BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A group that represents farmers is calling the costs of saving imperiled salmon in the largest river system in the Pacific Northwest unsustainable and is turning to the Trump administration to sidestep endangered species laws.

The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association wants the government to convene a Cabinet-level committee with the power to allow exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. Known as the “God squad” because its decisions can lead to extinctions of threatened wildlife, it has only gathered three times — the last 25 years ago during a controversy over spotted owl habitat in the Northwest.

The irrigators association is frustrated with court rulings it says favor fish over people, claiming the committee could end years of legal challenges over U.S. dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and bring stability for irrigators, power generators and other businesses that rely on the water.

Environmental groups call the request a publicity stunt and say it could hurt fishing companies and others that rely on healthy runs of federally protected salmon and steelhead.

The association sees hope in a series of pro-industry environmental decisions by President Donald Trump. His administration has rescinded an Obama-era rule that would shield many small streams and other bodies of water from pollution and development, enacted policies to increase coal mining on federal lands and proposed giving Western states greater flexibility to allow development in habitat of sage grouse, a threatened bird.

Darryll Olsen, association board representative, said the irrigators requested the committee during former President Barack Obama’s tenure but got nowhere. He said the Trump administration has been encouraging during talks, leading to a formal request last month for a meeting with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

“What we’re asking for is that the secretary give direction to the (Interior) Department to work with us to review the steps for implementing the God squad,” Olsen said.

Zinke can gather the committee, which he would chair and would include other natural resource agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency. It also would include representatives from Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

If five of the federal committee members agree, they could exempt U.S. agencies from Endangered Species Act requirements for one or more of the thirteen species of salmon and steelhead listed since the early 1990s.

The irrigators group, which has 120 members growing food crops in Washington state and Oregon, expects to meet with Zinke soon, Olsen said.

Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an email that the agency could not comment on a committee that had not been formed and that she had no information about Zinke’s meetings.

Joseph Bogaard, executive director of a coalition of conservation, commercial, sport fishing and business groups called Save Our Wild Salmon, blasted the irrigation association’s request.

“It’s a terrible idea that will deliver great harm to the people and businesses of the Pacific Northwest,” said Bogaard, whose coalition relies on the fish to produce millions of dollars of revenue.

A federal judge ruled last year that the government had not done enough to improve salmon runs despite spending billions of dollars and urged it to consider removing four dams on the lower Snake River.

Todd True, a lawyer with the environmental law firm Earthjustice who represented some plaintiffs in that 2016 ruling, said the God squad request should go nowhere.

“There isn’t any basis to convene the committee because there are reasonable alternatives to save the fish,” he said, pointing to the dam removal option. “Their removal would be a big step forward.”

This year, fish counts at dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers have been well below the 10-year average, which biologists blame on droughts in 2014 and 2015 and warming ocean conditions.

Various results have emerged the three times the God squad has convened. It refused to grant an exemption for a Tennessee dam in the 1970s over a fish called the snail darter. Regarding crane protection in the Midwest, a settlement was reached before the panel offered a decision.

In 1992, it voted to sidestep protections for the northern spotted owl and allow the Interior Department to sell timber on land in Oregon.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A black bear attacked a man jogging in the Panhandle National Forests in northern Idaho in the second bear attack at the popular recreation area in a month but the bear ran away after the jogger kicked at it, officials said Wednesday.

The man suffered lower leg lacerations in the Monday afternoon attack but the injuries were not serious enough for him to need treatment at a hospital, said Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Phil Cooper.

The unidentified man told officials he noticed the bear following him and turned to confront it and fell to the ground when the bear attacked.

“When the bear actually swiped at him, he kicked at it, and that’s when it ran off,” he said. “With a black bear, you definitely want to fight.”

Trackers with dogs failed to locate the bear. The U.S. Forest Service closed the area overnight but reopened it after the search for the bear was called off. The jogger did not have bear repellant spray with him.

“We recommend people carry bear spray, make noise and have dogs on leashes,” said Forest Service spokeswoman Shoshana Cooper, who is not related to Phil Cooper.

A black bear with a cub on July 4 attacked a woman hiking with dogs about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of Monday’s attack. She was flown to a hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries. Trackers gave up following that bear after it crossed a river.

