Gov. Butch Otter said the federal government has let down the ranchers and others in Idaho who stepped forward to help a rare flowering bush that grows in the Foothills and in wet areas of Southwest Idaho's desert - even though it was not protected under the Endangered Species Act.

"Frankly I feel betrayed by the feds," said Ted Hoffman, an Owyhee County rancher who worked with the state Office of Species Conservation to develop the "candidate species conservation plan" that was approved by the federal government.

The bush, which survives best in the sagebrush steppe of Owyhee County, also grows in small isolated patches - slickspots - in the Boise Foothills and near Gowen Field. Slickspot peppergrass (Lepidium papilliferum) has been found on more than 20,000 acres in Ada, Canyon, Elmore, Gem, Owyhee and Payette counties.

The listing, which would be finalized Dec. 7, could place new restrictions on ranchers and the U.S. Air Force, which use large portions of the core remaining habitat of the plant in Owyhee County. Ranchers may be subject to environmental lawsuits aimed at removing their cattle from federal grazing lands in the spring.

Hoffman said ranchers helped researchers find even more of the bushes when they were working under the state plan.

"We're right back to 'shoot, shovel and shut up' being the prudent course of action," Hoffman said.

David Hensley, Otter's attorney, said the decision is more ominous because the state is working on similar species plans for the sage grouse, and it could make it harder to persuade rural residents to join in.

The key difference, though, is that the Idahoans agreeing to the sage grouse plans are making changes on private land, so they have more protections if the species is ever listed.

The public land grazers affected by the peppergrass decision would be immediately subject to any new federal rules.

The peppergrass listing also could limit energy development, military training on the Orchard Training Area southeast of Boise, and even residential development.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the decision in October because significant threats to the plant, such as the effects of more frequent wildfires and invasive non-native cheatgrass, are growing, it said.

The state disagrees in its lawsuit filed Monday, arguing that Fish and Wildlife found that the population of slickspot peppergrass plants was the highest since serious counting began in 2003.

Surveys on the Orchard Training Range, which are among the data the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relied on to make its decision, came under criticism in a 2006 memo by Jeff Foss, supervisor of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Snake River office in Boise.

But Foss now says the Orchard data - and all the data collected - was reviewed by an independent statistician who concluded that the numbers supported listing the plant as threatened.

"They found that wildfire and cheatgrass are linked to decline of slickspot pepper grass and that the decline is statistically significant," Foss said.

As for the increased number of plants found in 2008, Foss said that was due to heavier spring rains.

The statistical analysis found that the decline overwhelmed annual fluctuations in plant numbers due to drought and rainfall.

"With desert plants, it takes a 15-year-trend to consider what's happening," Foss said.

Todd Tucci, an attorney with the Boise environmental law firm Advocates for the West, sued four times to force the agency to finally list the species.

He said politics had prevented listing in the past but he was confident the decision will stand up in court now.

"Advocates for the West looks forward for the fifth time to persuading a federal judge that the governor doesn't know the different between real science and cowboy science," Tucci said.

Rocky Barker: 377-6484