Anti-ranching activist Jon Marvel has won a favorable
decision from the Idaho Supreme Court on the first state grazing
lease that he challenged three years ago.
On June
20, Idaho’s highest court ruled that the state Land Board violated
the state constitution by awarding a 640-acre grazing lease to a
Challis rancher, even though the rancher failed to bid a dime
during a public auction. Marvel had bid $30.
The
Supreme Court said that the Land Board, composed of the governor,
secretary of state, attorney general, state school superintendent
and state controller, must collect top dollar from state leases, as
required by the constitution.
The case has been
remanded to Blaine County magistrate court. The ruling is expected
to spur a new auction for the Lake Creek lease, a square mile of
state land that includes a salmon-bearing
stream.
“I honestly feel they should award us the
lease,” Marvel said, “but that’s not probable due to the political
makeup of the Land Board.”
Former Gov. Cecil
Andrus was the only Land Board member to vote against awarding the
lease to rancher Will Ingram. Ingram testified in 1994 before a
packed meeting room that he did not bid any money for the lease
because he objected to a non-rancher bidding for a state grazing
lease.
Since 1993, Marvel has applied for about
25 grazing leases involving some 40,000 acres. He has never been
granted a lease.
*Steve
Stuebner
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Marvel wins a round.
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