Phil Cooper said both bear attacks are likely the result of the bears being startled. The area the area is estimated to have up to four black bears per square mile (2.6 square kilometers) attracted to this year’s bumper crop of huckleberries. Bears will likely start moving to higher elevations as huckleberries ripen in the surrounding mountains, he said.

The Boise National Forest on Tuesday closed a campground because of bear and human encounters in the last several weeks.

Authorities in central Idaho captured and killed a black bear late last month after a string of encounters with people.

In one of them, a camper woke up to find her foot in a bear’s mouth. Officials believe the same bear also rubbed up against a different woman while she read a book near a stream.

Seniors are snapping up so many lifetime passes good for U.S. national parks and other recreation areas ahead of a steep price increase later this month that some government agencies have run out and started issuing vouchers.

The America the Beautiful Lifetime Senior Pass has been available to buyers 62 and older for $10 for the past two decades. On Aug. 28, the price is going up 700 percent, to $80, after a measure passed by Congress late last year.

Recently retired Paul Dunham of Yuba City, California, picked one up last week at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in central Idaho.

“I said, ‘Hey, I’m a senior. Any decent rates?'” he said, expecting to pay $30 for a day visit to the high desert area known for its ancient lava flows.

Instead, for $10 he got the lifetime senior pass that’s recognized at more than 2,000 recreation areas run by six federal agencies that include the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

“I don’t say many thanks to the U.S. government about anything,” Dunham, 64, said after discovering the deal. “But I will this time.”

Out-of-the-way Craters of the Moon still has the lifetime passes, but other areas that draw more visitors have run out, and officials authorized a rain check policy in mid-July. The policy allows people to use vouchers instead of the lifetime passes, and ultimately exchange them for one of the plastic, credit card-sized senior passes when they become available.

Some sites normally sell only a few hundred passes a year, Tom Crosson, the National Parks Service’s chief of public affairs, said in an email to The Associated Press. “Now, they are selling that many in a day.”

Agencies expect to sell up to 2 million of the passes by this fall, about two to three times what was sold last year, he said. Online and mail orders in 2016 were about 33,000 but have surpassed 250,000 so far this year and are expected to surge past 300,000 by the price-increase deadline.

Pass holders driving into areas with entrance fees can also bring in traveling companions for free. At some areas, the pass includes 50 percent discounts on camping, boat launching and other amenities.

Money raised by the price hike is intended for projects and programs aimed at enhancing the visitor experience at national parks and other areas.

The price has been $10 since 1994. The cost of a pass with similar benefits for those under 62 — but good for only one year — is remaining the same as last year, at $80.

John Freemuth, a Boise State University environmental policy professor and public lands expert, has one of the senior passes and said the bump to $80 isn’t much considering the adventures it makes possible.

“I still think it’s one of the best deals in America,” he said.

Craters of the Moon employee Rachel Amento said a local U.S Forest Service office ran out of the passes and has been sending buyers to Craters.

She said most of the park’s visitors are on their way to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. For motorists, the cheapest pass to those parks is good for seven days and costs $30. At Craters, the seven-day pass costs $15. Amento said adding it up plus other discounts still makes $80 a good deal for a lifetime senior pass.

“People will just have to adjust to the idea that they’ll have to visit more than one park to make it pay for itself,” she said.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Seniors are snapping up so many lifetime passes good for U.S. national parks and other recreation areas ahead of a steep price increase later this month that some government agencies have run out and started issuing vouchers.

The America the Beautiful Lifetime Senior Pass has been available to buyers 62 and older for $10 for the past two decades. On Aug. 28, the price is going up 700 percent, to $80, after a measure passed by Congress late last year.

Recently retired Paul Dunham of Yuba City, California, picked one up last week at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in central Idaho.

“I said, ‘Hey, I’m a senior. Any decent rates?'” he said, expecting to pay $30 for a day visit to the high desert area known for its ancient lava flows.

Instead, for $10 he got the lifetime senior pass that’s recognized at more than 2,000 recreation areas run by six federal agencies that include the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

“I don’t say many thanks to the U.S. government about anything,” Dunham, 64, said after discovering the deal. “But I will this time.”

Out-of-the-way Craters of the Moon still has the lifetime passes, but other areas that draw more visitors have run out, and officials authorized a rain check policy in mid-July. The policy allows people to use vouchers instead of the lifetime passes, and ultimately exchange them for one of the plastic, credit card-sized senior passes when they become available.

