Farmers to the Rescue 2

 “That summer I was cutting hay along the Lemhi River and I got to thinking about how Dad loved to fish…sitting on a tractor you’ve got a lot of time to daydream, and I got to thinking about him and his fishing, and how he loved to fish for salmon, and thought about how it was too bad the salmon runs had dwindled, and thought as ranchers, we ought to try to do something, to bring the salmon run back to the Lemhi.” 

 That’s Bruce Mulkey who’s a 4^th generation cattle rancher on his father’s side and 5^th generation on his mother’s. Their ranch has been up near the Lemhi river since 1901. So Bruce got together with local ranchers, farmers and government officials in the early 1990’s and inititiated dramatic steps to conserve salmon and trout in the Lemhi River. In 1993 their efforts eventually led to the creation of the Upper Salmon Basin Watershed Project. For years the project has helped conserve an enormous amount of fish habitat in that region of Idaho. It meant ranchers had to pipe water to save water for fish, screen ditches, fence cows out of streams, and so on. How did one guy motivate his fellow ranchers to pitch in?

 (Mulkey) “ Kind of watch them and if their doing something and it’s successful, for them, you’re not opposed to trying it.”