Idaho’s smallest county is Clark County with barely 1,000 inhabitants. I had an opportunity to go there over the weekend to visit with some of the most ignored voters in the state. I knocked on doors in Dubois, the county seat and largest town (comprising about 65 percent of the county’s population).

Everyone I visited with was amazed that a congressional candidate would come to Clark County. In fact, when I went door- knocking, I met the Sheriff and his wife, who were pleased I had come all the way to Dubois that day. I guess most candidates for state and federal office are content just to mail them information or buy TV and radio ads. Those, of course, are one-way communications. Face-to-face meetings give me the opportunity to engage in two-way communications, and it has been so enlightening for me in every town I visit.

The southern part of the county is covered with fields, mostly growing spuds, and many of the inhabitants of Dubois I met work in agriculture. Crop farming is the biggest employer in the county. As I walked around the edge of town, I could see many of the large pivot irrigation systems that make this high desert country with rich volcanic soil so productive.

In Clark County, they say the sheep outnumber the people 3 to 1. That’s because just north of Dubois is the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station. This is part of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and is the second largest employer in the county. It also works with the University of Idaho. We all contribute public research funds to help us understand more about grazing practices, sheep and plant species, and their interaction in a diversity of environments. The land rises from flat farms to steep mountains as you head north to the Montana border.

In fact, one of the biggest threats to this landscape is noxious weeds that choke out native plants and are resistant to range fires. At the Experiment Station, they are finding that some types of sheep like to eat the nastiest of these weeds, including leafy spurge and spotted knapweed. If the sheep graze when the invasive weeds are growing and native grasses are still dormant, the sheep can stop the weeds from spreading.

This is such a critical role for our government: gathering accurate and unbiased information so that communities can work out the best way to provide a sustainable livelihood and protect sustainable natural systems. Rangeland issues are so important to this community, and many others in the Intermountain West. As I visit with people in places like Dubois, they may disagree with each other about what the best use of a particular piece of land may be, but there is always an underlying mutual respect for the land, a respect that is often lacking in Washington, D.C., where Clark County, Idaho, is seen as just a big empty space on a map.

In the world of big-money politics, places like Dubois and Clark County are ignored. I did not meet any people here who had a lot of material wealth. But everyone had a wealth of patience and understanding of what it is like to make a living in some of our country’s most beautiful, remote landscapes.