Environmental issues

There have been several reports in the Herald concerning efforts by out of state environmental groups to block timber sales and other thinning operations in Boundary County.

Although several important criticisms of these actions have been made by community leaders, it seems to me that three central issues have not been fully addressed.

The first is that we live in what is quite literally an attractive forested environment that is rapidly growing in population.

Nearly every aspect of our economy depends to some extent, directly or indirectly, on a healthy, forested ecosystem.

Healthy, sustainable, forests require careful planning, management, and capital.

Any holder of forestland, private or public, needs a profitable return on investment and management costs— otherwise the private owner has no reason to own and maintain timberland, and public owners will not have the income needed for proper management of the land, recreational uses, or lieu of taxes payments to local government.

There will be pressure to privatize publicly owned forests.

What is happening now, increasingly, is that forest owners are restrained from selling the products of good management and processors are prevented from an adequate and reliable supply.

The ramifications for this community are many and obvious.

Secondly, strong environmentalist that I am, dealing and observing some of these environmental groups up close can't help but leave a sour taste in ones mouth.

I think it is fair to say that certain of these groups have not, nor did they ever intend to, negotiate in good faith with local elected officials, community organizations, or governmental entities.

Their lack of respect for local concerns, experience, knowledge, and expertise was all too obvious. It is essential that the local community have an important say in the management of the local resources— it is our future.

Yet I had the strong sense that these environmental groups viewed this as a threat.

Finally, I think that community leaders and other stakeholders are making a major, major, mistake if they don't challenge these groups on environmental grounds.

* What are their environmental credentials?

* Who do they actually represent, and who are they responsible to?

* Attack them directly on environmental grounds: how can NOT managing forests in a sustainable, profitable way in the twenty first century be sound environmental practice?

My observations are, that all too often, these "environmental" organizations are driven more by a kind of inflexible ideological fundamentalism than they are dealing with environmental issues in a practical and useful way-

Thank you,

Cleve Shearer

Bonners Ferry