On February 9, 2001, The Board of Directors of Idaho Watersheds Project adopted a change in the name of our organization to Western Watersheds Project (WWP). The Board also adopted a slightly modified mission statement to reflect the change in geographic emphasis of WWP. The new mission statement is: "Working to protect and restore Western watersheds by educational outreach, public policy initiatives, litigation, and by ending incompatible uses of public lands."

This change is a reflection of the public lands work WWP has taken on in states outside Idaho as well as a broader west wide focus on public policy related to the use of public lands. As part of these efforts WWP is entering into long-term partnerships with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Willow Creek Ecology in Utah; Sinapu in Colorado, and the Gallatin Wildlife Association in Montana to influence and perhaps litigate the management of public lands ranching in those states. WWP is assisting the Utah Environmental Congress in their Utah State School Trust Land lease acquisition initiative.

WWP is joining with several western regional groups including the Oregon Natural Desert Association headquartered in Bend, Oregon; Forest Guardians of Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Center for Biological Diversity headquartered in Tucson, Arizona; the Committee for Idaho's High Desert of Boise, Idaho; the American Lands Alliance of Washington, D.C; and Andy Kerr of Ashland, Oregon. With these groups WWP is joining in a National Public Land Grazing Campaign to support federal legislation to permit the voluntary retirement of grazing permits with federal funding.

WWP is also assisting another coordinated effort to establish a protocol for permanently retiring federal grazing permits with private or public financing. Recently WWP has been contacted by several federal grazing permittees who are willing to give up their grazing permits in return for a transition payment, and we will be pursuing the successful retirement of those permits this year.

These initiatives along with our management of Greenfire Ranch, on the East Fork of the Salmon River, our ongoing litigation actions in three states carried out by Laird Lucas and the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies under the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the Federal Land Policy Management Act and the Idaho Constitution as well as WWP's assumption of the RangeNet website as a special project of WWP are a full plate of actions all of which are geared toward ending public lands ranching and recovering the health of all Western watersheds. Thanks to all our members and allies for supporting this remarkable work.