Low bidders awarded grazing leases
Environmental group appeals
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
In a turn of events that seemingly goes against a 1999
Idaho Supreme Court Ruling, the Idaho Land Board has awarded grazing
leases to the low bidders on separate grazing allotments.
The Land Board on Tuesday of last week awarded the
5,500-acre Robinson Hole school endowment land grazing lease to the low
bidder, Pickett Ranch and Sheep Co., which bid $13,000 to Western
Watersheds Project’s $14,000 bid. The lease land is located near the
City of Rocks National Preserve, south of Oakley.
Western Watersheds Project (WWP), formerly Idaho
Watersheds Project, is headed by Hailey architect Jon Marvel. The group’s
mission is to end what it deems "incompatible uses of public
lands," and that includes livestock grazing.
In December, the Land Board awarded the 16,300-acre Lacey
Meadows school endowment land grazing lease, near Orofino, to a low
bidder, Lacey Meadows Grazing Association. WWP bid $8,000 to the
association’s $7,500.
According to Department of Lands interoffice memos, WWP’s
proposals not to graze the two allotments for 10 years would result in the
probability of catastrophic wildfire, loss of plant vigor and extra
management costs to the state.
WWP, said Marvel, is pursuing court actions to overturn
the decisions.
In April 1999, the Idaho Supreme Court handed the Land
Board a significant defeat when it overturned its practice of giving
ranchers preference in granting School Endowment Fund grazing leases.
The decision was a victory for WWP, which seeks to obtain
leases for environmental protection purposes. Marvel then called the
victory "another nail in the coffin of the good-old-boy policy of the
West."
The Land Board manages 2.5 million acres of Idaho School
Endowment Fund land, and in selling or leasing the holdings, earns money
that goes to the state’s schools.
Under a so-called "Anti-Marvel" law of 1995, the
state Legislature directed the Land Board to give ranchers and the cattle
industry preference in lease auctions, on the grounds that they add to the
state’s economy and therefore help schools in the long run.
From 1993 to 1995, WWP repeatedly outbid ranchers in the
auctions, but was never awarded a lease.
The legislature’s 1995 "Anti-Marvel" law
eliminated WWP from participating in the lease-bidding process.
However, the state Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that the
1995 law was unconstitutional on the grounds that the state constitution
directs School Endowment Fund lands to be managed solely for the benefit
of Idaho’s schools, rather than for Idaho’s economy as a whole.
Since the Supreme Court ruling, WWP has been awarded three
grazing leases, one in the East Fork of the Salmon River drainage, one
along Cottonwood Creek, just north of Boise, and one near Lime Creek,
northwest of Fairfield. WWP is not grazing livestock on the allotments but
is resting them.
Now it appears the Land Board’s stance on issuing
grazing leases will be put to the test again. WWP already filed a lawsuit
in Fourth District Court in Boise on the Lacy Meadows lease, and Marvel
said the organization will soon file a motion to consolidate that lawsuit
with one protesting the recent decision on the Robinson Hole lease.
"In our opinion, [the Land Board’s] just looking
for excuses here," he said. "When you go to an auction and you’re
the high bidder, you expect to get what you’re bidding for.
"There’s no evidence presented that the level of
grazing they’re talking about ever reduces fire risk. I think the fire
argument is a crazy one."
Further, Marvel argued, if the Land Board was truly
interested in the cost to the state, it wouldn’t graze livestock on any
of its lands. It costs more to implement and regulate grazing leases than
to rest the range, Marvel said.
Idaho law states nothing specifically about awarding
leases and the relationship of land management to potential wildfires or
costs associated with various management practices.
It does, however, state that the Land Board has the power
to reject "any and all bids" for any reason it believes
justified.
