Loggers Want Batt To Go To Bat For Environment

Gov. Phil Batt says concern for the environment doesn’t mean good sense should be ignored.

Associated Logging Contractors Inc., Idaho’s independent loggers, on Wednesday took Batt on a helicopter trip over areas of the Payette National Forest burned in vast forest fires last summer.

Members want to enlist the governor’s help in getting the federal government to allow salvage logging in the burned areas before all the timber value is lost.

Batt was sympathetic, although he noted the state Lands Department has been able to move quickly to allow harvest in state forest lands burned in last summer’s fires.

He said it was “tragic” that so much salvageable timber apparently will be lost because the federal government can’t move quickly.

“Our goal is to make everybody aware of the urgency of getting this dead timber out of here, before it is useless,” said Jack Buell of St. Maries, one of the hosts for the trip. He’s a Benewah County commissioner and president of the loggers association.

Skip White, lobbyist for independent loggers, said they wanted the governor to have a personal look at fire damage. “We want to have an impact on the Forest Service through him,” he said.

Ned Pence, a forester working for the association, told Batt some of the fire-damaged timber already has lost its value, but some of the trees can be salvaged if work starts quickly.

Those associated with the logging industry said that the Forest Service is so tied up with rules and regulations that it won’t be able to move quickly enough to salvage the timber.

The tour went over areas with many trees killed by bark beetles, and then burned by intense forest fires.

The group landed near Pearl Creek, north of McCall, in the middle of a burned area. “It’s a sorry sight, isn’t it?” Batt said.