07/03/08 Owyhee Initiative vote; Barley commission appointees

The Senate will take up legislation this month that has been more than a half a decade in the making and will provide wilderness, ranching and other uses for southwest corner of Idaho, the Owyhees. A bill that will set aside more than a half million acres of the Owyhee Canyonlands as wilderness has been put with dozens of other land uses bills into one package. Senator Mike Crapo, ranchers, environmentalists and others worked as a coalition for more than six years to craft what they called the Owyhee Initiative. It gives ranchers some guarantees, it protects more than 300 miles of wild and scenic rivers and following some revisions the US House passed the legislation earlier this year. The Idaho Barley Commission has two new members. Governor Butch Otter has appointed Teton Barley grower Dwight Little to serve a three year term. Little succeeds Evan Hayes, a Caribou County grower who served on the commission for the past six years. More than 60 percent of the state's barley is grown in eastern Idaho, the district Little represents. Also new to the Barley Commission is Clay Kaasa the area manager for Great Western Malting in Blackfoot and he replaces Anheuser Busch's Steve Balster. Chairman Ron Elkin of Buhl and Dan Madar of Genesee are the other two Idaho Barley Commission members. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott