LandCAN

Lemhi Salmon Recovery: Private Landowners take the Lead

By: Amos S. Eno
Posted on:11/20/2014 Updated:06/03/2015

Life on the Range profiles Idaho ranchers and their efforts to restore the Lemhi Valley watershed for Chinook salmon.

In the short film Lemhi Ranchers: Welcome home Chinook salmon!, Life on the Range highlights the work done by Lemhi Valley ranchers to improve the area's watershed, which resulted in the largest run of Chinook salmon in the river since 1960.

One of the ranchers profiled is Nikos Monoyios, a Princeton '72 classmate. He embodies the leadership and stewardship of private landowners in western states where 60% or more of the landscape is publicly owned. In the west, private landowners are the cog holding the spokes of the wheel together because they own the riparian areas and control the water rights.

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re: Lemhi Salmon Recovery: Private Landowners take the Lead
By: Nikos Monoyios on: 12/15/2014

In Lemhi County which is the size of Connecticut with a population of only 8,000 people the government owns 93 of the land. Cattle Ranching and Recreation are the only private industries that survive. Average temperature is 43F and average precipitation is only 12 inches so without irrigation the cattle industry would not survive. Ranchers sustain the local economy and have a vested interest in conservation to protect their livelihoods.