project, The Committee for Idaho's High Desert, The Wilderness Society and the Idaho Conservation League have filed an emergency listing petition seeking ESA protection of the slickspot peppergrass, a rapidly disappearing plant species unique to Idaho.

The four groups filed for legal protection of the rare flower, which is threatened with extinction by an invasion of nonnative weeds in the Snake River plain and the Owyhee plateau. The weed invasion is the result of livestock trampling and grazing, road construction and off-road vehicles.

WWP Partners File Grazing Lawsuit in Oregon

In March Western Watersheds Project, the Oregon Natural Desert Association and the Committee for Idaho's High Desert filed a complaint in federal district court in Portland requiring the Bureau of Land Management to implement the Bully Creek Land Area Management Plan grazing decision made in October 2000. The groups are also filing a motion for a temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction to prevent livestock turnout on the Bully Creek allotments unless the BLM complies with the law.

The LAMP decision affects over 268,000 acres and more than 20 grazing allotments on public land in the Bully Creek watershed in Malheur County near Vale, Oregon, including an 18,000-acre Wilderness Study Area, two Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and the South Fork of Indian Creek, which is eligible for wild and scenic river status.

These lands are acknowledged by the BLM to be in unacceptable condition with over 77 percent of the riparian areas in non-functioning or functioning-at-risk condition. The public lands provide habitat for elk, deer, redband trout and the threatened sage grouse.

Norcross Wildlife Foundation Awards Grant to WWP

Western Watersheds Project has received a grant of $6,000 from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Massachusetts to help cover costs for new computer equipment.

The award was made in late May after a meeting of the Norcross board of trustees. Judy Hall, director of fund development for WWP, prepared the grant application, citing the organization's history, objective and long-term strategies in support of the grant request.