[Vision2020] Risch working to revive Lochsa Land Exchange

[Moscow Cares]

Courtesy of today's (September. 16, 2013) Lewiston Tribune.

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Risch working to revive Lochsa Land Exchange
Idaho senator considering use of legislation to accomplish land swap in northern part of state
During last month's congressional recess, U.S. Sen. James Risch and his staff met with several parties both for and against the proposed Lochsa Land Exchange, reviving the possibility the controversial trade may be done through legislation.
In a phone interview, Risch, R-Idaho, said no trade is imminent and he hasn't decided yet if he will introduce legislation to make one happen, but he is listening to interested parties and would like to see them reach a collaborative agreement.
"I look for collaborative approaches to these things," he said. "You never make everybody totally happy."
But he said his experience ushering the Idaho Roadless Rule as governor leads him to believe solutions to controversial issues can be reached. There are few issues as controversial as the proposed exchange.
Billionaire Timothy Blixseth purchased about 40,000 acres of mostly logged land near the headwaters of the Lochsa River in 2005 and almost immediately proposed swapping it for land held by the U.S. Forest Service. Over the next few years, a proposal took shape that would swap the private ground that is mixed in a checkerboard pattern of land administered by the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest for up to 18,000 acres of federal parcels of equal value in several northern Idaho counties.
Residents, including retired Forest Service employees in Latah County who feared the loss of area federal land for recreation, formed the anti-land trade group Friends of the Palouse Ranger District and rallied regional opposition. Later, the Idaho County Commission voiced opposition because the trade would erode the county's tax base.
County commissioners, led by Skip Brandt, eventually proposed their own alternative that would involve only land in Idaho County and exchange it acre-for-acre instead of value-for-value. But federal law prevents the agency from doing an acre-for-acre exchange, meaning their proposal would have to go through Congress. Doing that, they said, also makes it possible for public access easements to be attached to any federal land that becomes public. But the commissioners' alternative spawned more opposition and the formation of the Idaho County group Stop the Swap.
The Forest Service is working on an environmental impact statement to complete the trade administratively. An appraisal of land values on both sides of the proposed exchanges is expected to be completed in December and be followed by a record of decision. At the request of Risch, the appraisal will include a little less than half of the 45,000 acres or so in Idaho County's alternative.
Risch said even if he sponsors legislation, it would follow the value-for-value approach.
The collaborative process he envisions would involve public meetings and eventually legislative hearings where everybody would have input. He said fears by some people that exchange legislation will be hidden in another bill and passed with little debate are unfounded.
"If you are suggesting something in the dark of night slipped in at midnight on Christmas Eve, that is not going to happen."
If he does sponsor legislation it will be introduced as an individual bill but would likely have to be included in an omnibus public lands bill to pass Congress.
"Nothing passes here on an individual basis," Risch said.
In 2006, Risch led successful efforts to develop a federal rule specific to federal roadless areas in Idaho. In that effort, he served as a ramrod making sure all the interested parties participated in the process. While he is working with Idaho County commissioners and officials from Western Pacific Timber Co., he said his involvement in the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange is much more relaxed.
"I'm not in that role here. I would say that role is probably shared more by the county commissioners from Idaho County and the private parties that want to make the exchange."
Risch and members of his staff met with Brian Disney and Andy Haws of Western Pacific on Aug. 12. Also in attendance were Bob Baeh of the Idaho Forest Group, Scott Stouder of Trout Unlimited, Andy Brunelle of the U.S. Forest Service, former Sen. Larry Craig who is a lobbyist for Western Pacific Timber Co., Idaho County Commissioners Jim Chmelik and Brandt and Elk City resident Joyce Dearstyne.
Staffers for Risch also met with representatives of the Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho Conservation League, Friends of the Clearwater, Friends of the Palouse Ranger District, Idaho Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and the Nature Conservancy in August.
Marilynn Beckett, of Friends of the Palouse Ranger District, penned a letter to Risch spelling out the group's continued opposition following a meeting she and other members of the group attended with members of the senator's staff.
She wrote that the Forest Service has yet to explain why the exchange is in the public's best interest.
"If the Forest Service failed to convince the public through public meetings, public outreach and two voluminous environmental impact statements of the public advantage or need to exchange local lands to consolidate ownership in the upper Lochsa, what has created the need to do this legislatively?"
Gary Macfarlane of the Friends of the Clearwater also said the trade should not move forward. He, like many, favor a federal purchase of the private land that is important for water quality, salmon and steelhead and elk habitat.
"I told them, 'Look, legislative proposals are extremely controversial and it would be far better to spend time with folks trying to work out some kind of long-term purchase or easement up there in the upper Lochsa for eventual purchase.' "
There are several people who support federal acquisition of the land but they are leery of trading away federal land to do so. That includes Stouder of Trout Unlimited.
"We are not supporting it and we are not opposing it," he said. "Trout Unlimited is just saying that upper Lochsa watershed is a valuable contributor to the entire Middle Fork of the Clearwater drainage. We would love to see that land restored and put in public ownership but not at the expense of seeing what happened there (large-scale logging) repeated or jerking public land away from people down here."
Similarly, the Idaho Conservation League supports acquiring the land.
"Preserving those lands in the upper Lochsa is an important conservation goal and it's also important that federally administered lands be retained for the people of Idaho and the people of America and so finding a fair and just compromise is something that has potential and is worth exploring," said Idaho Conservation League representative Jonathan Oppenheimer.
Idaho County still maintains that its tax base must be retained and the only way for that to happen is through a legislative exchange.
"In an administrative exchange we lose literally one-fifth of our private timberland in the county, plus the tax base, plus in an administrative exchange there is no deed restrictions, no easements," Commissioner Brandt said. "An administrative exchange is lose, lose, lose."
In comments to the Forest Service proposal the Nez Perce Tribe has expressed concern that tribal members might lose treaty rights to public land that is traded to the company.
Reaching a collaborative agreement that solves all of the competing interests, placing it into legislation and ushering it through Congress would seem a heavy lift. But several parties appear willing to see if it can be done.
"If they craft it right and give a damn good deal to the public and look at every acre they are going to trade out of public land into private holdings and deal with people who are attached to it and try to quell the public uproar, if they can thread that needle and walk that jagged path, who knows maybe they can get that job done," Stouder said.

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Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
  
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