BLM says watershed parcels no longer on the table

SANDPOINT — The Bureau of Land Management has no intention of trading away parcels of property within the Little Sand Creek watershed, according to a bureau official.

After learning early this week about a proposed land swap that could put parts of the watershed in the hands of private ownership, Mayor Gretchen Hellar sent a letter to BLM voicing the city’s displeasure with the proposal.

Hellar, along with Public Works director Kody Van Dyk, said selling or trading watershed land to private companies for development or timber harvesting could endanger the city’s water supply.

Reached Wednesday, BLM field manager Kurt Pavlat said the bureau has no intention of trading watershed properties. He said the trade idea came about late in the summer, when Arizona-based developers M3 Companies submitted a request asking to swap approximately 11,000 acres of its undeveloped southern Idaho land for various BLM plots scattered throughout north and central Idaho, including several parcels within the Little Sand Creek watershed.

While it is still early in the process, Pavlat said if or when negotiations progress, BLM will make it clear that watershed lands will not be included.

“Those parcels within the Little Sand Creek watershed, we would say, ‘No, you would have to drop those out,’” Pavlat said.

BLM’s assurance that watershed lands are off the table will come as good news to those opposing the trade, but the declaration does not necessarily mean the land is safe. M3 Companies can still lobby the U.S. Congress to include the land swap in a future bill, and Pavlat said the company has already retained the services of two high-powered consultants in former BLM director Jim Caswell and former director of the Idaho Department of Lands, Winston Wiggins.

“This may go nowhere,” Pavlat said. “We don’t know, because we’re not driving it. This is being driven by a proponent who has hired some big-ticket consultants to lobby for it.”

Hellar said she was relieved to learn of BLM’s plans for the watershed land, but said she won’t feel entirely comfortable as long as the legislative option is still a possibility.

“I feel a lot better about the situation than I did a few days ago, but I am still concerned about the legislative route,” she said. “I think we have to be very vigilant and make sure that nothing happens surreptitiously.”