Idaho’s largest geographical county wants the federal government to roll back restrictions on 1.7 million acres of public land. The move would open up the land to logging, road building and more.
Idaho County Commissioner Skip Brandt told lawmakers recently at an interim committee meeting that people love public lands – in theory. If they’re not physically fit enough to backpack or have access to horses, then they often don’t visit them.
“My contention is that the wilderness is a land of no use as it stands. It’s just sitting there ready to cook,” Brandt said.
Ready to cook, as in the wilderness is vulnerable to wildfire.
He wants to ease that concern by peeling back restrictions on 1.7 million acres covered by Idaho’s Roadless Rule.
That’s a state and federal agreement regulating road building, logging and other development on certain public lands. Its goal is to keep ecosystems intact.
Redesignating these acres to the least restrictive category would allow for more active wildfire mitigation work and timber harvesting.
More than 80% of Idaho County is public land.
“We are that poster child of being over restricted where the rest of the state isn’t as bad as we are,” Brandt said.
Gov. Brad Little and U.S. Sen. Jim Risch wrote a letter to Brandt, telling him and the commission to show examples of blocked projects and wildfire risks in their proposal to help make their case.
Brandt said he’s working on finishing his “due diligence” before submitting the proposal to the head of the U.S. Forest Service, who has to sign off on the change.
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