Timber payments to expire

Despite almost unanimous support, a program that has pumped more than $1 billion into rural schools and highways may be running out of time.

Last week, the Bush administration’s top forestry official declined to endorse reauthorization of the so-called Craig-Wyden program – named after its sponsors, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. – which was instituted five years ago to rescue rural areas from the economic doldrums following the collapse of the federal timber harvest.

Extending the Secure Rural School and Community Self-Determination Act through 2013 has widepread support in Congress, but political experts and congressional staffers say the bill’s passage no longer is guaranteed.

Shoshone County Commissioner Sherry Krulitz testified about the law’s importance before a U.S. Senate panel Tuesday.

“Without the Craig-Wyden safety net, we’d be in big trouble,” said Krulitz, who chairs the National Association of Counties’ public lands committee.

Last year, the bill sent $23 million to Idaho and $45 million to Washington, with most of the money going to the states’ counties with the lowest property tax base. These counties blame some of their economic malaise on their abundance of federal land – three-quarters of Shoshone County’s acreage is managed by federal agencies. Federal ground does not contribute to the county tax base. This wasn’t a major concern during most of the 20th century, when a quarter of all proceeds from the federal timber program was sent back to counties, Krulitz said.

After court cases and law changes drastically reduced the timber cut from federal land, the Craig-Wyden law intervened and allowed counties to receive a payment from the federal government. The amount was based on the average of the county’s top-three years of timber receipts. The law is set to expire in 2006.

Shoshone County received $4 million last year, with about a third of the money going to schools and most of the rest helping to pay for maintaining the county’s 400-some miles of roads, Krulitz said.

“This was the most important legislation in the 17 years I’ve been a county commissioner,” Krulitz said.

Northeast Washington could be particularly hard-hit should the Craig-Wyden program expire. Ferry County alone receives just under $1 million a year from the program, which represents nearly two-thirds of the county’s federal and state funds, said county commission chairman Mike Blankenship. Combined with anticipated cuts in federal transportation dollars, the county could face a crisis, he said.

“When you do both of those, you shut down Ferry County to the point that we’ll have to lay off a lot of our road crew,” Blankenship said. “The president’s budget right now could devastate my entire public works department.”

Apart from schools and roads, Craig-Wyden money also has been funneled into dozens of natural resource conservation projects across the region by citizen committees. These resource advisory committees include environmentalists, timber company executives, tribal members and school officials, among others.

The Colville Resource Advisory Committee has been responsible for directing about $1.4 million since 2000 towards projects ranging from weed control to bridge replacements, according to information from the U.S. Forest Service. The Panhandle Resource Advisory Committee, one of the most active in the nation, has directed more than $5 million toward projects in North Idaho, including restoring trout streams, building a trail near Sandpoint and thinning the forest atop Coeur d’Alene’s Canfield Mountain.

These committees have been widely praised for their ability to bring together diverse interests to produce results on the ground, said John Freemuth, a Boise State University political scientist and expert on public land management.

“Given all the natural resources wars, that’s a decent achievement,” Freemuth said.

Ending the $350 million annual program would shock communities across the West, Freemuth added. “Where the heck else are they going to get that money? If you really want to cut the budget, this is a ridiculous thing to cut.”

The bill is not directly tied to the president’s proposed budget, but all renewals of federal spending programs are facing tough battles. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who helped draft the original bill while he worked as a staffer for Craig, refused to endorse an extension of the bill during testimony last week.

“It’s a very difficult budget environment right now,” Rey explained to members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Andrew Whiting, press secretary for Craig, said the bill’s widespread support in Congress gives it good odds of passage. The reauthorization bill was introduced by Craig on Feb. 2. Both of Washington’s senators are listed among the eight co-sponsors, as is Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.

“Its chances are pretty good,” Whiting said. “Our only real concern is with the budget. … With the situation we’re in right now, it’ll be harder to get that through.”