Your opinion isn't welcomed

Post Register editorial board members are Roger Plothow, publisher; J. Robb Brady, publisher emeritus; Marty Trillhaase, Opinions page editor; and Dean Miller, managing editor.

SPost Register editorial board members are Roger Plothow, publisher; J. Robb Brady, publisher emeritus; Marty Trillhaase, Opinions page editor; and Dean Miller, managing editor.

If you like irony, you'll love this -- to a point. Four years ago, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge dropkicked the Clinton-era rule protecting 58.5 million acres of roadless federal forests -- including more than 9.3 million acres in Idaho.

The reason: Not enough public involvement. The Clinton administration, running up to its final days in office, rushed things through. The public was shut out of the process, Lodge said.

That the judge ignored the popularity of Clinton's plan both nationally and in Idaho -- where it was endorsed by 64 percent -- isn't the irony.

It's that in crafting its own roadless forest policy, the Bush administration shows little interest in finding out what ordinary Idahoans want.

Bush has turned that process over to the governors, and in Idaho, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has turned it over to local county commissioners. He wants them to gather "local input."

But the governor has moved up the deadline.

Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment -- and former timber industry lobbyist -- Mark Rey wants Kempthorne's recommendation on how to manage Idaho's roadless lands by December 2006.

Kempthorne wants to wrap things up by March.

Why?

Is it mere coincidence that the campaign for Kempthorne's successor and every other major state and local office begins shortly after the governor's deadline? Is the governor trying to keep the roadless forest debate out of the election debate?

If that's not enough, the timetable in eastern Idaho makes it double difficult for you to be heard.

The region's county commissioners want to hold two quick hearings -- Sept. 13 and Oct. 11.

They're scheduled in St. Anthony.

That's inconvenient for the region's population center -- Bonneville County.

And it obscures the fact that most of this region's roadless forests -- 300,000 acres of the Targhee-Caribou National Forest -- are found in Bonneville County.

Then there's the format for gathering public comment.

Most county commissioners throughout Idaho don't want to hear whether you support or oppose opening up Idaho's roadless lands. They've devised a complicated form that requires you to know the exact location of each of the state's 240 roadless areas and how the Forest Service intends to manage them.

Get the sense of a fait accompli? Here's one more clue: Bonneville County Commissioner David Radford said he "hopes federal agencies hand more power back to states and counties."

Ironically, it all may be for naught. Whatever Kempthorne and other governors recommend, Rey gets the final word. That may be OK with Kempthorne. Both the governor and the undersecretary have no love for roadless lands.

But it's one more way to undercut public support for roadless lands -- especially in states where governors are more sympathetic to that concept.

That's why three states -- California, New Mexico and Oregon -- have already sued the feds to retain "the integrity of our roadless areas" as the California attorney general declared.

Left out of the equation in Idaho are the following:

• The cost of repairing Idaho's logging roads is $660 million. During the late l980s and 1990s, when roadless areas were managed at discretion of individual national forests, Idaho opened more than a million acres of undeveloped forest to roads.

• Idaho's huge roadless areas cradle some of the most productive fishing and hunting opportunities left in the West -- precisely because wildlife habitat is constantly shrinking in areas that have roads. Roadless Idaho yields 88 percent of the trophy-level elk hunting and 94 percent of the deer, for example. Fifty-eight percent of the westslope cutthroat trout, 74 percent of the steelhead and salmon and 68 percent of the best bull trout habitat are in the state's 240 roadless areas.

• Streams and forests in Idaho's roadless and wilderness areas are consistently healthier than forests with roads. If the nation is serious about saving endangered species, it undoubtedly would support preserving the roadless areas that harbor them.

• Many current national forest plans -- blocked by the Clinton rule but potentially activated under Bush -- would not protect land and water in roadless areas. Only 31 percent of the Payette National Forest and 27 percent of the Sawtooth forest are fully protected from road building and logging.

J. Robb Brady

Who to contact

Bonneville County commissioners

605 N. Capital Ave.

Idaho Falls, ID 83402

Bingham County commissioners

501 N. Maple St.

Blackfoot, ID 83221

Fremont County commissioners

151 W. First North

St. Anthony, ID 83445

Jefferson County commissioners

134 N. Clark

Rigby, ID 83442

Madison County commissioners

134 Main St.

Rexburg, ID 83440

Teton County commissioners

89 N. Main St.

Driggs, ID 83422

For more information on these and other stories see today'edition of the Post Register or subscribe online.

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