Grazing decision questioned

Associated Press

BOISE— An environmental group is claiming a state agency violated the law when it wrongly gave a grazing permit to a cattlemen’s association.

Western Watersheds Project accuses the state in a lawsuit filed Friday of improperly awarding a grazing lease to the Lacey Meadows Grazing Association for a historic range that straddles the Lewis and Clark expedition’s route to the Pacific Ocean.

Western Watersheds claims it should have been awarded the lease because it outbid Lacey Grazing $8,000 to $7,500 at an Aug. 22, 2000, lease auction. The Land Board awarded the 7-year lease on 16,300 acres to the cattlemen that December.