Some sites normally sell only a few hundred passes a year, Tom Crosson, the National Parks Service’s chief of public affairs, said in an email to The Associated Press. “Now, they are selling that many in a day.”

Agencies expect to sell up to 2 million of the passes by this fall, about two to three times what was sold last year, he said. Online and mail orders in 2016 were about 33,000 but have surpassed 250,000 so far this year and are expected to surge past 300,000 by the price-increase deadline.

Pass holders driving into areas with entrance fees can also bring in traveling companions for free. At some areas, the pass includes 50 percent discounts on camping, boat launching and other amenities.

Money raised by the price hike is intended for projects and programs aimed at enhancing the visitor experience at national parks and other areas.

The price has been $10 since 1994. The cost of a pass with similar benefits for those under 62 — but good for only one year — is remaining the same as last year, at $80.

John Freemuth, a Boise State University environmental policy professor and public lands expert, has one of the senior passes and said the bump to $80 isn’t much considering the adventures it makes possible.

“I still think it’s one of the best deals in America,” he said.

Craters of the Moon employee Rachel Amento said a local U.S Forest Service office ran out of the passes and has been sending buyers to Craters.

She said most of the park’s visitors are on their way to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. For motorists, the cheapest pass to those parks is good for seven days and costs $30. At Craters, the seven-day pass costs $15. Amento said adding it up plus other discounts still makes $80 a good deal for a lifetime senior pass.

“People will just have to adjust to the idea that they’ll have to visit more than one park to make it pay for itself,” she said.

A black bear with a cub attacked a 60-year-old woman and her two dogs in a popular area in North Idaho, but she was able to call relatives for help and they were forced to yell to scare off the animal, officials said Wednesday.

The woman was visiting the Idaho Panhandle National Forests near Priest Lake and was hiking a trail near a visitors center when the large bear charged her Tuesday, biting her head, side and abdomen, Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Phil Cooper said.

He described the attack as serious, and the woman lost a lot of blood but her injuries were not life-threatening. She was flown to a hospital in Spokane, Washington.

Officials decided the bear needed to be killed because it lingered after the attack, but they called off the search because it crossed a river and they could not be sure they would find the same animal in the area packed with bears.

It appears the adult bear and cub were in a huckleberry patch when they were startled by the dogs, officials said. The bear attacked in defense, Cooper said. A veterinarian treated the dogs, and they will recover.

The woman, whose name was not released, used her cellphone to call family members staying at a cabin nearby, Cooper said. They arrived 30 minutes later and had to yell to make the bear to leave.

Trackers with hounds followed the bear to where it crossed the Priest River about a mile from the attack, Cooper said. After wading across the river, they discovered paw prints of a cub traveling with the adult. Trackers ended the search at that point.

The U.S. Forest Service late Wednesday morning reopened the area near the Priest Lake Visitors Center on the southwest corner of the lake. Agency spokeswoman Shoshana Cooper said the decision came after experts determined the attack to be a female bear defending her cub and not predatory.

Wildlife officials said it’s not clear when the last bear attack occurred in the area despite a large population of black bears focused on eating huckleberries. He said hikers should carry bear spray and be ready to use it quickly.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — At least three different legal challenges were launched Friday against the U.S. government’s decision to lift protections for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park area that have been in place for more than 40 years.

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society, and WildEarth Guardians are among those challenging the plan to lift restrictions this summer.

“The rule removing federal protections for America’s beloved Yellowstone grizzly bears is a political decision that is deeply flawed,” said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The federal government announced last week its plan to lift grizzly bear protections and made it official Friday by filing its decision in the Federal Register. That prompted the various groups to send 60-day notices of their intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a required step in the legal process.

Some of the groups say the decision is wrong because it only involves Yellowstone grizzlies rather than viewing the population in the West as a whole. The groups also say the federal government’s analysis of grizzly bear mortality — as bears switch to a meat-based diet as climate change reduces other food sources— is deficient.

“We should not be taking a gamble with the grizzly’s future,” said Timothy Preso, an Earthjustice attorney representing some of the groups.

The U.S. Department of the Interior on Friday referred questions about the legal action to the U.S. Department of Justice. Mark Abueg, public affairs specialist at the Justice Department, in an email to The Associated Press said the agency declined to comment.

