Losing your money

Idaho Falls Post-Register editorial

MosWhy is the state of Idaho still in the cattle grazing business?

The state Lands Department leases almost 1.8 million acres to ranchers. On Saturday, The Idaho Statesman’s Rocky Barker said the agency lost $159,591 last year on grazing leases. The year before that, it lost $185,600.

Now you can argue that public lands cattle ranching has some benefits. It certainly contributes to rural Idaho’s economy. It maintains Idaho’s open spaces — because if ranchers quit the business, they’ll sell out to developers. State lands are open to the public. And grazing reduces grasses and other fuels, potentially keeping range fires in check.

All of which is legally irrelevant.

Idaho’s Constitution requires the state to manage these lands for “the maximum long-term financial return” to state endowments — largely public schools. For the past couple of years, ranchers got a $345,000 subsidy at the schools’ and taxpayers’ expense.

In contrast, the state made $38.5 million last year from its 800,000 acres of timber lands, and almost $2 million from its residential cottage leases.

So here are your choices:

n Change the Constitution to allow the rest of us to subsidize public lands livestock grazing. Good luck trying to get two-thirds of the House and Senate and a majority of Idahoans to swallow that morsel of special-interest legislation.

n Make ranchers pay more. Idaho now charges about $6 monthly per cow-calf combination — a lot more than the feds who get $1.56 but a lot less than private landlords who receive about $15. Ranchers say they can’t afford to pay a higher state fee.

n Sell the under-performing lands and use the cash to buy assets that will earn the state — and the schools — real money. Since the state Constitution says Idaho can sell no more than 64,000 acres in any single year, this whole process would take 30 years.

n Exchange state holdings for Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service tracts. The state could consolidate its holdings, thereby reducing overhead. The feds would acquire and presumably maintain grazing lands. Indeed ranchers might pay less to use them. And the state might acquire through a series of land swaps more lucrative properties.

That last point seems to be the option of choice for both the Land Board and its chief critic, Western Watersheds Project Executive Director Jon Marvel.

State Lands Director Winston Wiggins wants to prune the under-performing parcels but remain in the grazing business. Grazing leases in eastern and southeastern Idaho actually turned a $500,000 profit last year. Marvel would move more aggressively.

Either way, the Land Board can’t dither here. An increasingly urbanized Idaho is losing money and patience.

Marty Trillhaase