This afternoon (Sept. 14) at 2 p.m., the Blaine County Commissioners will be deciding whether to support the recommendation of the Blaine County Levy Advisory Board to authorize the spending of $300,000 for half the cost of a conservation easement on a portion of the Flat Top Ranch north of Carey.
The Levy Advisory Board recommended that the Flat Top Ranch easement be approved in early August, weeks before the owners of the ranch brought in the aerial gunners of the federal government to kill three wolves that may or may not have killed a calf on the ranch. The aerial gunning took place on Aug. 31.
I do not think that $300,000 of Blaine County citizens' taxes should be paid out to reward a rancher who has government gunners kill wildlife from an airplane unless there is a provision added to the easement to prevent such killing of wildlife forever.
Please join me in asking the Blaine County Commissioners to remand this easement to the Levy Advisory Board for reconsideration in light of this assault on wildlife. Any approval of the easement as currently written will violate one of the main missions of the Wildlife Levy—to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat.
You can express your opinion at the commissioners' meeting at the Old Blaine County Courthouse in Hailey at 2 p.m. today. You can also email the commissioners at these addresses: Larry Schoen, lschoen@co.blaine.id.us, Angenie McCleary, amccleary@co.blaine.id.us, Tom Bowman, tbowman@co.blaine.id.us.
Jon Marvel
Hailey
Editor's note: The owner of the Flat Top Ranch is John Peavey. In a guest opinion that can be read on Page A8, Peavey says the decision to shoot the wolves was not his.
