[Vision2020] Land swap

[Moscow Cares]

You will notice, as you read the following article, no mention of the name Tim Blixseth (CEO of Western Pacific Timber) who has a personal interest in this land swap . . . at the cost of the Idaho tax-payer.

Courtesy of today's (October 28, 2013) Lewiston Tribune.

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Land swap
The proposed Lochsa land exchange marks the contrast of private and public lands
The view from U.S. Highway 12 as it approaches Lolo Pass reveals the difference in management philosophy between private timber companies and federal land managers.
A large clear-cut in the Crooked Creek drainage that is visible from the highway has become a reference point in the debate over the proposed Upper Lochsa Land Exchange. The land is owned by Western Pacific Timber Company and was logged by its former owner, Plum Creek Timber.
"I've seen this photo of our land a lot," said Eric Bieker, a Western Pacific Timber Co. forester as he stood at a roadside vista.
Many critics of the proposed land exchange have photographed the clear-cut to illustrate their contention that the land is little more than a stump farm and the trade, which proposes to swap up to 18,000 acres of federal land for the property once owned and logged by Plum Creek, is a raw deal.
But Bieker, and Western Pacific attorney Andy Hawes contend the company's land isn't nuked. The clear-cut, they say, is the result of past logging and a salvage operation following the Crooked Fire that burned 10,000 acres of private and federal land in 2000. There is a similar scene in the Spruce Creek drainage where the Beaver Lakes Complex burned 13,000 acres in 2003.
In both cases, Plum Creek moved quickly to salvage burned timber. The U.S. Forest Service did not. In many places, the boundary lines of the checkerboard pattern of federal and private land ownership stands out. The private land was salvaged following the fires and now appears as empty space dotted with young trees. The federal land was left largely alone and still has thousands of acres of gray, dead timber.
"A lot of people drive up here and what they see is a massive clear-cut and in reality it's a fire and salvage operation," Bieker said.
"You see some people take a picture of this and just use it as a poster child," said Andy Hawes, an attorney for Western Pacific who has spent years working on the controversial land trade.
There are other sections where the company's land is sprouting trees that were planted a few decades ago, following logging operations. Some of it hasn't been logged at all.
But make no mistake, much of the land has been harvested. It's also been replanted and some of it is well on its way to looking like a forest. In some spots, it is difficult to tell which parcels are owned by the timber company and which are public.
"There are definitely areas like up in the Moose Lake drainage that haven't been logged and areas that have been logged here and there and there are areas that were logged 50 years ago," Bieker said. "There is just varying age classes throughout (the ownership)."
He said about 13,000 to 15,000 acres of the land has trees that are between 5 inches and 13 inches in diameter. Certainly in terms of timber, the land is a long-term investment.
A full picture of the value of Western Pacific's holdings in the Lochsa will become clearer when an appraisal of the private land and federal land that could be traded away is finished and becomes public. Under the Forest Service administrative process, the value of the land and its timber, on both sides of the trade, will become public when Rick Brazell, supervisor of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, signs a record of decision on the proposal.
That document was expected this winter. But earlier this month, three members of the Idaho congressional delegation, led by Sen. Jim Risch, asked Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell to stand down on the administrative process as they try to craft a legislative package to complete the trade. The agency is in the process of responding to the request and Brazell said he believes Tidwell will order the agency to take a time out from the administrative process and work with Risch, Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Raul Labrador as they pursue collaborative talks aimed at producing legislation to complete the trade.
If legislation emerges, it isn't a sure bet that the appraised value of the land involved will be released. But John Sandy, chief of staff for Risch, said he expect it will.
"I couldn't say for sure but I would be shocked if it didn't," he said. "I don't know how you can move forward with the collaboration and not show that. The way Risch operates, this is going to have daylight all over it."
Even though Risch proposed collaboration, a process has yet to be put in place. The Forest Service, in its administrative process, was evaluating several tracts of land that could be included in a trade. Candidate parcels might include scattered and isolated tracts on the Palouse Ranger District as well as federal property in Idaho County identified by an alternative outlined by the Idaho County Commission.
But for now, the only land that is certain to be involved is the more than 39,000 acres owned by Western Pacific. Cut over or not, it is coveted by the Forest Service.
Brazell calls it a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring the land into public ownership and block up the checkerboard ownership pattern that makes it expensive and difficult to manage.
"It blocks up the headwaters of the major rivers that have threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead," Brazell said.
It includes 66 miles of fish-bearing streams, including 13.9 miles of spring chinook spawning habitat, 16.9 miles of steelhead habitat, 32 miles of bull trout habitat and 40 miles of west slope cutthroat trout habitat.
There are also parcels that Brazell fears could be developed if the trade doesn't happen. For instance, he points to Lily Lake, a scenic and shallow body of water surrounded by timber.
"Can you imagine those million dollar homes that are going to surround that one day if we don't lock this up?"
Blocking up the land will also make it easier for the agency to manage future fires. Now the agency is obligated to fight fires burning on its land in the area so that it doesn't spread to the private land and open the government up to damage claims.
"The Forest Service's general rule is to keep fire off of private land to protect the taxpayers really not just to protect the private land interests," Brazell said.
If the federal government owned the land, it could allow some fires to burn to improve wildlife habitat, a practice known as resource-benefit fires.
Thus far, there have been few supporters of the trade and many who are passionately opposed. That is because the land will come at a cost - land that is now public will become private. Opponents fear they will lose recreation access and the land could be developed under private ownership.
Western Pacific has said it is open to both access and anti-development deed restrictions on the now public parcels. Those sorts of measures are expected to be part of the collaborative process once it begins sometime late this year or early next year.
Sandy said recent political events such as the showdown over the federal budget and debt ceiling crisis have taken precedence over starting the process.
"There have been a couple of other things on the plate lately."

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For more information concerning the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange . . .

"Upper Lochsa Land Exchange"
http://www.LochsaLandExchange.com
 
Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" 
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


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