Push for stringent roadless measure
Locals: end logging, roads in federal forests
"No one will want to come here to sustain our economy if our
federal lands are carved up and scarred over for the sake of a few temporary logging jobs
or to indulge the curious notion that noisy, fume-emitting, vegetation-destroying,
soil-pulverizing, mechanized vehicles are somehow needed to visit and enjoy tranquil,
pollution-free, pristine natural areas."
- Len Harlig, Blaine County commissioner
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Less or more was the overriding theme at a public hearing Thursday night
in Ketchum on the U.S. Forest Service’s proposal for roadless areas.
Approximately 50 local residents gathered in Ketchum City Hall to voice
their opinions on the federal agency’s draft environmental document on roadless area
management—and nearly all of them wanted something other than what the Forest Service
set forth as its preferred alternative.
In a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) released in May, the
Forest Service offered four alternatives for roadless area management. The preferred
alternative would end road construction in nearly one quarter of the Forest Service’s
192 million total acres nationwide.
One of the four alternatives is to take no action. The other three propose
restricting road building along with varying degrees of timber harvesting.
The preferred alternative would allow timber harvests by helicopter only,
and the most restrictive alternative would not allow timber harvests at all.
In true Wood River Valley form, the majority of those who spoke wanted the
agency to consider enacting regulations that are more stringent. In short, they said they
want to see an end to logging as well as road building.
Others, however, want the entire proposal to go away.
Blaine County District 3 County Commissioner candidate Ivan Swaner said he
fears the proposal is part of an effort to keep the public off of public lands. He
represented a local group, the Committee for Public Access to Public Lands.
"The roadless initiative EIS and the proposed rule is not a stand
alone document. It is only a part of a Clinton/Gore natural resource agenda that is
designed to keep the public off the public lands," he said.
Hailey resident Walt Cochran also had harsh words for the proposal.
"Since [the no action alternative] is never taken seriously," he
said, "it makes this whole exercise a waste of my time and of the Forest
Service’s resources.
"Withdraw the rule," Cochran said.
Swaner and Cochran were echoing opinions of conservatives nationwide.
Access, conservatives say, will be lost under the proposal. But such opinions were a clear
minority at the Ketchum meeting.
Blaine County Commissioner Len Harlig made a presentation in favor of the
most restrictive alternative. Untainted wild lands are important to Blaine County and
Idaho as tourist-based economic engines, he argued.
"Most, if not all, of this economic benefit has been possible because
of the unique condition of the federal lands," he said. "One of our principal
attractions to visitors and residents is the beautiful setting provided by the undeveloped
. . . federal land that surrounds us.
"No one will want to come here to sustain our economy if our federal
lands are carved up and scarred over for the sake of a few temporary logging jobs or to
indulge the curious notion that noisy, fume-emitting, vegetation-destroying,
soil-pulverizing, mechanized vehicles are somehow needed to visit and enjoy tranquil,
pollution-free, pristine natural areas."
Ketchum resident Ann Christensen offered a counter argument to those
opposed to the proposal.
"The people who will be locked out of the forests if we continue to
"road" will be those who choose to walk in," she said.
The one exception to the preferred alternative, Ketchum District ranger
Kurt Nelson pointed out at the outset of the meeting, would be to the Tongass National
Forest in southern Alaska.
Forest managers there, Nelson said, recently completed a forest plan that
would allow some logging and road building in roadless areas, and those who drafted the
EIS decided the plan should be allowed to run its course.
Local environment-minded residents said they didn’t like that
exception.
Nelson, who hosted the meeting along with Sawtooth National Recreation
Area ranger Deb DesLaurier, said the current comment period ends on July 17.
Thereafter, a team of Forest Service officials will spend four months
drafting a final rule, which could be a combination of the four alternatives in the draft
EIS, he said.
Those wishing to comment in writing should send comments to USDA Forest
Service—CAET, Attention: Roadless Area Conservation Proposed Rule, P.O. Box 221090,
Salt Lake City, Utah 84122; or by fax to 877-703-2494; or electronically by accessing the
Forest Service’s roadless Internet site at (www.roadless.fs.fed.us).
