After a year and a half of negotiations, WWP has settled its lawsuit against the Idaho Land Board over the 700-acre Sam Noble Springs grazing lease in the headwaters of Rock Creek in Owyhee County, Idaho. This site is the largest known hibernaculum in Idaho for Columbia Spotted Frogs, a species at risk across its limited western habitat.

Under the settlement, the Land Board and Idaho Department of Lands will lease the primary frog habitat (about 130 acres) to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and exclude livestock from that area. Disagreements over the provision of water for livestock from the spring complex have been settled in a way that will protect lacustrine habitat, which has been severely degraded by cattle impacts.

Many thanks are due to WWP's biodiversity director Katie Fite and WWP attorney Laird Lucas for work on this issue. Special thanks go to WWP board member Gene Bray who has devoted years to preserving this important center of biodiversity in southwestern Idaho.