As many of you know, Western Watersheds Project, through our subsidiary Valley Sun LLC, is the preferred grazing applicant for the 660-acre Obsidian Allotment nestled in the middle of the Sawtooth Valley and bordering the Salmon River.

In the early 1970s the allotment was the "townsite" of Obsidian which had been subdivided into more than 70 one­acre lots with a dirt airstrip and a number of roads. The roads and airstrip have revegetated with sagebrush, and WWP does not graze the land with livestock.

The property was condemned and acquired by the Forest Service in 1974 as part of various land-management changes that occurred with the creation of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in 1972. Since then it has suffered through several management schemes, including irrigation of large areas by the U.S. Forest Service in the late `70s to increase grass for cows.

The allotment has not been grazed by livestock for four years (except for trespass by cattle last year for three days), and I noticed during visits this summer that there has been a significant increase in wildlife on the area.

There are at least seven antelope, including three fawns, from this spring. Groups of elk are along the river, and the sage­steppe vegetation has made great advances in ground cover and plant diversity. There are also increasing numbers of microfauna, including ground squirrels and insects.

This location also provides improving habitat for the remnant population of Sawtooth Valley sage grouse, though I have not seen any.

I also visited Fourth of July Creek in the Sawtooth Valley to inspect the three diversions WWP has been working on for the past two years to provide connectivity to the Salmon River for bull trout, steelhead and chinook salmon. All three diversions now have headgates and fish screens and modified diversion weirs, and the water-rights owners have informally agreed not to dewater the creek as was routinely done in the past.

Two of the water-rights owners have also stopped leasing their land for cattle grazing, thereby reducing the need to divert water.

On my visit, I was surprised to find, above the new weir at the topmost diversion, one of the largest bull trout I have ever seen in such a small creek. It was at least 24 to 26 inches long!

Jon Marvel is executive director of WWP. He lives in Hailey, Idaho.