Idaho Mountain Express: Lava Lake Ranch ropes in national award

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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Lava Lake Ranch ropes in national award

Carey-based sheep outfit recognized for grazing practices

By JASON KAUFFMAN
Express Staff Writer

A horseback-mounted sheepherder with Lava Lake Land and Livestock tends to a grazing sheep band on the south end of the Boulder Mountains in this photo taken last summer. Photo by Jason Kauffman

Actions to restore rangeland habitat and reduce conflicts with gray wolves taken on by Lava Lake Land and Livestock during the past 10 years have brought the local sheep outfit widespread praise.

As these successes have mounted in the Carey-based ranch's vast working area—from the Pioneer Mountains to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve—recognition and respect have begun to come its way. Local support for Lava Lake's free-range, organically raised lamb is high, with many local eateries highlighting the ranch's premium product on their menus.

Local consumers purchase the company's product through a variety of sources, including Idaho's Bounty, a regional food cooperative that began in the Wood River Valley and now extends across south-central Idaho.

Last week, recognition of Lava Lake's practices went nationwide when company President Mike Stevens accepted the U.S. Forest Service's prestigious National Rangeland Management Award. Stevens was given the award by the deputy chief of the Forest Service, Joel Holtrop, during a National Society of Rangeland Management meeting in Albuquerque, N.M.

Joining Stevens to accept the award was Brian Bean, who owns Lava Lake along with his wife, Kathleen Bean.

The Beans, who split their time between the ranch and San Francisco, founded Lava Lake in 1999. In all, Lava Lake's 900,000 acres of mixed federal and private grazing ground takes in sagebrush steppe, aspen groves, willow-lined creeks and forests of Douglas fir. The ranch's dispersed bands of sheep share this landscape with herds of elk, mule deer and pronghorn antelope.

They also share it with mountain lions and packs of gray wolves, which, for obvious reasons, present a significant challenge.

Lava Lake began to alter its practices around 2002, which, incidentally, marked the first time it experienced sheep depredation by wolves. At the time, ranch managers believed they were on the far southern perimeter of wolf country.

"In our minds the wolves were somewhere else," Stevens said in 2007.

Taking the losses as a strong hint, the company set about learning all it could about operating in wolf country from experts in the public and private worlds.

Though Lava Lake has seen its share of challenges in the ensuing years, its resolve hasn't been dampened. According to Stevens, the recent recognition of that work by the Forest Service is the result of a lot of hard work from a bunch of dedicated people.

"It's definitely been a group effort," he said. "It's the culmination of seven years of work."

Key to that effort's success, Stevens said, were the multi-generational ranch families that owned the private parcels and had permits to graze the federal allotments that became the Lava Lake ranch. These longtime Idaho families include the Cenarrusas, Oneidas, Purdys and Petersons. Each of these families helped Lava Lake understand the lay of the land and the kinds of conditions and challenges it could expect in the southern Pioneers and Craters landscapes.

"That really set the foundation for what we do," Stevens said.

In all, the sheep outfit owns about 24,000 acres of private ground centered on the ranch's main headquarters at Lava Lake, which sits just north of a lonely stretch of U.S. Highway 20. In 2001, it permanently protected 7,500 acres by placing it into a conservation easement held by The Nature Conservancy.

Since 2001, Lava Lake has also conducted extensive research in the ranch area. The work has included nearly two dozen field studies on topics like rare plants, noxious weeds, water quality, songbirds, amphibians and reptiles, greater sage grouse and elk. It is taking part in an exhaustive survey of long-distance pronghorn migration habits in the Pioneers and Craters of the Moon area.

But it's Lava Lake's proactive work to keep its sheep safe from wolves in the upper Big Wood River drainage that has garnered it the most attention. After three black wolves were discovered in one of the outfit's federal grazing allotments northwest of Ketchum along with three tiny wolf pups in the spring of 2007, Stevens and the rest of the Lava Lake crew took their efforts to a new level.

