Forest co-op effort challenged

June 6, 2011, Copyright Lewiston Tribune, Written by Eric Barker

Environmental group wants USDA chief to investigate relationship between Forest Service, collaborative

An environmental group is asking the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate the relationship between the Clearwater National Forest and the Clearwater Basin Collaborative.

Gary Macfarlane, ecosystem defense director of the Moscow-based Friends of the Clearwater, thinks the collaborative talks might be eroding the public involvement process outlined by the National Environmental Policy Act.

"These (collaborative) processes, although they sound nice, they tend to circumvent the existing public involvement process," he said. "When the Forest Service comes to do the NEPA process, is the fix already in? That is the crux of the question."

Macfarlane penned a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack earlier this spring outlining his concerns and requesting the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, to determine if the spirit or letter of environmental and procedural rules and laws have been adhered to.

The collaborative group, now in its third year, is made up of diverse interests, including representatives from conservation groups, the timber industry and local county governments. They are attempting to reach common ground on a wide range of topics, including new wilderness proposals and opportunities to help local timber-based economies. Some of their ideas involve forest management that could be implemented locally. Others, such as wilderness designation or federal payments to counties, would require an act of Congress.

The Forest Service is not a member of the group, but some employees work closely with it and help coordinate meetings. Agency officials have said the value in collaborative processes is the ability for people with opposing views to reach consensus on controversial issues and possibly avoid costly appeals and litigation. If the agency agrees with some of the ideas generated by the group it can adopt them with the confidence that there is some measure of support behind them.

Rick Brazell, supervisor of the Clearwater and Nez Perce national forests, said the group is helpful but it does has no power to implement its ideas. Even when the agency adopts recommendations from outside groups, he said it still has to go through the formal public notification and comment process.

"Their role is to collaborate and work with us and help us have a dialogue, but at the end of the day we make the decisions they don't," he said. "If they investigate us, that is fine. We haven't crossed any lines, nor would we."

Macfarlane acknowledges the group has no decision-making authority but he said because members invest so much time and work closely with the agency, their recommendations will tend to carry more weight than those held by people who are not part of the process.

"People who are going to invest the time in this are going to expect the recommendations they make are going to be implemented. If not, they are going to scream," Macfarlane said. "That is the problem with these kinds of processes. It's going to favor a certain group regardless of the good intentions."

He also questions whether the agency ought to be funding the group's activities. The collaborative receives funds from the North Central Idaho Resource Advisory Committee and it receives cost-share grants from the agency itself.

"Even if there is nothing wrong with this, should the federal government be the main funder of this process?" Macfarlane said.

The group has representatives from several conservation organizations, including Trout Unlimited, the Idaho Conservation League and the Wilderness Society.

Brad Brooks of the Wilderness Society said there is nothing wrong with the agency listening to the ideas of the group but it should listen to others as well.

"This is not a Forest Service process. The Forest Service listens into the meetings and we work with the Forest Service," Brooks said. "We are members of the public and the Forest Service listens to what we have to say just like anyone else. If the Forest Service were putting these groups together, I feel that would be different."

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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273.