U.S. Forest Service retirees oppose Idaho land exchange

A group of about two dozen retired U.S. Forest Service employees has sent a letter to the U.S. Senate and Natural Resources Committee decrying a proposed northern Idaho land exchange. The Spokesman-Review reports the group is concerned that Idaho’s congressional delegation is pushing the land exchange through Congress. Republican U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, and Republican Rep. Raul Labrador, last fall asked the Forest Service to halt a National Environmental Policy Act review of the exchange. The lawmakers said legislation might be a better option for getting the trade done. “It seems like it’s shaping up to be done outside of the public eye, and I think that’s wrong,” said Larry Ross, a retired district ranger on the Clearwater National Forest. But it’s unclear what’s happening with the land swap in Congress. “Senator Risch is not spearheading the Lochsa land exchange,” said his press secretary, Suzanne Wrasse, in an email to the newspaper. “The proponents of the exchange are working with other stakeholders to garner support.” The deal involves a combination of purchasing and trading public land to obtain about 40,000 acres of private land owned by Western Pacific Timber Co. in the upper Lochsa River basin. The land includes habitat for threatened steelhead and bull trout, Canada lynx, elk and portions of the Nez Perce National Historic Trail. Explorers Lewis and Clark trekked the area in the early 1800s. But the group said the deal trades away popular recreation areas for inaccessible timberlands on the Idaho-Montana border...more