Keep state's public lands in public hands

In the Jan. 27 edition of the Daily Bee, Rep. Eric Anderson expressed his support for a proposal in the Idaho Legislature to seize control of 33 million acres of national forest and other public lands in Idaho.

If this idea were to take root, it would threaten special places, such as the Cabinet, Selkirk, and Purcell mountains. Other potentially affected lands include shorelines with public access on Priest Lake and Lake Pend Oreille. These special places are central to Idaho’s amazing quality of life and outdoor recreation opportunities. These places are why we choose to call Idaho home.

If the state were to wrest control of these lands from the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, they would be managed to maximize revenue, sidelining the traditional multiple use mandate. Managing these lands for the almighty dollar would reduce fishing, hunting, and recreational opportunities that are so important to Idaho families. According to recent polling, 97 percent of Idahoans agree that our public forests and wildlife areas are essential to our quality of life.

Faced with the costs of managing these lands, the state of Idaho would be under extreme pressure to auction public lands off to the highest bidder. Under the most likely scenario, no-trespassing signs would sprout up at your favorite beach, trailhead, campground, fishing hole, or hunting area. Consider the eastern shore of Priest Lake, where residential development of State lands has reduced public access to the lake or the Bee Top Trail near Clark Fork, where access has been closed now for several years. Some 73 percent of Idahoans polled agree that managing our public lands is one of the things that the Forest Service and the BLM do well.

There is a better way to make sure that Idaho’s voice is heard when it comes to managing national forests in Idaho. Specifically, collaborative efforts are under way in Shoshone, Bonner, and Boundary counties to find common ground between the timber industry, environmentalists, recreationists, and other members of local communities. These efforts are producing real results today, and would be undercut by a state effort to take-over public lands.

As a participant in all three collaborative working groups, I’m proud of our accomplishments. Through the work of the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative in Bonners Ferry, we helped craft the Twentymile Timber Sale, which is expected to produce 6-8 million board feet of timber for area saw mills. The working group also made sure the sale was designed to conserve water quality, fish and wildlife. This is just one example of the work being done.

Finally, it’s important to note that in 2012, BLM and Forest Service budgets contributed hundreds of millions to Idaho’s economy. If Idaho were to absorb these costs, the impact on Idaho’s already-stretched budgets would be severe. Dealing with fire management alone could cripple our state budget, impacting every Idaho taxpayer. Last year, wildfires in Idaho consumed over $200 million in suppression costs. Does the Idaho Legislature really want to take all that on?

Idaho’s public lands are our heritage, as Idahoans and Americans. Idaho families treasure the clean water, abundant recreational opportunities, natural beauty and freedom that our public lands represent. The Idaho legislature would be better served to support the real progress that Idahoans are making in collaborative efforts, instead of pushing flawed proposals that would sacrifice our quality of life. I urge you to contact your state legislators and let them know how important public lands are to our way of life.

Brad Smith is a Conservation Associate with the Idaho Conservation League in Sandpoint.