Idaho Conservation Success Stories from LandCAN

Lemhi Valley landowners Valerie Brackett and Nikos Monoyios received the American Fisheries Society’s Habitat Award on May 10,2023 for the work they’ve done on the Lemhi River where it flows through Eagle Valley Ranch. The Award is for the Lemhi River Restoration project that has been undertaken by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG)  on 2.5 miles of the Lemhi River on the Pine Creek Unit of EVR over the past seven years.  This project, which is the largest river restoration project in Idaho, was made possible by the conservation easement donated to the Lemhi Regional Land Trust by EVR in 2014.

“The credit goes to the landowners, their participation in embracing conservation from a multiple use perspective, and their willingness to accept restoration outcomes on a scale not seen in the State of Idaho,” said Jeff DeLucca with Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game.

A friend, Amos Eno, founder of LandCAN, concurs saying, “They’ve transformed the Lemhi River in northeastern Idaho to restore salmon spawning habitat. The Lemhi is the highest spawning drainage-over 8,000 feet-in the Columbia/Snake drainage. What Nikos and Valerie have done is truly Olympian, and just proves Margaret Meade’s famous saying that :”Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world…” I would add FOR THE BETTER! They are the living embodiment of private land owners being the phalanx for conservation and species restoration.”

Well done, all!

John Nedrow is a big believer in conservation easements – they saved his family farm… and other stories