Roadless Plan Goes To A Vote Counties Opposing More Roadless Areas In Federal Forests Take Pulse Of Residents

Timber-dependent counties in Idaho and Montana will ask voters whether they support a federal roadless forest initiative.

The May 23 primary ballot in Boundary County will include an advisory vote on the plan to ban road building in 43 million acres of national forests across the country.

Commissioners in Boundary County strenuously oppose the plan, but want to make sure their constituents feel the same way.

“It bothers us,” said Commission Chairman Kevin Lederhos. “We feel strongly that the people we represent also feel that way.”

Idaho has roughly 8 million acres of roadless area. Of that, 211,167 acres are in Boundary County.

That’s a quarter of the county.

The county, where 60 percent of the land is federally owned, benefited economically from timber sales as abundant as 50 million board feet a year in the 1970s and ‘80s. In the 1990s, sales were around 25 million board feet annually, and in the last couple years have dipped to 8 to 9 million board feet, said Elaine Zieroth, district ranger.

She said it’s getting more difficult to sell 25 million board feet.

“We did a lot of closures for grizzly bears,” she said. “We do more winter logging, but now we have to be more concerned about lynx in the winter.”

Such closures anger Boundary County residents who depend on federal forests for their livelihood, or others who see the closures and road-building bans as intrusive.

“It’s been a pretty big hit,” Lederhos said. “We live here and enjoy our forest on a daily basis. If we don’t manage on a daily basis, then with every passing day the chance of losing that forest is heightened, from diseased and dying trees or catastrophic fire.”

Boundary County officials learned of the ballot measure from the Idaho Association of Cities, which was asked by Fremont County to spread the idea.

Fremont County, in southeast Idaho, held a similar advisory vote last year when the Targhee National Forest was revising its forest plan.

“We gave voters a choice between preferred alternative of the Forest Service and our alternative,” said Fremont Commissioner Neil Christiansen. “Our alternative passed by 78 percent. Of course, it didn’t make any difference.”

Part of the motivation for running the advisory ballot was to counter information released by environmental groups, he said.

“Their polls say what they want to have said, and you can go on the street and talk to people and you can’t find anybody who agrees with them,” Christiansen said.

The Idaho Conservation League recently released results from a poll that found most Idahoans support the federal roadless plan.

A draft Environmental Impact Statement with more details on the plan was just released Tuesday. The ballots for the primary were printed before its release, so do not contain up-to-date information about the roadless plan.

For instance, the ballot says that the policy advocates more road closures, when in fact the plan bans new roads in certain roadless areas but does not suggest more closures of existing roads.

The advisory ballot will also be at the polls in Lincoln County, Mont., where the idea originated.

“We do not approve of any addition in roadless area,” said Lincoln County Commissioner Rita Windom. “But we want to make sure we have the consensus of our constituency.”

Susan Drumheller can be reached at (208) 263-6441 or by e-mail at susand@spokesman.com.

This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETING Forest plan

The Bonners Ferry Ranger District will hold a meeting to share information and gather comments on the draft roadless plan at 6:30 p.m., May 25th. The meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held in the Fire Hall.