Idaho - Salmon and Ranching

Three Idaho rivers--the Lemhi, the Pahsimeroi, and the East Fork of the Salmon--all of which flow eventually into the Snake and then the Columbia, are essential for chinook salmon and steelhead. The Model Watershed Project (MWP) was initiated in 1992 to restore salmon habitat, with funding from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) which is the administrator of the Columbia and Snake rivers hydroelectric power dams that have affected salmon migration. Most of chinook and steelhead habitat in the upper Salmon basin is on private, mostly agricultural land. The Idaho Soil Conservation Commission and the Lemhi and Custer soil and water conservation districts use the BPA funding for contracts and financial assistance for participating landowners. The MWP and its coordinator, Jude Trapani (on loan from the Bureau of Land Management), have worked with 15 different owners of 200- to 600-acre ranches to install exclusionary fencing projects and alternative watering systems for cattle, irrigation diversion and efficiency improvements, and streambank stabilization. Twenty miles of riparian buffers are in place.

According to Trapani, "the highest priority is being given to 60 miles of stream where salmon and steelhead actually live, and where the project can help landowners better manage their own--and the public--resource." Trapani says that pilot projects have helped people look at streams differently--to envision meanders and woody buffer strips. The pilot projects have helped sell MWP, Trapani says, "and now we're getting phone calls from other landowners who want to improve their ranches." The stream recovers "at an incredible rate," he says, so most of the time, "we let nature take its course. The desired plants are present, so we don't need to go into a big expensive effort to plant cottonwoods and willows--they come in on their own."

One of the upper Lemhi landowners is Merrill Beyeler who has a 400-head cow-calf beef operation on 900 acres--"we now have six generations in agriculture in this area and four generations on our place right here." The Beyelers fenced a strip along 1.5 miles of critical stream. The MWP coordinated this with Beyeler with assistance from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Bureau of Land Management, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe's Salmon Corps, the Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited. The Beyelers pasture the strip, but not when salmon are spawning and not until after their eggs have hatched. "We do have salmon that spawn, and it is kind of exciting," Beyeler says, "but when I was a boy, you would see salmon on almost every riffle. Now, there are fewer that spawn on the total length of the Lemhi than used to spawn just on our place. It would be nice to see them come back."

Beyeler likes his wildlife, too. "I don't think there's anyone in agriculture, at least in this area, that doesn't want to see the wildlife. When we first came here there were ducks, but no geese; now, there are up to 5,000 Canada geese. And, when we first came there were very few elk, but we had 300 come down across the road, across the pasture, across another road, and along the river--that was quite a sight!"

Beyeler believes the most important reason the MWP is working is that "there's a feeling of trust with the people you work with. We happen to have some good people in those organizations, willing to listen, willing to work; so, when they come with an idea, you're also willing to listen. Without that, people keep butting heads and no one listens."

Another area ranch belongs to Betty and Dick Baker of Clayton. She is on Trapani's MWP Advisory Committee--"just folks that get together to figure out different techniques to enhance streambank and the habitat." They are working with the MWP on bank stabilization, fencing, and riparian buffers along a 12-mile stretch of the East Fork of the Salmon River which runs through the Bakers' 1,200-acre Black Angus ranch and through their nephew's 900 acres. "The river used to just be alive with spawning salmon; they have about 900 miles they have to travel. We used to have lots, but haven't had for years. Bakers have been on East Fork for over a century. In this little valley it's stayed pretty much the way it's always been; it hasn't changed much over the years. We've tried our best to take care of the land, to do our best by it. If you abuse the land you're only abusing yourself."

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