Ranchers Paying Range Rider To Keep Cattle In Their Place

Facing increased public and government scrutiny of their stewardship of public range, a group of southeastern Idaho ranchers is moving to blunt any criticism of the impact their stock has on the environment.

The Pocatello Cattlemen’s Association is paying a range rider again this season to keep livestock from tramping stream banks and other sensitive areas in the Mink Creek Basin.

Ranchers with leases in the Caribou National Forest are also moving water tanks away from fragile areas and fencing off streams so cattle can’t trample their banks.

“We’ve been working with the foresters to keep the forest up as best we can,” Downey rancher William Evans said.

A third of the 350 grazing leases on the Caribou come up for renewal at the end of this year and will be subjected to the new Clinton administration policy for environmental assessment prior to renewal.

The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have always had authority to curtail grazing for scientific reasons. But Carol Lyle, resource branch chief for the Caribou, speculated that the new policy with the focus on more public comment on grazing practices could produce claims of new problems.

That is what the Mink Creek ranchers hope to avoid, and Idaho Conservation League Public Lands Director Lynn Kincannon said their’s are the kinds of actions that could do just that.