When I first moved to Idaho a couple of decades ago, I was awed by the towering mountains. The Sawtooths, the Seven Devils, the Pioneers, the White Clouds, all with their jagged summits and rocky faces, captivated me.

I still love seeing and visiting the high peaks. Lately, however, on my trips to the backcountry, I find that I'm absorbed in more subtle features. Like grass.

I relish seeing a thicket of tall native grasses gone to seed. These grasses will continue to reproduce and provide forage and cover for wildlife and birds. Unfortunately, the more common scene on public lands is stubble - often non-native species such as crested wheatgrass - chewed to nubbins by domestic livestock.

Enlightened public land managers do exist, however, and I was delighted to experience a couple of places in Idaho this summer where green grasses grew tall and lush.

One was the Seven Devils Mountains area in Hell's Canyon Wilderness, where all domestic livestock grazing has been eliminated. Bunchgrasses and wildflowers now flourish, providing forage for elk, bighorn sheep, forest grouse and other wildlife that inhabit this subalpine wonderland.

Another was Stanley Lake Creek in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, an especially rewarding visit for me. When I first saw it in the mid-'80s, cattle had deposited cowpies, trampled banks and devoured much of the grass, a desecration of an otherwise spectacular landscape. The cattle were removed in the early '90s because of the havoc they wreaked on spawning habitat for salmon.

When I returned to Stanley Lake Creek this year on a late summer pack trip, the recovering vegetation on the banks, clarity of the creek and growth of tall grasses were gratifying to see. Now the grasses provide forage for elk to fatten on before they migrate from the high, cold Stanley Basin. They also give cover to sandhill cranes for their chicks.

The dramatic improvement around Stanley Lake Creek motivates me to keep working to end abusive livestock grazing on our public lands, so that we can see and celebrate the return our native grasses!"