Residents comment on state roadless plan

Approximately 34 people attended the two and one-half hour hearing where staff from the Forest Service and Governor Butch Otter's office outlined the proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that would affect Idaho's 9,304,200 inventoried roadless areas, approximately three million acres of which are within Idaho County.

GRANGEVILLE -- A roadmap for managing public lands as part of the Idaho Roadless Plan was presented at a public hearing last week where vocal comments ranged in support of the state-developed proposal to reverting back to management plans set forth in the 2001 Clinton rule.

Approximately 34 people attended the two and one-half hour hearing where staff from the Forest Service and Governor Butch Otter's office outlined the proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that would affect Idaho's 9,304,200 inventoried roadless areas, approximately three million acres of which are within Idaho County.

The plan would designate a system of roadless areas classified under five management themes that range in approach and restrictiveness. The most restrictive theme, emphasizing passive management and natural restoration approaches, is Wild Land Recreation which would affect 1,378,600 acres. The least restrictive theme, General Forest, Rangeland, Grassland, would utilize active management to sustain these areas for recreation, conservation and providing goods and services. The bulk of the inventoried areas, 5,246,100 acres, fall under the Backcountry/Restoration theme, which allows for recreation and limited forest health activities -- including some road building -- directly related to ecosystem maintenance or restoration.

About 3.3 million acres under the Wildland Recreation and Primitive themes would be off limits to all road building.

The draft EIS will examine three alternatives for establishing regulatory direction: the 2001 Roadless Rule, direction based on existing national forest plans, or the Idaho Roadless Rule.

Last week's Jan. 30 evening hearing at the Super 8 Motel meeting room was part of the 90-day public comment process that runs through April 7. From here the final EIS will be released in the fall and 30 days after that the record of decision will be released and the rule enacted.

In a video presentation concerning the proposed rule, Idaho Lt. Governor Jim Risch said, "This is an Idaho plan, put together by us, for us. This is something Idahoans should get behind." He noted some "tweaking" is still needed, but the plan as it stands "gives the highest level of protection for this land" and will protect these lands for years to come.

And some of that necessary tweaking was noted by residents during the meeting's comment period.

"None of these plans do anything to protect the vital nutrients in our forest soil," said Kooskia resident Joe Kirkland, which are mismanaged by government agencies and vaporized by wildfire. He called for more privatization of public lands, where there would be more incentive to protect the resource, and for the Natural Resource Conservation Service to manage and advise landowners to make their timber stands more viable and produce more oxygen.

"I'm not sure how many times we have to get this message across to leave roadless places roadless," said Kooskia resident Bonnie Schonfeld. She and husband, Alan, noted this process has already been done with the 2001 plan which received a million comments to protect all roadless areas. Bonnie supports a ban on all road building, including temporary roads, and she said that contrary to belief logging actually encourages wildfire.

In the 2001 plan, all of Idaho's 9.3 million acres would be classified Backcountry/Restoration. Existing forest plans would put most of its acres, 4.2 million, in Backcountry/Restoration and spread the remainder in Wild Land Recreation (1.3 million), Primitive (2.1 million) and General Forest (1.2 million).

Riggins resident Gary Lane, former USFS biologist and current owner of Wapiti River Guides, said though the Idaho plan allows for eight times as much harvesting and four times as much road building as the 2001 plan, this is still a better management plan. Answering presentation comments that these percentages weren't that much, he said, "Every inch does count for fish and wildlife."

Lane said conservation isn't about increasing wildlands, it's about managing human development. He raised concerns with such activities pressing farther into the back country and becoming a perpetual cycle of development and human intervention, such as through wildfire mitigation.

"We have some wonderful wilderness areas in this state," said Grangeville resident Gill Bates and coordinator for the Ida-Lew Economic Development Council. "We need a more hands-on approach to these lands and not exclude the public from them."

Spokesperson for the Intermountain Forest Association, Serena Carlson, supported the state's plan as "providing a legal framework for Idaho's rural communities to be able to protect themselves from the ravages of catastrophic wildfire."

The proposed rule clarifies the Forest Service's authority to use proper and careful stewardship to conduct activities that maintain forest health, which reduce significant risk situations before they threaten communities, she said. It also provides flexibility beyond the restrictions imposed in the 2001 rule.

Of Idaho's forest land, 72 percent is federally owned, accounting for 85 percent of Idaho's annual forest mortality but only 10 percent of the state's forest products. "Limited but necessary forest health projects allow the Forest Service to be a good neighbor for adjacent landowners and communities," Carlson said.