Idaho at forefront of collaboration on public land use

Similar collaborations have changed the dynamics of public land management across the American West, speakers said at a conference Saturday convened by the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University. Successes in the Owyhees and in the Henrys Fork of the Snake River basin, along with ongoing efforts in the Payette and Clearwater national forests and in Lemhi County, are putting Idaho at the forefront of a national shift from confrontational conservation to collaboration. It comes at a time when climate change is causing rapid changes on the land, increasing the call for restoring forests, range and watershed health, said U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. "This may be the best opportunity for conservation since (Theodore Roosevelt's) time," Tidwell said. Tidwell was joined Saturday by U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey. Ideas included a state incentive program to help ranchers and other large landowners protect habitat; more funding sources for wildlife management beyond hunters and anglers; and turning federal lands over to the state to manage...more

Lt. Governor Little brought a little caution to the table:

Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little pointed to the state's unsuccessful effort to draft a conservation plan to prevent the listing of the desert plant slickspot peppergrass -- evidence, he said, that collaboration doesn't always work. But in that case, no environmental groups were on board. Little also cited a state and federal agreement with wool growers as part of reintroducing bighorn sheep to Hells Canyon. The Forest Service later reversed itself and forced ranchers to remove domestic flocks from public land. "For collaboration to work," Little said, "people need to know the rules aren't going to change." Little cautioned that the federal conservation dollars that have made collaborative programs possible are drying up because of a rising federal deficit. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, a major source of land protection money, is dependent on offshore oil drilling, which may slow instead of grow after the recent Gulf oil spill...

We're really gonna need Gus and Woodrow's help on this collaboration stuff. It's getting way out of hand. Dally and drag, dally and drag.

Chief Tidwell may be right about this being "the best opportunity" since Roosevelt for the enviros. After all, it was Roosevelt who ripped millions of acres out of the public domain and created 150 national forests. It was also Roosevelt who with the stroke of a pen created 18 national monuments. Kinda makes you see why Tidwell makes the comparison.