Panel Begins Study Of Cooperative Management Of Land

If the state moves into cooperative management of federal lands within the state, it will be on a very selective basis, on a project almost guaranteed to succeed.

“We have to make it successful,” said state Rep. Charles Cuddy, D-Orofino.

He’s co-chairman of an 18-member task force that will spend the next 20 months deciding whether Idaho should try for management control over federal land within the state.

“We need to seriously pick an area we know we can manage for starters,” Cuddy said at the group’s organizing meeting at the Statehouse on Tuesday .

The Legislature directed the state Land Board to set up a panel to explore the possibilities of joint federal-state management of federal natural resources within the state.

Attorney General Alan Lance, a member of the Land Board, said it was a good idea to explore.

“We need to take a look at whether Idaho has a place at the table when talking about management of those lands,” Lance said.

The panel’s other co-chairman, state Sen. Judi Danielson, R-Council, said some people have the wrong idea, that the state wants to take title to land in Idaho now held by the federal government.

“We are talking about co-management issues with the federal government,” she said. “We need to look at some pilot projects, and their feasibility.”

Cuddy suggested electing pilot projects, one on each side of the Salmon River drainage.

He said it would be a bad idea for the state to take over control of national forests and other federal property.

For at least 10 years, that would drain the state treasury, Cuddy said, and the state’s only option would be to sell land.

The panel plans public hearings around the state. It’s obligated to produce a report to the Land Board by June 30, 1998, on how to proceed.