Blm Faces Barrage Over Planned Restrictions Activist Claims Agencies Working On Exchange
Republican Rep. Helen Chenoweth and most of those speaking at a hearing on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management deny the agency’s contention it seeks more public involvement in range decisions than ever before.
Meanwhile, Hailey environmentalist Jon Marvel charges the BLM and state of Idaho are working on an exchange of public land, free from public input.
“There is an apparent lack of communication and trust between people who have traditionally used the resource and the public servants who are directed by Congress to manage the resource,” Chenoweth said in her opening statements at Saturday’s congressional oversight meeting in Boise.
Martha Haun, Idaho BLM director, said her agency is including opinions from such parties as Owyhee County and citizens groups’ in creating resource area management plans.
But a BLM proposal to limit the use of firearms and vehicles in the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, and grazing regulations, caught flak from the audience.
The agency is calling for the Birds of Prey restrictions after two people in the area were injured by stray bullets.
BLM officials were also alarmed by the damage to vegetation from four-wheel vehicles, which poses a threat to the area’s jackrabbit population and, in turn, golden eagles.
But Kuna Mayor Greg Nelson said the bureau did not expend much effort in asking local residents what they wanted in the Birds of Prey area. He said cutting recreational opportunities there will mean less dollars spent in Kuna.
Hailey architect Jon Marvel said a letter from Deputy State BLM Director David Brunner to Idaho Department of Lands Assistant Director Jay Biladeau spelled out the way the two agencies could trade public lands.
Marvel and the Idaho Watersheds Project have competed with ranchers for traditional state grazing permits, in an effort to show how moving herds away from streams saves them from damage.
The letter contains a draft “memorandum of understanding” that sets up the procedure for transferring as much as 400,000 acres of land in southern Idaho, he said. A rancher who is grazing stock on federal land to be transferred to the state would have a guarantee of grazing rights without a conflict auction.
State lands that go to the BLM would no longer benefit the state School Endowment Fund, he said.
The memo explains that before the federal grazing land would be transferred to the state, the BLM would give the federal permittee a 10-year grazing permit. The state would honor that, and then grant a second non-consecutive permit. At the end of 20 years, conflict auctions could be held.
A stockman using state lands would get a 10-year permit from the BLM when the property shifted to the federal ground.
“Exchanging lands may be a good idea, but do we want them tied up for the benefit of some welfare ranchers?” Marvel asked. “They could sign it tomorrow.”
xxxx AT ISSUE The BLM wants to limit the use of firearms and vehicles in the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, and grazing regulations.