Capping a four year effort, Western Watersheds Project has won a decision from the Idaho State Land Board to retire 16,300 acres of state school endowment lands from livestock grazing indefinitely.

The lands - known as the Lacey Meadows lease - are located south of Weippe, Idaho. The Lewis and Clark expedition's lives were saved by the Nez Perce Indians who they first encountered on this lease area in September 1805. The 16,300 acres lie  within the Lolo Creek watershed - habitat for endangered salmon and steel head - and are managed to provide income for Idaho's public schools and other endowments.

"These lands have enormous historical and recreational value for hunters and fisherman," said Gene Bray, a board member of Western Watersheds, "but they have cost the state more money to manage for livestock grazing then the income grazing produced - and the cows were destroying the area's streams, soils and vegetation."

Western Watersheds has sought since 1993 to improve management of state school endowment lands and increase income to public schools by offering to pay more for grazing leases and not grazing them, to allow damaged lands to recover.

On the Lacey Meadows parcel, Western Watersheds outbid the grazing operators four years ago for a 10-year lease. The Idaho Land Board initially rejected that higher offer, asserting that grazing was a necessary management tool.

An Idaho state court reversed that decision in 2001, ordering the Land Board to conduct a hearing on whether grazing would aid management or harm the land. After that hearing, the Idaho Department of Lands changed its position and agreed that grazing was damaging the resources of Lacey Meadows and producing little if any income.

The Department of Lands thus recommended - as Western Watersheds has advocated all along - that grazing be eliminated indefinitely on the Lacey Meadows parcel.

At its December 14, 2004 meeting, the Land Board adopted that recommendation, deciding to stop leasing the land for grazing in order to protect the state's forest resources from livestock damage. Governor Dirk Kempthorne, Superintendent of Schools Marilyn Howard, and Controller Keith Johnson all voted to support the Land Board decision (Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and Secretary of State Ben Ysursa did not participate).

WWP Board member Gene Bray commented about this great victory: "The Land Board has finally acknowledged that certain lands can be much more valuable if they are not grazed by livestock, because grazing yields so little income and harms the land. This is what we have been saying for years, and what the science shows beyond doubt. I'm encouraged that the Governor and other members of the Land Board are now seeing this."