Judge halts Sawtooth sheep grazing

KETCHUM, Idaho — A federal judge has halted sheep grazing on a portion of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in central Idaho to protect streams that contain federally protected salmon, bull trout and steelhead.

U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill stopped the grazing for this year on the Smiley Creek allotment three days before 900 sheep were to be released.

“The bottom line is that sheep will be grazing nearly the entire length of two creeks containing sensitive species of fish and fish habitat adversely affected by past grazing,” Winmill wrote in his decision this week.

Western Watersheds Project, a Hailey-based environmental group, asked Winmill to end grazing on four allotments but then narrowed its request to the Smiley Creek and Baker Creek regions. Winmill agreed to stop grazing only on the Smiley Creek allotment for one year.

John Faulkner of Faulkner Land and Livestock Co. might now send his sheep to the Idaho City Ranger District.

The Forest Service had planned to allow Faulkner to graze his sheep on almost all of a 10-mile stretch of Beaver Creek and a 7.5-mile stretch of Frenchman Creek. Those creeks contain chinook salmon, bull trout and steelhead, which are all listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.