Who manages Idaho rangeland?

U.S. Forest Service

1905 The Forest Service was created to manage forest lands, which included grazing practices. It is a multiple use agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is responsible for 191,644,936 acres of land in the National Forest System. This is 8% of the nation's land.

Bureau of Land Management
1934 Taylor Grazing Act.

This act recognized the importance of managing the use of public grazing lands and sought the improvement of rangelands.

Grazing Service, a Division of the Dept. of Interior established to work with ranchers and manage grazing lands.

1946 Grazing Service merged with the General Land Office to create BLM, to manage and improve rangelands. Manages 263,929,258 acres nationwide (11.6%)

Idaho Department of Lands

When Idaho became a state in 1890, the federal government granted 3.6 million acres of land to be managed for maximum gain in terms of both resources and revenues.

  • Original endowment were sections 16 & 36 in each township
  • Not actually owned by state of Idaho--held in trust for the specified beneficiaries.
  • Public school lands currently represent about 83% of the 2.4 million acres of endowment lands.
There are nine endowment land beneficiaries
  • Public Schools (85.02%)
  • Charitable Institutions (3.17%)
  • The Penitentiary (1.17%)
  • University of Idaho (2.28%)
  • The Normal Schools-ISU & LCSC (2.42%)
  • State Hospital South (1.26%)
  • Public Buildings (.29%)
  • Agricultural College (1.36%)
  • The U of I School of Science (3.03%)
Revenue for the endowment lands provides up to 10% of the annual costs of maintaining Idaho's public schools.

The Endowment Trust has two parts:

  • Permanent Fund contains over $700 million-the proceeds of land, timber, and mineral sales.
  • Income Fund contains interest from investment of the Permanent Fund-appropriated by the legislature directly to the beneficiaries.

Idaho's public range resources are continually improved with money from a designated improvement account, ensuring the land's long-term productivity.