Geographically, the boundaries covered within the Western Idaho office are roughly the Idaho/Oregon border to the west, the Clearwater River to the north, the South Fork of the Salmon to the east, and public lands north of I-84 to the south. It is a land of great beauty, including the rugged chasm of Hells Canyon, the glaciated cirques and peaks of the Lick Creek Mountains north of McCall, and the high mountain meadows of Council Mountain near Council.

This area presents a microcosm of events happening elsewhere in the West, such as fast population growth creating more demands for recreation on public lands, and threatened native wildlife and plants requiring action from public land agencies to protect them. Valley County, the heart of the Western Idaho office’s area, was the fastest growing county in Idaho in 2006. Federally listed or candidate species in the area include Chinook salmon, steelhead, bull trout, wolves, sage grouse, mountain quail, and the Northern Idaho ground squirrel. All of these issues highlight the dire necessity for public land agencies to manage domestic livestock grazing on Western Idaho’s public lands in accordance with environmental laws and the best available science. In seeking to hold public lands agencies accountable for halting abusive grazing practices, the Western Idaho office has several current projects. One is to develop site-specific capability and suitability analyses for grazing allotments on the Payette National Forest. Many of the areas presently authorized for grazing have steep slopes, erosive soils, low forage production, and other factors that make them incapable or unsuitable for cattle or domestic sheep grazing under the applicable Forest Service analysis. Another immediate project is to monitor domestic sheep grazing impacts on the small eastern portion of the Smith Mountain allotment that remains open after WWP’s successful litigation filing to protect bighorn sheep located in Hells Canyon National Recreation Area closed much of that allotment.

Events have come full circle for me, as it was this part of the world that inspired me to become involved with grazing reform on public lands. In 1988, a backpacking trip into Rainbow Lake north of McCall in 1988 included camping beside a cattle-trampled cesspool, where a beautiful high alpine lake should have been. Now I am delighted to have the chance to contribute to WWP’s remarkable success in protecting western lands, waters, wildlife and native plants from abusive domestic livestock grazing.

Debra Ellers is Director of WWP’s Western Idaho Office. She lives in McCall, Idaho.

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