After receiving a groundswell of public comments prompted local wolf advocates’, Lynne Stone and Natalie Ertz, tireless effort the Blaine County Commission voted to require the Flat Top Ranch and The Nature Conservancy to provide a predator management plan emphasizing non-lethal protection of livestock prior to the Commission’s final approval of the ranch’s conservation easement application.
Land-holders who kill predators should not be rewarded with Blaine County tax-dollars levied for land, wildlife and water conservation.
Story update:
The Peaveys got their conservation easement, the first stage anyway; but “The commissioners stipulated that a firm plan of future predator control be developed —and be nonlethal — before final approval and disbursement of any funds.” Below is the entire story in the Idaho Mountain Express.
County OKs levy funds for Flat Top. Decision comes after shooting of 3 wolves on Carey-area ranch. By Mark A. York. Express Staff Writer
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Original Story-
In November 2008, the voters of Blaine County, Idaho, approved Proposition 1, the Land, Water and Wildlife Levy, establishing a two-year levy raising $3.4 million to protect natural resources and the quality of life valued by area residents. Just last month the Land Advisory Board charged with administering the levy dollars approveda pre-application for John and Diane Josephy Peavey’s Flat Top Ranch, the same ranch that more recently had Wildlife Services kill 3 wolves for an alleged calf predation as well as several coyotes. Flat Top Ranch is requesting $300,000 from the Blaine County Land Water and Wildlife Program to match The Nature Conservancy’s pledge of $300,000 to purchase a $600,000 conservation easement that completely ignores the value of native predators to the landscape.
John and Diane Josephy Peavey’s Flat Top Ranch has been relying on tax-payers in a lot of ways for a long time. Recently, Ken Cole noted:
John Peavey, a former Idaho politician, and Diane Josephy Peavey, a former commentator on Boise State Public Radio, who’s Flat Top Ranch near Carey, Idaho has reportedly received payments totaling $970,139 from 1995 through 2010 according to the Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database, has received another subsidy in the form of 3 dead wolves.
In fact, John and Diane Josephy Peavey have been relying on Wildlife Services to exterminate local predators and wildlife on the Flat Top Ranch for years.
On Wednesday, September 14th at 2 p.m. the Blaine County Commission will consider approval of John and Diane Jospehy Peavey’s Flat Top Ranch request seeking $300,000 in tax-dollars from the Blaine County Land Water and Wildlife Program.
E-mail the Blaine county commissioners:
- Express your concern that the Flat Top Ranch is not allowing wolves, coyotes, and other wildlife to co-exist on private and public lands within the county.
- Tell them that land-holders who kill predators should not be rewarded with Blaine County tax-dollars raised to benefit wildlife.
- Express your concern that the proposed easement does nothing to protect or conserve native predators including wolves and coyotes, instead conserving private livestock grazing, a chief source of conflict with predators, on the lands at issue.
- Ask the commissioners to DENY Flat Top Ranch’s application for dollars procured by the Blaine County Land Water and Wildlife Program unless and until:
- The public, Land Advisory Board (LAB), and County Commission are provided an extension of time to consider the pre-application in lieu of recent events of interest to the preservation of wildlife and the Levy’s chief mandate (i.e. the recent killing of 3 wolves and several coyotes by Wildlife Services on behalf of Flat Top Ranch).
- A more thorough and transparent statement accounting for Flat Top Ranch’s historic predator extermination/management is provided by the ranch and formal documents are obtained from all relevant agencies, including Wildlife Services, and published for consideration and comment by the public, LAB and the County Commission.
- Greater recognition and enforceable protections for native predators are provided in the easement.
Commissioner Angenie McCleary – amccleary@co.blaine.id.us
Commissioner Tom Bowman – tbowman@co.blaine.id.us
Commissioner Lawrence Schoen – lschoen@co.blaine.id.us
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