Batt Seeks Clear Path To Salvage Burned Timber Asks Clinton To Block Appeals By Environmental Groups

Gov. Phil Batt is asking the Clinton administration to limit environmentalist appeals which could hamper salvaging burned timber in Idaho’s national forests.

In a Tuesday letter to President Clinton, Batt said current estimates put the value of timber burned by the catastrophic wildfires of 1994 at $200 million in federal revenue, with a portion of that returned to Idaho counties as in-lieu of tax payments.

Batt said that since he took office in January, he heard some “environmental activist groups” have publicly committed to filing appeals to stop any or all salvage sales in Idaho.

The Republican governor said that if those appeals are successful, it will delay logging into the summer of 1996. Foresters contend allowing the burned trees to remain standing until next year will leave most of the wood worthless.

He asked the administration to quickly implement emergency rule changes to the current process to limit those appeals.

“Tens of millions in revenues to counties for schools and roads would also be at risk if these sales are jeopardized,” he wrote.

“Idahoans are counting on the federal government to act in a timely and efficient manner to salvage the hundreds of millions of board feet of burned timber in our state.”

“In the past, the U.S. Forest Service has seldom let our valuable timber resources go to waste when fires ravaged our state’s forest lands.”