[Vision2020] Forest Trade Plan Attracts Criticism

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (March 24, 2009) Spokesman Review and a very alert 
Vision 2020 subscriber (thanks).

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Forest trade plan attracts criticism
Associated Press  

POTLATCH, Idaho – Seven former administrators of the Palouse Ranger 
District are blasting a U.S. Forest Service plan to trade 28,000 acres of 
managed forest for about 39,000 acres of logged-over timber company land 
in northern Idaho.

John Krebs, a retired Forest Service employee, said the plan is 
fundamentally flawed because much of the public land has been carefully 
managed for the public’s use.

“The whole Palouse is prime,” he told the Lewiston Tribune. “It’s got old 
growth in it, riparian protection. It is the prime example of management. 
And the Forest Service has never told the public this story.”

Western Pacific Timber, a logging company based in Portland, is offering 
to trade land it owns that includes portions of the Lewis and Clark and 
Nez Perce national historic trails.

Krebs and the others have written letters to local and national officials 
detailing their concerns about the proposed Upper Lochsa Land Exchange.

Earlier this year, Krebs wrote a seven-page letter to Tom Reilly, 
supervisor on the Clearwater National Forest. The other retired foresters 
cosigned the letter.

“The public, whose land you manage in trust, is once again about to get 
the shaft from someone who is supposed to care for the land and serve the 
people,” the letter said.

And late last year they sent a letter to the Latah County commissioners 
stating, “Our clear and urgent concern is that the proposed Upper Lochsa 
Land Exchange will trigger the eventual loss of a significant amount of 
readily accessible public lands for the citizens of Latah and other 
surrounding counties.”

Krebs, 75, has turned his dining room into a command center, complete with 
maps, photos and displays of the proposed swap.

“It’s a lousy deal,” he said. “What’s going on here is the tip of the 
iceberg. If this exchange goes through, I’ll make a prediction: The 
Palouse will become reattached to the St. Joe National Forest, and the 
rest of the Palouse will just go. It will be exchanged.”

Krebs said much of the land came under management of the Forest Service 
decades ago after timber companies had harvested the valuable trees.

“After the companies had taken the white pine off they didn’t want to pay 
taxes,” Krebs said. “So the Forest Service, in the late ’50s and 
early ’60s, began managing this land and made an honest-to-God silk purse 
out of a sow’s ear.”

But now, he said, logging companies are looking at the land again as the 
timber on it is nearing a harvest date.

Forest Service officials last fall unveiled the portions of public land 
they are willing to trade for the heavily logged land in the Upper Lochsa 
River Basin belonging to Western Pacific Timber. Officials said that 
besides areas of historic significance, the land includes important fish 
and wildlife habitat.

Reilly has said the trade will eliminate some of the checkerboard pattern 
of public land in the region that makes it hard to manage.

The timber company is owned by lumberman and developer Tim Blixseth, who 
announced he was interested in trading it for public land.

The Nez Perce Tribe and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation have supported 
the trade because of the historic significance and good habitat that is 
contained in the Upper Lochsa River Basin.

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View a PDF file (approximately 3 megabytes in size) of the land exchange 
parcels at:

http://www.tomandrodna.com/Idaho/NorthIdaho_Overview_051508.pdf
  
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If you want to enjoy viewing the pine-crested hills and mountains of the 
Panhandle National Forest for years to come, I suggest you pack your 
camera and snap some photos now.  Or you can write your elected 
representatives and let them know how you feel about the Western Pacific 
Timber Company's plans to rape Idaho's Panhandle National Forest.

Just say "NO!"

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
Join us at The First Annual Intolerista Wingding, April 17th, featuring 
Roy Zimmerman and Jeanne McHale.  For details go to . . .

http://www.MoscowCares.com/Wingding

Seeya
there.

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