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<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Courtesy of today’s (September
13, 2010) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with a VERY special thanks to Marilyn
Beckett of Moscow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>HER VIEW: Land exchange not in the public
interest<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>By Marilyn Beckett<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Marla Bieker of Western Pacific Timber
supports the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange (Daily News, Her View, Sept. 6).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Western Pacific Timber (aka: TWJ
Holdings), originated the proposed exchange with the U.S. Forest Service of
39,317 acres of checkerboard Upper Lochsa for 28,212 national forest acreage
throughout northern Idaho. From south to north, identified lands for exchange
are in the areas of Silvers (Riggins), Elk City, Lolo Creek, Pierce, Dent, Elk
River, North Fork of the Clearwater River, Dworshak, Bovill, Harvard/Potlatch,
Skyline Drive, Mullan, Highway 3/Bull Run, Spirit Lake and Highway 41.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>These "scattered parcels"
Bieker calls them, are spread across the northern region, but her assertion
they are "already surrounded by private land" is false and
misleading. For instance, the Dworshak parcel is bordered by state land and the
Army Corps of Engineers. If exchanged as proposed, the USFS is left with an
even more "small, isolated parcel" since it exchanges only part of
its parcel, further fragmenting their holdings and increasing management
difficulties. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Bieker targets the value of returning
the Lochsa to USFS ownership.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>She purposefully fails to mention the
value of lands leaving USFS ownership once traded away. This is why nearly
every county with lands involved in the exchange, district representatives to
the Idaho Legislature and the general public have fought for nearly two years
to stop any exchange. The people recognize their area lands won't be valued
appropriately, and costs to the public can't be balanced by exchanging for the
Lochsa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>From 28,212 acres on the trading
table, 24.5 square miles is from the Palouse Ranger District, 15 percent of the
district. That much land lost from the smallest district in the Northern Region
leaves it extremely vulnerable to complete elimination by fragmentation through
future exchanges. It will be much easier for subsequent forest supervisors to
justify eliminating the Palouse District. The likelihood of this happening is
illustrated by earlier attempts to consolidate the Upper St. Joe checkerboard
in the Panhandle. Panhandle USFS administrators are watching what happens with
the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange very closely, arming themselves for the next
exchange, where they can cherry pick more "scattered, difficult to manage
parcels" to trade off. Why is the USFS disposing of our land?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Palouse District has been managed
for "multiple use" for generations - investments in roads,
silviculture and timber management where the soils and climate allow trees to
grow twice as fast and provide an invaluable resource base. These soils offer
potential that the Lochsa lands cannot match. Beiker's Lochsa has "well
stocked timber plantations," a remnant of Plum Creek Timber that stripped
the Lochsa and subsequently planted some low elevation sections. The rest is
high and steep - what survives does so under severe conditions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Rocky Mt. Elk Foundation, a
co-sponsor of this exchange, collaborates on the basis of reinvigorating elk
calving grounds in the Upper Lochsa. Yet their local membership is skeptical -
they know the vast elk populations in our lands, because they are part of the
public who access these "scattered" parcels and see the prolific
herds. Would privatization of our lands negatively affect the elk herds here?
Is that what happened in the mangled, clearcut Upper Lochsa supposedly
"well managed for more than a hundred years?" <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Private industry in Idaho does not
have a strong forest practices act. We invite businesses here on the cheap at
the expense of the people and land. WPT retains Bieker - she doesn't write as a
"citizen who recreates on federal lands." If she cared about people
who recreate (and survive) on the federal lands resource, she'd quit her job. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>There's much more to this story, one
that means everything to "the American people, who really own our nation's
forests." Many private and federal foresters with decades of experience
concur - this exchange is not in the public interest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Marilyn Beckett<strong><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span></strong><strong><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal'>of Moscow is a
friend of the Palouse Ranger District.</span></strong> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Thanks again, Marilyn, one of the many
friends of the Palouse Ranger District.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Seeya round town, Moscow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Tom Hansen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Moscow, Idaho<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=storybody style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>"The
Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change and the
Realist adjusts his sails." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>-
Unknown <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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