Group Calls For Updated Land Policy Wilderness Society Pitches Emphasis On Conservation

Logging, mining and farming no longer drive the Inland Northwest economy and officials should stop managing public lands to benefit these dying industries, an environmental group said Tuesday.

With the Spokane River as a backdrop, Wilderness Society President Jon Roush called on Congress, the Forest Service and other agencies to “bury the myth that this region is dependent upon resource extraction for its economic well-being.”

Rather, Roush said, public lands should be managed to conserve timber, minerals and vegetation which provides an attractive environment for tourists, retirees and small business owners who are the new fuel for Inland Northwest growth.

The society’s conclusions, which were disputed by an university economist, come at a time when the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are completing a mammoth analysis of federal lands from Utah to the Cascade Mountains that will be used to update 70 forest plans with a single effort. The society is worried that the study, known as the Eastside Ecosystem Management project, will steer public lands into the hands of timber and mining companies and ranchers.

“Increasingly, these industries don’t account for the growth,” Roush said. “What gives this region an advantage is its environment.”

Backing these claims, the society released a 60-page study by Ray Rasker, an economist at the society’s Bozeman, Mont., regional office. “A New Home on the Range: Economic Realities in the Columbia River Basin,” shows that personal income and other economic indicators were flat in resource industries between 1969-93, while services, retailing, construction and other non-resource industries posted strong gains.

However, Charley McKetta, a University of Idaho forest economist, said the society’s conclusions are flawed.

While it’s true that statistics show a regional economy shifting away from resource-based industries, dozens of individual counties and communities continue to rely heavily on logging, mining and ranching for their livelihood. These are too small to measure in a broad, regional study, and public policy based on such findings could do significant damage to many small towns, he said.

“For instance, if you shut down Silverwood, it would have an unbelievable effect on Athol, Idaho,” McKetta said. “But measured across the Northwest, it wouldn’t be a blip.”

“So if you’re going to build in the human factor, the question is which humans do you consider important?”

, DataTimes