The culmination of those efforts, which also involved the dedicated work of nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, local volunteers, Lava Lake employees and Rick Williamson of the USDA Wildlife Services, was the Wood River Wolf Project. John Faulkner of Faulkner Land and Livestock in Gooding and John Peavey and Diane Josephy Peavey's Flat Top Sheep Ranch out of Carey were also critical to the program's success.

Last summer, the project succeeded in keeping sheep depredations by the Phantom Hill wolves down to just a single lamb. Stevens said it also allowed the continued existence of the well-known local pack, which Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials had eyed for elimination if it kept killing sheep like it did in 2007.

"That wolf pack is still there and bigger than before," he said.

Kurt Nelson, the Sawtooth National Forest's Ketchum District ranger and an active participant in the Wood River Wolf Project, nominated Lava Lake for the award.

Nelson said much of the company's local support originates with its work to build ties between the local food producers and consumers to support locally grown foods.

"That builds a whole new set of community alliances," he said.

Looking to the future, Lava Lake has become involved in an emerging effort that's bringing public and private entities together to find ways to preserve the Pioneers-to-Craters landscape. So far, the region hasn't seen the level of growth that's cut off wildlife pathways in other areas in Idaho.

Stevens said the project will "bring resources and attention to this landscape."

Jason Kauffman: jkauffman@mtexpress.com

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There are 8 comments

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing Inc.

Rick – NY

03/06/09 - 21:03

Nice article, but I kept waiting for the punchline: Exactly how they accomplished this peaceful coexistence with wolves. Hopefully there will be a follow up. Meanwhile, congratulations to the Lava Ranch folks for this amazing accomplishment. Hope that other ranchers will follow your example.

Rick – NY

03/06/09 - 20:59

Nice article, but I kept waiting for the punchline. Hopefully there will be a follow up

Joyce Harris – Las Vegas, NV

03/06/09 - 11:14

I have researched all articles on Big Wood River Valley Wolf Project, Lava Lake Land & Livestock plus Turbofladry & Night Corrals. I still have no idea of how the ranchers actually did what they did to prevent the killing of wolves. I think they kept track of the wolves by some means & just stayed away from the actual areas they were in but I am not sure. Can anyone involved in the actual project please do a blog on how they actually did what they did to win this prestigious award? What ever & how ever it was done, I take my hat off to you & give you my highest praise. Thanks for protecting them & our earth.

MikeG

03/06/09 - 08:49

But how did they do it? Other ranchers need to see that there are alternatives to just shooting predators.

Reply to MikeG

Peggy M

03/06/09 - 10:06

The biggest and most important part of this story was the method or methods by which the ranchers managed to co-exist with the wolves, without resorting to killing them. I have the same question as Mike. How did they do it??? Did they use Komondorok dogs? Did they catch them and release them? Did they feed the wolves alternative game? Did they give them obedience training? Did they set up an electric fence? Without this essential part of the story, all the rest of it is nice, but not very helpful. If they have been successful, their methods are the reason... but we don't know what they were! You can't emulate something you don't have a clue about...

Cheryl Bennett

02/18/09 - 12:03

Thanks for the nice recognition Chris, Tim and I appreciate it. But this is truly a team effort: Brian and Kathleen Bean the owners with the vision; Mike Stevens, President, for his dedication to the vision; Tess O'Sullivan, our biologist; Pedro Loyola, our sheep foreman; Claudio Orhieula and our all of the herders who have really stepped outside the boudaries of "the way things have always been done". It is not always the easiest way, nor understood by everyone, but we are all doing our best to be traditional but exist in today's environment.

We really appreciate the consumers and restaurants who buy our lamb products which in turn helps us to continue our mission. So thank you to all of our loyal customers!

Paul

02/18/09 - 10:14

This sounds like it strikes a balance that's good for the rancher, good for the livestock, good for the wolves, and good for those of us taking a vacation in south-central Idaho. There is hardly any country more amazing than the area around City of Rocks and I'm glad they're keeping the habitat pristine. Also, as much as we all love seeing wolf, we have to keep safety in mind as well.

Chris

02/18/09 - 07:21

I would like to add a few people that work this ranch that make all this happen Great work Tim & Cheryl Bennet
Hey when do I get my Lamp Chop
The plumber