[Vision2020] FPRD Urges Comments on Land Exchange

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (January 10, 2011) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Friends of Palouse Ranger District urge comments on land exchange draft
Group to host series of open house meetings this week

By Christina Lords
January 10, 2011

Along Idaho State Highway 6, one message is visible across the landscape
and buildings in Latah County.

The cork board at the Hoo Doo Cafe in Harvard has it. The reader board on
the Silver Saddle Bar in Potlatch has it. Home after home along the
highway’s corridor has it.

Signs have popped up in the windows of several Moscow businesses. A
billboard on U.S. Highway 95 as you drive into the south end of Moscow
boasts the message, too. The message is absolute — not one acre. Not one
acre of what? Not one acre of national forest in exchange for Western
Pacific Timber land in the Upper Lochsa River basin along U.S. Highway 12.
The Friends of the Palouse Ranger District held a presentation on the
Upper Lochsa Land Exchange Saturday in Potlatch to take that message to
area residents. Members of the FPRD, many of whom are retired U.S. Forest
Service employees from the Palouse district, have canvassed towns like
Potlatch and some of Moscow to voice their opposition to the exchange.

The FPRD’s presentation focused on how residents can become involved in
the process for the land exchange, including how to request the Draft
Environmental Impact Statement on the proposal and how to format comments
on the statement to the Forest Service.

Residents asked the retirees questions from the simple, such as how to
obtain a DEIS, to the complex, such as why even have land exchanges at
all.

“It’s our privilege and our opportunity now to comment on this (DEIS),”
said PRD retiree Larry Ross. “We have until Feb. 23 to give concise,
to-the-point comments on this document.”

The meeting was 2:30-6 p.m. at Potlatch High School. The event was
organized by the FPRD. About 35 people attended the presentation. The USFS
will host a series of open house meetings on the draft statement this
week, beginning with an open house 2-8 p.m. today at the Elk River
Community Center in Elk River. An open house on the DEIS will be held 1-7
p.m. Tuesday at the Latah County Fairgrounds in Moscow.

Representatives from the USFS, WPT and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation,
which is in favor of the exchange, will be available to answer questions
or concerns from the public. Andy Hawes, general counsel for WPT, said
while he recognizes that opponents of the exchange are promoting the “not
one acre” message, there are also people who support it.

“It’s good that people are raising concerns about an exchange,” he said.
“If you go through an exchange and no one said anything about it, we’re
all in trouble. But as you hear people voicing concerns, the thing that I
think is key from our perspective is that a lot of folks are also
supportive of the exchange. As comments will come in prior to the comment
period closing (for the DEIS), I think you’ll see a lot groups that
represent a lot of folks that will support this.” Forest Service retirees
who worked in the PRD, including Ross, Blake Ballard and John Krebs, urged
residents to get involved in the process for the exchange.

“Land exchanges can be very good,” Ross said. “You don’t want to close the
door on land exchanges. You want the process to be good enough so that
good land exchanges occur and bad land exchanges don’t. That’s how I view
this. This is a bad land exchange.”

The draft EIS indicates the Forest Service prefers a land exchange in a
phased, three-year purchase agreement where about 14,100 acres of national
forest, including 2,600 acres in Latah County, would be exchanged for
about 39,300 acres of WPT land. None of the WPT land is in Latah County.
It is not clear how much the Forest Service would pay in addition to the
acreage traded.

If residents don’t provide written comment to the USFS on the DEIS, they
won’t have a legal right to appeal the final decision on the exchange once
it is made, Ross said. “At this point in the process, you have the
greatest opportunity ... to get your oar in the water and say, ‘you
haven’t covered my concern,’ or, ‘I don’t understand how you arrived at
this conclusion,’” he said.

Ross said it was important to provide detailed comments that are site
specific to parcels involved in the exchange.

“When you write a letter, you tell how you use those lands, what they mean
to you,” Krebs said. “Address it from where you are ... address it from
your perspective.” He said it was important to write comments that let the
USFS know how residents utilize those lands for multipurpose uses,
including recreation opportunities, firewood gathering, hunting, berry
picking and others. One resident asked why the public should communicate
with WPT about the exchange instead of directing all commentary on the
exchange to the USFS.

Hawes said his company has taken the stance to maintain an open dialogue
with members of the public because WPT aims to be a good business partner
in North Idaho. He said if the exchange occurs, WPT would contract with
local logging contractors for its timber operations, which would provide
work to local mills and other businesses.

“One approach would have been to not say anything,” he said, “but as a
company, if there are issues or concerns by the public on lands we might
get, we feel it’s our responsibility, from our perspective, to resolve
those issues. Ultimately, we would be a business member with these
communities.”

There are other specific instances that the public can work with WPT on
some of their concerns, Hawes said, such as grazing leases for local
cattle owners and access points to residents’ private property.

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1:00 PM - 7:00 PM, January 11th (Tuesday)
Latah County Fairgrounds

Seeya there, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Mosccow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown