BOISE - Who wouldn't like to have a cabin and small acreage along a world-famous fishing stream like the Henry's Fork of the Snake River?
Few would turn down that chance, and that's the problem.
John Nedrow is like many Western farmers and ranchers who've struggled for years with poor prices for crops or calves. For many, the solution has been to sell their ancestral ground to developers eager to turn it into condominiums, 10-acre "ranchette" summer homes and golf courses.
But Nedrow agreed to a conservation easement for his Henry's Fork riverside property, the first of its kind in Idaho.
He receives some money for trading away his development rights. Nedrow owns his ground and can sell it, but it can never be subdivided other than what the easement stipulates. The property remains agricultural, open and scenic.
"Farming has been rough," Nedrow said. "If we're careful, we'll have a comfortable retirement."
His predicament is common across the West. The American Farmland Trust estimates more than 5 million acres of Idaho's best ranchland are at risk of vanishing by 2020 through development.
Montana is the front-runner in the West with 5.1 million acres in danger. Colorado is third at about 4.8 million.
The Farmland Trust's map of endangered Idaho ranchland shows valleys with sweeping mountain views or creekside access - both in supply in Teton County and the Henry's Fork Basin, around McCall and the Panhandle's lakes.
"For someone living in the city who wants to do something other than farm, farmland is cheap," said Don Stuart, American Farmland's Northwest director. "They're used to a 50-foot-by-100-foot lot costing $100,000. They think they're doing great with this new property, but the impact on agriculture is they fragment the land."
The rural community pays for the new residents. Stuart said a study in Washington's Skagit Valley in the late 1990s found that for every property tax dollar received from residences, local government paid out $1.25 for services. For ranchland or forest, it paid out 51 cents.
The Nature Conservancy and other groups have arranged easements throughout Idaho, protecting priceless spots such as Silver Creek near Sun Valley, a portion of the Thousand Springs on the Snake River and the Garden Creek Ranch in Hells Canyon.
The Teton Regional Land Trust based in Driggs has preserved more than 14,000 acres of agricultural land and is working on another 6,000 acres in eastern Idaho's growing areas: Teton County in the shadow of the Teton Mountains, the Henry's Fork Basin and the South Fork of the Snake River at Swan Valley.
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