A true icon of the west, fly fishing & conservation
Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 12:00AM 
The life of Leonard Purdy sits in stark contrast to that of another western rancher currently in the news.
Leonard "Bud" Purdy, one of Idaho's most beloved and respected ranchers, died Monday at his home.
Purdy, 96, hunted ducks and skied with Ernest Hemingway. He hosted Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper at his Picabo Ranch. He led the ranching industry into rest- and-rotation grazing, a system of moving livestock on and off public grazing lands that protected the range and improved cattle production.
Purdy donated a 3,500-acre conservation easement along Silver Creek in the 1990s to the Nature Conservancy, adjacent to its own Silver Creek Preserve. The easement protected the creek and its environs from future development.
Silver Creek, one of the state's premier trout streams, attracts fly-fishermen from around the world.
Purdy didn't even take the tax break on the land easement, valued at $7 million.
Up until his death Bud continued to spearhead restoration projects on his land and beyond. He flew solo in his plane every weekend, watching over his cattle and the meandering flow of Silver Creek.
LINK (via:The Idaho Statesman)
Reader Comments (1)
You would think a guy like that wouldn't need whatever chemicals are in that yellow tank. I wonder how he kept "his" cows from defecating in Silver Creek.