[Vision2020] For Sale: 26,000 Idaho Acres

Sat Feb 11 15:24:24 PST 2006

Did anyone else watch Stossel last night...switching back and forth to the
Olympics? He made a point about private ownership and public ownership.
Seems private property is better cared for at multiple levels while some
feel free to abuse public ownership.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Nisbet" <pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 2:30 PM
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] For Sale: 26,000 Idaho Acres

Why should the Federal Government and the USDA Forest Service in particular
pay large sums of money on an annual basis to run a park for the Rich in
Hayden Lake?  Perhaps, the rich who enjoy their hiking trails on the point
should consider getting together, putting up the funds and buying the ground
so that they can have their park.  It would reduce the costs substantial if
that were the case, since USDA now has to have people go to an isolated
piece of ground and manage a park that is dominantly used not by the general
public, but by Hayden Lake residents.  If Hayden Lake ran the park, their
city employees would be obviously more able to manage the ground cost
effectively.

There are stranded chunks of Federal ownership all over the place that are
small blocks that are difficult if not impossible to manage and that are
costly to administer.  The Forest Service and BLM have tried for years to
get rid of those through land exchange, however, the process of Land
Exchange takes ages even when being carried out between cooperative folks
like IDL and USFS.  I know of ground that is still pending though ten years
has passed that would flip lands from USFS to IDL and clear up management
boundaries that are no where near complete.

There is nothing that stops local or state governments from buying the lands
in question.  There is also nothing in this process that stops Land
Conservancy organizations from bidding on the ground either.  Those groups
can dust off their check books and bid to keep the lands in question public.
  That will help to free up Forest Service funds to be spent on managing the
millions of acres that are not scattered in mixed ownership and will move
the management to local jurisdiction where they can be more cost effectively
taken care of.

Phil Nisbet

>From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
>To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: [Vision2020] For Sale: 26,000 Idaho Acres
>Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 09:18:54 -0800
>
> >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.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>See you at the polls, Moscow.
>
>Tom Hansen
>Moscow, Idaho
>
>***************************************************************************
*
>
>"A bad cause will ever be supported by bad means and bad men."
>
>- Thomas Paine (English Writer, 1737-1809)
>
>***************************************************************************
*
>
>
>
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