Craig’s Forest Management Measures To Be Unveiled Senator Plans To Split Proposals, Introduce Two Bills In September

A sweeping proposal to change national forest management laws likely will be split into two bills and introduced in September.

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig is tentatively planning to introduce his legislation in September and hold hearings through the fall, said Mark Rey, of the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

About 80 substantive changes have been made to the 100-page proposed legislation that reflect input from five hearings Craig held, Rey said. The final hearing was in Coeur d’Alene in March.

“We will be looking at a bill or bills that differ in some significant ways,” Rey said. Those changes will be revealed when the bill is introduced.

“We don’t want people to offer their views on a particular change without understanding the context,” Rey said. “The movie will be out soon enough so there’s no need for people to tell us what they think of the movie by looking at a photograph.”

The proposed legislation, first unveiled late last year, leaves almost no aspect of national forest management untouched. It has been hailed by the timber industry and blasted by environmentalists and former Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas.

The Craig package would do everything from turning national forest management over to the states to implementing $10,000 fines against people who file frivolous timber sale appeals. Frivolous appeals were not defined in the draft legislation.

Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist who was key in drafting the changes to the National Forest Management Act, will be in Coeur d’Alene Thursday for an appearance before the Federal Lands Task Force. The task force was established by the 1996 Idaho Legislature to investigate ways the state could manage federal lands.

Rey is supposed to address the group on land management issues, according to a press release. However, Rey said he sees this more as an opportunity to hear from the group.

The task force is meeting at the Hayden Lake Country Club between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday. U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, is scheduled to speak to the group Friday at 1:30 p.m.

The sessions are open to the public. Citizens can address the task force at 3 p.m. Friday.

, DataTimes