“It is very historic that the two secretaries were in the same meeting. Many have said that they have never seen that in Idaho before so it's good to see that.”

 

Idaho Farm Bureau President Brian Searle was recently a part of history, as he and other leaders of Idaho agriculture held court with two Trump Administration secretaries. Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke and Agriculture Sec. Sonny Purdue.

 

"It's from the sugar to the wheat to the potatoes and the sheep and beef and on through. I attended that meeting and represented the Farm Bureau and I was very impressed. It was a listening session by both those secretaries as they sat and listened to us.”

 

Searle spoke to Sec. Zinke about public grazing issues concerning permitees on federal grazing allotments.

 

"Yes we've had concerns with our stock water rights. The Joyce livestock case, The Lowry's and Elton’s won that lawsuit but we continued to have challenges with those rights from bullying and intimidation, coming to our ranchers and so we asked for that and that was very well received. and assured us that it would be looked into and addressed and taken care of.”

 

Agriculture Sec. Perdue listen to concerns over federal forest management and the declining health of the lands.

 

"The other one was the concern of our forests and how they are cared for as we are not logging like we used to