Labor Wants State To Run Federal Lands Idaho Afl-Cio Says Forest Service In Legal, Political Gridlock Over Forests

The Idaho AFL-CIO wants the state Department of Lands to take over management of timberlands in North Idaho’s national forests.

More than 100 delegates at the union’s state convention approved a resolution on Wednesday seeking national AFL-CIO support for the proposal.

Labor leaders contend the U.S. Forest Service is in legal and political gridlock, making multiple use of the forests impossible and hurting Idaho timber workers.

Many Northwest mills have shut down permanently, and a University of Idaho researcher has concluded at least five more mills in the Clearwater Valley alone soon will be closed because of the lack of federal timber sales, according to the resolution.

Paul Bartlett of United Paperworkers International Union Local 712 in Lewiston said grass-roots natural resource groups have developed a proposal primarily aimed at the Clearwater, Nez Perce and Panhandle national forests.

They met with Idaho Gov. Phil Batt about it last month, Bartlett said.

Batt’s press secretary, Amy Kleiner, said the governor would be happy to go along with the proposal if the federal government provides the money with which to manage the forest lands.

In a March 6 letter to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. Larry Craig vowed to conduct a U.S. Forest Service oversight hearing on federal land ownership and management.

“In this case, I would like to evaluate various proposals to shift responsibilities for some management functions to state and local governments, as well as proposals to divest the federal government of some assets,” the Idaho Republican wrote.

Craig, chairman of a Senate subcommittee that oversees the Forest Service, plans another hearing during the Fourth of July recess in Lewiston or Grangeville, Idaho, to review impacts on local communities from changes in Forest Service programs, spokesman Bryan Wilkes said.