Executive Summary Background Features of Unit Tested Setting for the Test Results Data Summary Conclusions Acknowledgements & Further Information

Settings for the Test The Sawtooth National Recreation Area in central Idaho was created in 1972 from National Forest lands, and remains the largest NRA in the National Forest System. It was created “to assure the preservation and protection of the natural, scenic, historic, pastoral, and fish and wildlife values and to provide for the enhancement of the recreation values associated therewith” (PL 92-400). Grazing of permitted livestock on public lands continues in accordance with the management objective of “providing for consumptive uses of resources including . . . grazing . . . so long as these uses do not substantially impair the recreational and associated values for which this recreation area was established."

The Smiley Creek Sheep Allotment is located at the headwaters of the Salmon River, in the southern end of the Sawtooth NRA, within the Sawtooth Valley. The allotment includes 41,435 acres (16,768 hectares) of broad glacial trough and outwash valleys, bisected by parallel mountain ridges. It encompasses all or part of the Vat, Cabin, Alturas, Beaver, Smiley, and Frenchman Creek watersheds. Vegetation is made up of conifer trees (primarily Pinus contorta) on slopes and ridges, sage/grass/forbs in the open valley bottoms, and willow lining the streams. Elevations within the allotment range from 6,500 to more than 10,000 feet (1,980 to more than 3,050 meters). Perennially flowing streams are the norm within the allotment, although the summer of 2001 continued an unusually dry climatic period. In 2001, the livestock permittee of the Smiley Creek Allotment was authorized to graze 870 ewes with lambs between June 7 and August 28. Lambs were removed and shipped on August 28, at which time the remaining band was supplemented with another 530 ewes, for a total of 1,400 sheep. These sheep continued to graze the allotment until trailing began on October 12.