Grizzlies in all continental U.S. states except Alaska have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1975, when just 136 bears roamed in and around Yellowstone. There are now an estimated 700 grizzlies in the area that includes northwestern Wyoming, southwestern Montana and eastern Idaho, leading the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conclude that the population has recovered.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Not very often does a 10-story-tall, 800,000-pound landmark change locations. Especially one that’s alive.

But workers in Idaho will attempt just that starting Friday. A massive sequoia sent to Boise as a small seedling by naturalist John Muir more than a century ago is now in the way of a hospital’s expansion and plans are to move it two blocks away to city property.

“We’ve all got our fingers crossed that the tree is going to make it to its new location,” said Mary Grandjean, the granddaughter of an Idaho forester who received the sequoia seedlings from Muir around 1912.

St. Luke’s Health System is doing more than hoping. It’s spending $300,000 to move the largest sequoia in the state, rather than chopping it down and risking a public relations backlash.

“We understand the importance of this tree to this community,” said Anita Kissée, spokeswoman for the hospital. Cutting it down “was never even an option.”

Even the tree company hired to do the move is feeling the pressure to keep the 98-foot (30-meter) tree upright as it travels about two blocks over about 12 hours to its new home.

“This is going to be one of what we call our champion trees,” said David Cox, who is overseeing the move for Texas-based Environmental Design. “We want to take extreme care to make sure everything goes well.”

Cox said the tree will be the tallest the company has ever moved, as well as the largest in circumference at more than 20 feet (6 meters) near its base. He puts the chances of the tree surviving at 95 percent.

“We’ve got all the equipment we need here,” he said Thursday.

The plan is to lift the sequoia Friday afternoon onto the inflatable, rolling tubes. The tree is set to start moving at midnight Saturday on the rolling tubes and arrive around noon Sunday.

It grew from one of four sequoia seedlings that Muir sent to Emile Grandjean, a conservation-minded professional forester and early employee of the U.S. Forest Service in Idaho, his granddaughter told The Associated Press.

Mary Grandjean’s father told her that Emile Grandjean planted two of the sequoias at his home in Boise and the two others went to the home of Fred and Alice Pittenger, both doctors.

New owners of the Grandjean home later cut down the trees, said Mary Grandjean, noting what a blow it was to her family. The fate of a third sequoia isn’t clear. Of the four trees, the only remaining one is being moved.

“My family and I are very hopeful that the transplanting will be successful,” she said.

Cox said sequoias in their native habitat in California draw moisture from the misty atmosphere and can live for several thousand years and reach several hundred feet tall.

The Idaho sequoia is in a drier, colder climate, and the tree lost its original top in the 1980s due to damage from Christmas decorations that people strung on it. At that point, the hospital hired tree experts and the sequoia has thrived despite living in the high desert.

Soil analysis has been done at the transplant site to ensure it will allow the tree to keep growing, Cox said. Most of the soil surrounding the roots also is moving to improve the tree’s chances, he said.

If it works, it could remain a Boise landmark for several more centuries.

“I would say three- to five-hundred years at least,” Cox said. “It’s still a young tree.”

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A pet squirrel named Joey who gained fame as a crime-fighter might be more of the lover type.

Joey, who police credited with scaring off a burglar trying to break into his home’s gun safe, made his long goodbyes earlier this month, then scampered up a backyard apple tree at his Meridian, Idaho, home and hasn’t been seen since.

“If I had to guess, he found a girlfriend and they’re off doing their squirrel thing,” said Adam Pearl, who raised Joey in his home for about 10 months.

A University of Idaho scientist said that’s probably right for Joey.

“For a lot of mammals, behavior changes once spring comes,” said Janet Rachlow, a professor at the school’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences.

Joey made headlines in February after police went to Pearl’s home to investigate the burglary and Joey introduced himself. A few hours later, police nabbed a teen burglary suspect with items from Pearl’s home and scratches on his hands. The teen told police a squirrel at one home came flying out of nowhere and kept attacking him until he left.

Like many famous crime fighters, Joey had a rough start in life. He was abandoned after falling out of his nest not long after being born and would have died if Adam Pearl and his wife, Carmen, hadn’t taken him in.

“His eyes weren’t even open,” Adam Pearl said. “He was about the size of a Bic lighter when we first got him.”

They bought supplies and set an alarm every two hours to feed him. Joey thrived, and soon had the run of the house, using a litterbox and learning to scavenge from bowls of nuts.

“I wanted him to be able to fend for himself,” Adam Pearl said.

