Friday, March 01, 2013

Finding different paths for forests

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and Boise are looking at changing a federal management system that all but ended logging after the forest wars of the 1980s and 1990s. The desire for new forest plans is driven by wildfires that are growing in intensity and cost, and by lawsuits that lead foresters to add time and pages to environmental reviews to avoid litigation. In Idaho, the Legislature is studying whether to copy a Utah law that would try to force the federal government to turn over millions of acres of public lands. In Washington, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation is looking at programs to mirror the forest trusts in 22 states - such as Idaho's state endowments that produce revenue for schools and other beneficiaries - on 135 million acres. Freed of laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act, Idaho brings in 917 times the revenue per acre than the federal government takes in on the state's national forests, Subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said Tuesday. "I believe our forests and public lands are long overdue for a paradigm shift," Bishop said. Idaho House Resources and Conservation Committee Chairman Lawerence Denney said Tuesday that he expects the Legislature to pass a resolution this year in support of the Utah legislation, which also is generating interest in Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. But state legislation that would authorize a legal demand that the federal government give up some of its 34.5 million acres of public land in Idaho will go to an interim committee for study between now and the 2014 legislative session, Denney said. In Washington, D.C., Idaho Gov. Butch Otter pushed the House subcommittee to establish a forest trust pilot project recommended in 1998 by the Idaho Federal Lands Task Force. More than 2 million acres of the state's 20 million acres of national forests would be managed by a trust board to increase revenues and improve management. Otter told the subcommittee Tuesday that turning the lands over to such a board would make the forests healthier and that more aggressive management would reduce the size and intensity of forest fires. He pointed to the 1.7 million acres of Idaho forests and rangeland that burned last year, costing the state and federal government $214 million. "It appears to folks in Idaho the federal government would rather see a valuable resource go up in smoke than be harvested and create some much-needed jobs for rural communities," Otter testified...more

 In Washington, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation is looking at programs to mirror the forest trusts in 22 states - such as Idaho's state endowments that produce revenue for schools and other beneficiaries - on 135 million acres. Freed of laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act, Idaho brings in 917 times the revenue per acre than the federal government takes in on the state's national forests, Subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said Tuesday.

 This is very relevant to my recent comments.

1 comment:

Food for Thought said...

I find it interesting in some of these articles that the states all of a sudden have to hire employeess to mange the federal lands they will get from the feds....so what about the federal employees....they all get fired and then the states have to hire new people? It is not all about the lands there is the human element as well. Yes, some federal employees are lazy, as are some state employees...you know you ran a state agency.

I believe it is about balance and good management.