Firm Wants Basin Plan Kept Alive Boise Cascade Hopes Logging Aided; Nethercutt Sought Cut

Boise Cascade Corp. wants lawmakers to restore budget cuts that threaten to shut down the federal government’s regional land-use planning process in the Columbia River Basin.

The Idaho-based timber company sees environmental impact studies being done for preparation of land-management plans as the fastest way to boost logging on federal lands, which has slowed to a crawl in much of the region.

Last month, Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., persuaded the House Appropriations Committee to cut off funds for the project after Dec. 31.

Ranchers and farmers applauded, saying that the regional land-use planning hasn’t been open enough and might lead to new interference with their uses of public and private lands. Others said it might also make it easier for environmentalists’ lawsuits to shut down grazing and logging.

Immediately at stake are two regional environmental impact studies that would pave the way for incorporating new scientific knowledge and public preferences into land-management plans for 83 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands.

Yet it’s not clear that the process can be turned off. Scientific studies to underpin the environmental reviews are due to be completed and analyzed in the next few months. If they identify resource damage, federal agencies are required by law to make adjustments in their management plans.

Boise Cascade, one of the biggest private landowners in the region, assigned a team of consultants to work with the Columbia Basin scientists and planners.

The company looks to the process for relief from temporary restrictions on logging that the new plans are supposed to replace, company spokesman Doug Bartels said Friday.

Other timber firms are divided on the subject.

Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas plans to visit the region this week to defend the regional ecosystem planning.

He has said that killing the regional planning would force agencies to spend far more time and money updating plans on a piecemeal basis.