New chief to focus on relationships, sage grouse

By CAROL RYAN DUMAS

Capital Press

A cow-calf producer from Hamer, Idaho, has saddled up as president of the Idaho Cattle Association.

Richard Savage is no stranger to cattlemen’s issues, previously serving as vice president and president-elect of the organization. He is also a member of the Upper Snake River Sage Grouse Working Group and the Idaho Sage Grouse Committee.

With so many issues facing the cattle industry, it’s vitally important to maintain good working relationships with lawmakers and other government officials, he said.

“We need to have those doors in Boise open to us, as well as local counties, along with building alliances with industry and other livestock organization,” he said.

Those alliances will better cattlemen’s position when it comes to such issues as animal welfare, state lands and confined animal feeding ordinances, he said.

One of the big issues on ICA’s plate is sage grouse habitat. Because of an environmental lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has to make a final decision on the species’ listing by 2015, he said. Livestock producers want to do everything they can to keep sage grouse off either the endangered or threatened list.

Other challenges revolve around federal lands grazing, which is at the heart of numerous lawsuits, trailing permits and BLM’s resource management plans, which have to go through the cumbersome National Environmental Protection Act process, he said.

ICA is also putting together a task force to determine how it can help animal damage control efforts in light of lost funding by the USDA’s Wildlife Services.

Idaho lost $247,000 in funding for predator control last year, according to a recent report by Capital Press.

“People are getting hit hard by wolves. They (Wildlife Services) have taken a big hit in their budget. We want to see what we can do to help them out,” he said.

“We’re very excited to be working under Richard’s leadership in the upcoming year,” ICA Executive Vice President Wyatt Prescott said in a press release. “He has a very pragmatic mind that will help us to address critical industry issues on the local, state and federal level.”

Savage was elected at the ICA annual convention Nov. 14-16 in Sun Valley.

Other newly elected executive committee officers include President-Elect Lee Bradshaw of Caldwell; Vice President Jared Brackett of Rogerson, Cattlewomen Chairwoman Jessie Miller of Boise and Cow-Calf Council Chairman Matt Thompson of Shelley

The ICA executive committee meets on a regular basis to determine the top priorities of the member-driven organization.