Risch took lead on environment

BOISE – In the 1980s and 1990s, when loggers, miners and ranchers were pitted against environmentalists in a battle over the future of Idaho’s forests, Jim Risch was a rising Republican politician.

Idaho Republicans never used the word environmentalist without the word “extreme” or something worse spit out before it. And Risch was firmly in their camp.

But in his seven months as Idaho’s governor, Risch tacked in a different direction, championing several environmental causes that reflect the changing face of the state’s politics and economy.

Risch rejected plans for a coal-fired plant in the state, citing protection of the air and water from mercury contamination.

“While I promote economic development throughout the state, the health implications of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants far outweigh any economic benefits,” Risch told the Idaho Statesman.

He helped usher in state protection of the Thousand Springs State Park near Hagerman and backed bills to create new wilderness in the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains and the Owyhee Canyonlands, even though it may have been politically expedient to stay silent.

The issue carved a rift in Idaho’s all-Republican congressional delegation with then-Rep. C.L. “Butch” Otter and Sen. Larry Craig sparring with the bills’ sponsors, Rep. Mike Simpson and Sen. Mike Crapo.

“Rather than pander to his conservative base, he reflected the common-sense conservation values held by the people of Idaho,” Rick Johnson, Idaho Conservation League executive director, told the Idaho Statesman.

This fall in eastern Idaho, Risch acted forcefully, ordering the Department of Fish and Game to kill escaped farm elk that threatened the genetic purity of Yellowstone National Park’s wild elk herds.

He brought together a large Republican coalition against Proposition 2, a ballot measure that opponents said threatened conservation and growth management.

Risch’s national forest roadless plan for Idaho brought praise from one of the authors of Democrat Bill Clinton’s roadless executive order, which then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and state leaders went to court to stop.

Since Clinton’s order, states have won the authority to write their own plans for the designated roadless areas, while the issue still winds through federal courts.

Risch’s plan would protect more than 8.6 million acres as roadless lands in Idaho, including 3.1 million acres with even stricter protection than Clinton’s plan.

Chris Wood, a former aide to Clinton’s chief forester, Mike Dombeck, now serves on an advisory panel that recommended that the Risch plan move forward.

“Unlike so many people who have engaged in this issue, Risch set aside the politics and focused on the substance,” Wood said. “Not only did he sidestep the controversy, his proposal is in some ways more protective than the status quo.”

Risch’s transformation reflects Idaho’s shifting priorities, said John Freemuth, a Boise State political scientist and senior fellow with the school’s Andrus Center for Public Policy.

Idaho’s economy now is based as much on quality of life as resources, he said.

Freemuth said Risch has become “a pragmatic Idaho Republican environmentalist with a little Teddy Roosevelt sprinkled in.”

Risch himself denied that he is a newfound environmentalist. He said his job as governor was to lead.

“I had a job to get done and I got it done,” Risch said.