Joey did just that, delighting the family with his antics.

“He’d let anybody pet him when he was in the house,” Pearl said. “I guess right up until the kid broke in. Right after that is when he started getting aggressive.”

About a month ago, Pearl made the decision to leave a sliding door open after Joey seemed extra rambunctious. Joey eventually ventured out, played with wild squirrels during the day and returned to his bed inside at night.

On June 4, he climbed on Adam’s shoulder, where he stayed for several minutes getting his ears scratched before disappearing in the apple tree.

“I think that was his goodbye, looking back on it,” Adam Pearl said.

Rachlow said Joey might have a little bit of culture shock assimilating into squirrel life, but will likely succeed.

Adam Pearl said Joey liked to chew on items in the house, so there’s also relief in being an empty-nester.

“Hopefully, he doesn’t bring any little Joeys into the house,” he said.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — U.S. officials are launching an expanded review of predator-killing cyanide traps and additional guidelines for workers deploying the devices after one sickened a young boy in Pocatello and killed his dog.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday the review should be finished this fall and workers, meanwhile, will follow interim guidelines issued in a 13-page directive intended to make sure anyone near a device is alerted.

The spring-activated devices called M-44s look like water sprinkler heads embedded in the ground but spray cyanide when triggered by animals attracted by bait. They’re used to kill coyotes and other livestock predators, mostly in Western U.S. states.

They have come under scrutiny after one of the devices in March injured a 14-year-old Canyon Mansfield and killed his dog when they encountered it on federally-owned land about 500 yards from his home on West Buckskin Road. The scrutiny intensified after The Associated Press reported the device was on public land despite a decision months earlier by federal officials to halt use of the devices on all U.S.-owned land in Idaho.

The federal agency in a Thursday statement said it’s “committed to the safe and responsible use of these devices, and the new guidance and expanded analysis are intended to reduce risks when using the M-44 device.”

The federal agency in April said it stopped using the devices on all land in Idaho following a petition filed by a coalition of environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity. The petition said M-44s killed about 12,500 coyotes in 2016, mostly in Western U.S. states. According to the petition, the devices over the last 20 years have killed about 40 dogs and injured a handful of people.

Environmental groups filed a similar petition earlier this week seeking to ban the devices in Wyoming.

Andrea Santarsiere, senior attorney for the center, said the center is glad the Agriculture Department is taking concerns about M-44s seriously but the only solution is a total ban.

“As long as these are on our lands, people and pets and non-targeted wildlife are still going to be at risk,” she said.

In March, an M-44 killed a wolf in northeastern Oregon, a species protected in that area by that state’s wolf plan.

The new guidelines issued Thursday require federal workers to notify nearby residents of the placement of M-44s “in a manner that ensures that the message was delivered and receipt acknowledged.”

The guidelines also put more responsibility on state directors and subordinate supervisors to make sure the devices are used and placed properly, with an increased emphasis on identifying property boundaries.

The device that injured Mansfield was placed on federal public land administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management even though the Agriculture Department did not have permission to place M-44s on BLM land.

The Agriculture Department says the devices are needed to reduce predators. The agency said that a 2015 survey of producers determined that coyotes nationwide killed about 120,000 sheep and lambs valued at up to $20 million. The cyanide devices are also used to protect cattle.

Cameron Mulrony, executive director of the Idaho Cattle Association, didn’t return a call from The Associated Press on Thursday.

John Freemuth, a Boise State University environmental policy professor and public lands expert, said it has been a tradition in Western U.S. states for more than a century for the government to protect livestock from predators, and a review of M-44 policies is itself notable.

“They may have realized they have a public relations problem more than they have in the past” he said, noting that agriculture interests remain powerful. “The idea of a review is a good thing. Whether that leads to a different policy on how we deal with predators that cause harm to livestock remains to be seen.”

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal officials have released a cattle grazing plan for central Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve that immediately came under fire from an environmental group.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Final Environmental Impact Statement released Friday allows cattle grazing on nearly all of the roughly 275,000 acres it administers in the monument.

Western Watersheds Project says the plan will lead to declines of sage grouse and their possible elimination.

The BLM says the plan protects sage grouse habitat while allowing cattle grazing.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration earlier this month listed all 735,000 acres of federal lands in the monument dating from 1924 as up for possible revocation.

Twenty-six other U.S. monuments on the list only go back to lands designated since 1996.