Foe Of Grazing Will Bid On Land If Idaho Land Board Rejects His Application, Conservationist Plans To Challenge Law In Court
Hailey conservationist Jon Marvel has his eye on another chunk of state range land in eastern Idaho.
Marvel said he has applied to bid on a 960-acre parcel of state endowment land just north of Island Park Reservoir because it is “really a disaster,” and offers a striking contrast to thriving Forest Service land adjacent to it.
Marvel, leader of a 300-member conservation group called the Idaho Watersheds Project, applied for grazing leases on 20,761 acres of state endowment land by this year’s June 30 deadline.
It is the third year his group has bid on state range land, but the Idaho Watersheds Project has yet to wrest a single acre from a rancher. The group’s goal is to show how the health of range land with sensitive streamside areas can be improved if livestock are removed.
Marvel also claims the plan will benefit Idaho’s schoolchildren because his group is willing to pay more to lease the land. Revenue from the state’s roughly 2 million acres of endowment land helps fund public schools.
Though Marvel has bested all but one lease holder at auctions for 10-year rights to the land, the state Land Board has overturned each bid. Marvel went after grazing leases on 12,000 acres and won four auctions in late 1994. The Land Board gave the leases to the ranchers anyway.
Marvel has appealed a case involving 640 acres in Custer County all the way to the Idaho Supreme Court. The suit is still pending.
But due to legislation passed earlier this year, Marvel may never get to another auction.
“In the past we had to accept all applications,” said Tracy Behrens, range management specialist for the Department of Lands. “Now, under the new law, the Land Board has the option of rejecting an application.”
Behrens said the Land Board likely will not decide whether to allow Marvel to bid on any of the new land until August. And Marvel said he would challenge the new law if the Land Board does not let him bid.