BLM could unleash
land rush
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is considering
unleashing a land rush that could mar the face of life in Blaine County forever.
With precious little notice to anyone in Blaine County, late last year the
BLM met in its own offices in Shoshone and decided to look at trading the bulk of BLM
lands in the county into private hands. The BLM hasn’t yet decided how many of its
thousands of acres it may release in Blaine County, but its holdings are immense.
Ketchum Mayor Guy Coles was steamed about the short notice and said so in
a letter to the BLM. Worried about the impact of placing public lands into private hands,
the mayor and the city planning staff came down squarely against liquidation of BLM lands
surrounding the city.
The impacts of liquidation could be enormous and dramatic—one look at
the map on page 24 tells the tale.
The federal lands that surround the private lands along the Wood River
corridor between Timmerman Hill and Ketchum are mostly BLM lands. Most of the BLM lands
are adjacent to lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and offer access to the larger
holdings of the Forest Service.
It would be one thing if the BLM were to trade land to the Forest Service
to increase operating efficiencies of both agencies. However, according to a BLM
spokesman, the BLM has never exchanged lands with the Forest Service. Putting the lands
into private ownership will be quite another story.
Popular recreation areas could go into private ownership. Popular access
points for other public lands could be blocked. Wildlife migration routes could be
compromised. Neighborhoods once surrounded by never-to-be-developed BLM land could find
themselves suddenly surrounded by new roads and houses.
The Sun Peak recreation site on the Big Wood River north of Ketchum is
just one example of a special place that could be traded off by the BLM. The area is a
favorite summer picnic area and offers access to the Big Wood for fishermen. It’s one
of a handful of access points along the heavily developed river between Ketchum and Hulen
Meadows.
Developers have eyed Sun Peak and its high-rent location for years. Real
estate exchange specialists have theorized that if the BLM realizes the high values of the
property in the private market, it could acquire a lot of desirable acreage
elsewhere--critical wildlife habitat for example.
The BLM lists lots of reasons for getting rid of its properties in Blaine
County—such as difficulty in management because of the distance from other BLM
properties in the region.
However, the real reason is money. The BLM lands are worth a lot because
they are part of the Sun Valley area, magnet for the rich and famous.
The BLM needs to cut the surprises and the cozy meetings in its
headquarters outside Blaine County. It also needs to come up with better reasons to
subject the precious open lands in Blaine County to the threat of the private padlock.
