Boise Cascade Trying To Slow System, Group Says Conservation League Says Corporate Memo Urges 23,000 To Seek Government Documents

An Idaho environmental group is accusing Boise Cascade Corp. of holding up a controversial proposal to protect roadless federal forests.

A corporate e-mail memo obtained by the Idaho Conservation League includes a request encouraging all Boise Cascade employees to ask the U.S. Forest Service for a hard copy of the roadless proposal. The firm employs 23,000 nationwide, including 1,900 in Idaho.

The public can view the proposal by requesting the three-inch-thick set of documents. People can also get a shorter summary or the same information in CD-ROM form.

Company officials say they are simply trying to inform Boise Cascade workers about an important issue.

But the Boise-based conservation group charges that the company wants to make the federal government look bad by swamping the agency with requests it can’t fill in a timely manner.

It’s unlikely each employee needs their own copy, said John McCarthy, ICL’s executive director.

“They’re trying to manipulate the comment system to stall it out,” McCarthy said.

Employees who request - but don’t get - copies of the documents can testify at summer hearings that they asked for the documents but didn’t get them in time to review them and comment, he said.

The May 26 Boise Cascade e-mail memo was provided by ICL to The Spokesman-Review.

The memo states, “We would like to be able to comment at public meetings and in written comments that, among other flaws in this process, multiple individuals requested a full (document) and did not receive it until some late date which did not provide them enough opportunity to comment on the proposed rule.”

Boise Cascade officials said they were familiar with the memo.

The company is in the midst of a lawsuit against the Forest Service over the roadless issue. The timber industry and several other forest user groups oppose the roadless proposal, fearing logging and access cutbacks.

Boise Cascade believes the Forest Service is moving ahead with protection regardless of public opposition, company spokesman Mike Moser said.

But Moser dismissed allegations that the company is doing anything wrong. Boise Cascade is giving workers access to documents that help them understand pending changes in the rural communities where they live, he said.

“Furnishing employees with information is no different than furnishing members of an environmental group with information and asking them to participate,” he said. “We’re having a little bit of a problem understanding why this is even news.”

The Forest Service roadless proposal bans new roads on at least 43 million acres of national forests around the country, including roughly 8 million acres in Idaho.

A draft Environmental Impact Statement came out last month. Regional public hearings continue through the summer. It was unclear Tuesday how many documents the Forest Service could ship out before supplies ran out.