[Vision2020] For Sale: 26,000 Idaho Acres

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (February 11, 2006) Spokesman Review.

If Representative Otter wants to make points with the voters of Idaho, he
would fight against this sale.

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For sale: 26,000 Idaho acres 
Details of Forest Service plan raise concerns in region
By the numbers 

Proposed acreage up for sale in Inland Northwest national forests:
St. Joe: 1,142
Colville: 1,877
Coeur d'Alene: 3,090
Kaniksu: 6,936
 
James Hagengruber
Staff writer
February 11, 2006

FSBO: 309,421 acres of prime undeveloped forest land. Includes trails,
campgrounds and sacred sites. Pristine views. Massive debt forces fast sale.


All satire aside, details on the largest sale of national forest in decades
were announced Friday, including about 26,000 acres in Idaho and 7,500 acres
in Washington. The Bush administration is proposing the sale to help reduce
budget cuts for rural schools and roads.

Included in the sale are prime recreation sites near Coeur d'Alene,
including the entire English Point trail network and Mokins Bay campground
along Hayden Lake. The proposal also includes 160 mountainous acres near the
St. Joe River once used by Indian tribes for sacred vision quests. 

Local Forest Service employees said they had been directed not to comment on
the proposal, but all expressed surprise at the properties included. Perhaps
the biggest shock was the inclusion of 360 acres of developed trails at
Hayden Lake's English Point. The area is about 15 minutes from Coeur d'Alene
and is a popular spot for hikers, skiers and horseback riders, said retired
Brig. Gen. Clyde Denniston, who owns land nearby. 

"I'm really surprised it would be put up for sale," said Denniston, former
commander of Fairchild Air Force Base. "That's a beautiful piece of land. It
gets a lot of public use - it's not like it's raw land somewhere out in the
boondocks."

In Colville National Forest, several large tracts are being considered for
sale in the Bald Peak area north of Republic, Wash., as well as about 500
acres near Eagle Mountain northeast of Chewelah. The Forest Service has
supplied only legal descriptions of the parcels, but the agency will release
digitized maps by the end of the month. When the maps are released, the
agency will take 30 days of public comment. 

The vast majority of the tracts are isolated parcels of national forest that
are expensive to manage, according to Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey,
who spoke to reporters Friday in a conference call. 

"These are not the crown jewels we're talking about," Rey said. "This is a
reasonable proposal to take a small fraction of a percentage of national
land, which is the least necessary, and use it for those in need."

California stands to have 85,000 acres of national forest sold. Idaho comes
in second in terms of acreage, with more than 11,000 acres - about 17 square
miles - of the Panhandle making the sale list. If approved, the land would
be appraised and put on the market.

The Bush administration hopes to raise as muich as $1 billion through the
program, which it will use to help wean rural counties off the so-called
Craig-Wyden "county payments" law over the next five years. The program has
been in place since 2000 to help communities with timber-based economies
weather large scale decreases in logging on national forest land. 

The program sent $41.8 million to Washington last year and $21 million to
Idaho. 

Many Western lawmakers, sportsmen groups and environmentalists are reacting
with outrage to the land sale and phasing-out of the Craig-Wyden payments.
Some have compared the sale with a farmer eating his supply of seed corn.

Rey rejected such comparisons, saying the money was needed to help rural
counties fund education and transportation projects. About $4 million last
year went to Shoshone County in North Idaho. Nearly $1 million went to Ferry
County in northeast Washington. 

"I don't think assuring the education of schoolchildren is an ephemeral
purpose," Rey said. 

Critics say even isolated parcels of national forest are valuable. The
Forest Service often uses the tracts in land swaps to secure wildlife
habitat. Surrounded by private land, the acreage also provides recreation
opportunities for some communities. 

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has not had a chance to evaluate the list of
parcels, said spokesman Mike Tracy. "He obviously has concerns. . He's never
been real supportive of the wholesale sale of public lands, but he does look
at individual projects on a case-by-case basis."

Idaho Congressman and governor-hopeful Butch Otter issued a statement
saying, "I do not believe the president's proposal will be well-received in
Congress." Last month, the Republican representative came under fire for
co-sponsoring a plan to sell public land to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief
efforts. Otter later reversed his support and apologized to state residents.


Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, said certain tracts could be taken off
the sale list, depending on public comment. Ultimately, only 200,000 acres
will likely be put up for sale, he said, amounting to less than 1 percent of
193 million acres of national forest and grassland. Rey also pointed out the
agency acquires about 100,000 acres of new land annually.

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See you at the polls, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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"A bad cause will ever be supported by bad means and bad men." 

- Thomas Paine (English Writer, 1737-1809)

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