Valley Journal
Valley Journal

This Week’s e-Edition

Current Events

Latest Headlines

What's New?

Send us your news items.

NOTE: All submissions are subject to our Submission Guidelines.

Announcement Forms

Use these forms to send us announcements.

Birth Announcement
Obituary

Send comments on national forest transfer by Aug. 31

Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local. You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.



Subscribe now to stay in the know!

Already a subscriber? Login now

Editor,

Recently there have been letters from Marc Racicot, Greg Hertz and Carmine Mowbray supporting transferring management of 60,000 acres of Flathead National Forest land to Montana DNRC. This coincides with the 2016 Republican platform, page 21: “Federal ownership or management of land also places an economic burden on counties and local communities in terms of lost revenue to pay for things such as schools, police, and emergency services. It is absurd to think that all the acreage must remain under the absentee ownership or management of official Washington. Congress shall immediately pass universal legislation providing for a timely and orderly mechanism requiring the federal government to convey certain federally controlled public lands to the states.” How do they intend to gain support for this? They are doing it by handicapping the federal land management agencies and saying they are not doing their job. In 2003 the Forest Service had 31,250 employees, in 2013, 24,794. In 1995 18 percent of FS budget was spent on fires, in 2016, 52 percent. With increased fire activity, more employees have to work fires and other work canceled. Why not fund catastrophic fires with FEMA? President Trump’s 2018 budget continues the trend, proposing a 21 percent cut to the FS Budget. What about absentee ownership and management? The owners are all U.S. citizens including Lake County citizens. Management is accomplished at local ranger stations in conformance with laws passed by the U.S. Congress. Congress authorizes Payment in Lieu of Taxes. How can transfer of management, much less ownership, be ethical in light of congressional budgets, regulations and reduction of employees? It is extremely unlikely that our U.S. Congress would change laws to only transfer management of 60,000 acres. Send your comments to swanstudy@gmail. com or mail to 64352 Hwy 93, Ronan 59864 by Aug 31.

Curt Rosman
Charlo

 

Sponsored by: