Off-road advocate hires former Craig aide

BOISE – An advocate of motorized off-road recreation has hired a former aide to U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, to help fight a proposed wilderness in central Idaho that passed the U.S. House last year but stalled in the Senate.

Mike Tracy, Craig’s former communications director, was hired in May by Joe B. Scott, grandson of supermarket founder Joe Albertson and a promoter of motorized access to public land. Tracy will consult and lobby against a plan sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, for a 300,000-acre wilderness area in the Boulder-White Cloud mountains near Sun Valley.

Sandra Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Scott’s Idaho Land Fund, said Scott opposes the wilderness designation because it would forbid mechanized vehicle access in an area now popular with ORVs, snowmobiles and mountain bikes.

Simpson’s bill was reintroduced this January, though it has yet to get a hearing in a Democratic-led Congress.

Still, the hiring of Craig’s trusted former adviser – Tracy was the senator’s top spokesman for nearly a decade until April 2006 – is a sign opposing sides are beginning to brace themselves for a fight later this year and are jockeying for access to lawmakers who make the decisions.

“Mike Tracy has a history of working on resource issues, on public land issues and he understands the needs of the people,” Mitchell said. “The fact that he worked for Larry Craig is certainly part of his resume, but it’s not the thing that attracted us to Mike Tracy.”

Mitchell also helps lead the Idaho State Snowmobile Association, which is fighting the wilderness plan.

Tracy said he’ll be doing “basic public relations work.”

“What we’re trying to do is get information out about the bill that’s factual and that’s germane to the legislation and to the people it will affect,” said Tracy, who added that he fears a measure that emerges this year could be more restrictive than the one that died last December.

Simpson aides said the hiring of Craig’s former staffer could be a sign the bill’s foes are concerned it could fare well in Congress this year.

Simpson is now trying to muster support for his wilderness package among lawmakers including Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Nikki Watts, a Simpson spokeswoman in Boise.

“It’s disappointing that individuals such as Sandra Mitchell feel it necessary to hire a high-priced firm to mislead the public on Congressman Simpson’s legislation that is overwhelmingly supported by Idahoans,” Watts said.

The bill, known as the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, has long been controversial.

It has split environmentalists including the Idaho Conservation League, which favors it, and singer Carole King, who is against it – largely because of provisions to give almost 4,000 acres of public Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property to central Idaho cities and counties to sell, manage or develop into housing or public facilities.

When told of Tracy’s hiring, bill advocates countered that motorized vehicle users would fare well with provisions that would give a 960-acre parcel of BLM land near Boise to Idaho for a new off-road vehicle state park.

“It’s a compromise,” said Linn Kincannon of the Idaho Conservation League. “Rep. Simpson forged it in Idaho with Idahoans. If the Sandra Mitchells of the world think they need more lobbying power, then maybe it is difficult to fight an Idaho solution. Maybe you do need extra help for that.”

For much of last year, Craig opposed the measure.

For instance, he demanded Congress pay all ranchers and other stakeholders their promised compensation for losing grazing access before the area’s boundaries were designated.

Craig gave up his opposition in December, which didn’t prevent the measure from dying in last-minute Senate negotiations. This year, Craig is waiting to see if the bill makes it to the Senate again – and if it does, how Democrats change it – before deciding whether to back it. “If the bill came forward as we saw the finished product last year, he’d probably support that,” said Sidney Smith, a Craig spokesman in Boise. “But we’re probably a long way from seeing a finished product from the House side.