[Vision2020] Could it -- or has it -- Happen in this Area?

[Saundra Lund]

Closed-Door Deal Could Open Land In Montana
Forest Service Angers Locals With Move That May Speed Building

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer 
Saturday, July 5, 2008; Page A01 

MISSOULA, Mont. -- The Bush administration is preparing to ease the way for
the nation's largest private landowner to convert hundreds of thousands of
acres of mountain forestland to residential subdivisions. 

The deal was struck behind closed doors between Mark E. Rey, the former
timber lobbyist who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, and Plum Creek Timber
Co., a former logging company turned real estate investment trust that is
building homes. Plum Creek owns more than 8 million acres nationwide,
including 1.2 million acres in the mountains of western Montana, where local
officials were stunned and outraged at the deal. 

"We have 40 years of Forest Service history that has been reversed in the
last three months," said Pat O'Herren, an official in Missoula County, which
is threatening to sue the Forest Service for forgoing environmental
assessments and other procedures that would have given the public a voice in
the matter. 
<snip>

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/04/AR200807040
2772.html?nav=rss_nation>
OR
http://tinyurl.com/58g4bm