Letter-writing party to oppose Upper Lochsa plan
Several groups opposed to the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange are hosting a letter-writing party to Idaho's congressional delegation beginning at 4 p.m. Thursday (Feb 6) at the Garden Lounge in Moscow. The proposed exchange would trade 40,000 acres of commercial timberland owned by Western Pacific Timber in Idaho's upper Lochsa drainage for 18,000 acres of Forest Service land. The event is sponsored by Friends of the Clearwater, Friends of the Palouse Ranger District, Palouse-Great Old Broads for Wilderness and Palouse-Sierra Club.
In September, members of Idaho's congressional delegation sent Forest Service officials a letter, asking the agency to pause administrative work on the controversial exchange. Instead, U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo and U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador said that legislation might be a better way to achieve a land exchange that balances national interests in acquiring environmentally sensitive land "with the interest of Tribal and local governments and the people of Idaho."