Jim Risch, Mark Rey leave Idaho roadless legacy

Rey came up with the idea of letting states write their own plan for managing the roadless national forest lands. The idea bombed everywhere but Idaho and Colorado, in part because most states were happy with Clinton's 2001 roadless rule. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne jumped at the chance to write his own plan and put former Clearwater National Forest Supervisor Jim Caswell to work on one before he left to become Interior Secretary. County officials loved the process and it appeared it was going to provide predictable results, a plan that would have allowed logging in the few areas it could be done economically but without any environmental groups buying in. Then Jim Risch became governor and he had a different vision and arguably a changed reality. The day he announced his initial plan without environmental support a federal judge re-instituted Clinton's rule. Rey and Caswell quickly shifted to make Idaho's plan a separate rule. But for it to really work, they needed the support of the national panel of environmentalists, off-road recreationists, local officials and the timber industry...IdahoStatesman