[Vision2020] Talk of Lochsa property swap is revived

[Moscow Cares]

For more background information concerning this ill-advised concept, visit . . . 

"Lochsa Land Exchange"
http://www.LochsaLandExchange.com

Courtesy of today's (October 9, 2015) Lewiston Tribune.

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Talk of Lochsa property swap is revived
Public hearing on proposal set for Nov. 23
The controversial Upper Lochsa Land Exchange, which has been dormant for about a year, will stir to life next month when U.S. Sen. Jim Risch holds a public hearing in Grangeville to gather public comments on the proposal.
The senator's chief of staff said Risch has not taken a position on the exchange that would swap about 39,000 acres of private timber land near Lolo Pass for national forest land of equal value south of Grangeville and Harpster.
"Sen. Risch doesn't come into this with any preconceived outcomes and (will be) there to listen," said John Sandy.
The hearing will be held in the evening Nov. 23, the Monday of Thanksgiving Week. The exact time and location have not yet been determined. But Sandy said all testimony will be taken and considered. If time becomes an issue, people will be able to submit written comments. Sandy did not know if further hearings would be held.
Western Pacific Timber's upper Lochsa holdings are intermixed in a checkerboard fashion with land managed by the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest. Agency officials have long coveted the land because of its important fish and wildlife habitat, its history with the Lewis and Clark expedition and because owning it would simplify management of adjacent public land.
When billionaire Timothy Blixseth purchased the private land from Plum Creek Timber Co. in 2005, he immediately expressed interest in trading it for federal parcels. Blixseth - who suffered a fall from financial grace - is no longer associated with Western Pacific, but the company has steadily pushed for an exchange.
Starting in about 2007, the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest began exploring the idea and quickly found the public was passionately opposed. People feared they would loose access to public land that was traded for the private parcels. Many also said the upper Lochsa land, much of which has been logged, was of little value.
Idaho County also weighed in against the trade, fearing it would lose part of its private land tax base. The county, which remains opposed to the trade, offered its own alternative that proposed keeping the traded-away land within the confines of the county.
In 2013, as the U.S. Forest Service was nearing the release of a final decision on the trade, Risch, along with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Raul Labrador, all Republicans, asked the agency to stand down from its administrative land trade proposal so they could effect the trade through legislation. The agency complied, but the delegation took no further action. Risch repeatedly said he had more important items on his agenda.
In the absence of action, the company wrote its own legislation. According to the proposed bill, the company would place easements on its land that would prevent it from being commercially developed and ensure public access in perpetuity.
Those promises did little to quell public angst over the proposal, and opponents insisted they didn't trust that the public lands that would be traded away wouldn't one day be sold to other private interests who would block recreation access.
For more than a year, Risch, who sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, kept the proposed legislation in his pocket and signaled no intentions to move forward. His opponent in the 2014 mid-term elections, Nels Mitchell, tried to make an issue of the exchange but it did not improve his long shot odds and Risch was easily elected to a second term last fall.
Labrador, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, has been warmer to the idea, saying it would help improve the timber economy of Idaho County. But with Risch seen as taking a lead role, Labrador did not step in to move the bill forward.
Risch has received pressure from people for and against the trade and is now ready to consider it, Sandy said. He said the hearing will focus generally on the idea of a land exchange between Western Pacific and the Forest Service.
"We understand Western Pacific Timber has circulated the legislation they have proposed. If people want to use that for a starting point, I suppose that would be a good stepping-off point," he said. "That doesn't mean Sen. Risch supports or doesn't support that legislation in the manner it is."

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

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