Cows and salmon don’t mix; at least that’s the
message rancher Rollin Baker says he has received repeatedly from
the National Marine Fisheries Service. So Baker and his partner,
A.D. Watkins, recently relinquished their federal grazing
privileges near Bear Valley Creek in Idaho’s Boise National Forest.
The ranchers say strict rules aimed at protecting spawning habitat
for salmon, steelhead and bull trout have pushed them
out.
“We had a big fish problem,” Baker says.
“We fenced the cattle away from it, away from spawning areas, but
nothing we did satisfied Marine Fisheries. We got along fine with
the Forest Service, but we couldn’t get along with the fish
people.”
This June, the Bonneville Power
Administration paid Baker and Watkins $145,000 to give up their
grazing permit as part of the administration’s fish and wildlife
mitigation program. Forest Service officials agreed to permanently
end grazing on this piece of land.
The BPA says
it spends $127 million a year for programs to preserve fish habitat
and lessen the effects of hydroelectric dams on Northwest rivers.
In the past, that money has mostly gone toward research and fish
hatchery work. This is the first time individuals have been
compensated with administration funds, says BPA’s Allyn Meuleman.
The agency will only retire grazing rights from willing sellers,
she adds.
“We obviously want to do (projects
like) this in the future,” Meuleman says, “(but) we recognize that
this really does change this guy’s way of life.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Ranchers forgo their federal lease.
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