BOISE – The U.S. Postal Service has backed off its plan to sever its contract with the pilot flying the only backcountry air mail route remaining in the lower 48 states.

U.S. Postmaster General John Potter notified Idaho’s congressional leaders Thursday that the $46,000 annual contract with pilot Ray Arnold, of Cascade, will be renewed for another year. Potter said acceptable mail service to backcountry customers could not be achieved any other way.

In April, the Postal Service decided to save money by ending its 34-year contract with Arnold, who delivers mail, food, medicine and other goods once a week to more than 20 ranches and families in central Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.

Idaho’s congressional leaders launched a lobbying offensive to keep the service alive.

“This is great news for Idahoans who treasure our backcountry, the way of life this small service represents and the lifeline this service provides to remote sections of central Idaho,” Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, said Thursday.

The contract was scheduled to expire in June, leaving the backcountry inhabitants with no easy alternative for getting their mail.

Potter said the Postal Service still faces significant financial challenges, with fiscal year 2009 losses projected at $6 billion.

“This is why we have been examining all contracts nationwide to reduce our expenditures,” Potter wrote in a letter to Minnick and other members of the state’s delegation.

Arnold, who operates Arnold Aviation, has developed tight bonds with his customers and routinely delivers groceries, supplies and rental movies with the bills, magazines and letters.

“We’re really relieved. I’m just glad they finally got the message,” said his wife, Carol Arnold.

“It was an uninformed decision to start with. I’m really happy they made this correction.”