Public meetings on the proposed rules for management of Idaho roadless areas are set for Cascade and Council next week.
The Cascade meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Monday at the Valley County Courthouse, while the Council meting will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Adams County Courthouse.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service announced its plans for protections and management for roadless areas in Idaho.
The plan is based on the state's petition submitted to the Forest Service in the fall of 2006, first tendered by then Gov. James Risch and endorsed by Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter.
The meetings will be opened by a local county commissioner and will include a presentation by representatives of the Forest Service and the state.
Public comment and questions will follow. Due to the expected attendance at these meetings
comments will be limited to three minutes per person.
A bus sponsored by the Secesh Wildlands Coalition will leave from McCall City Hall at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday to attend the Council meeting.
In California, Oregon, and Washington the earlier rulings have resulted in wilderness being protected and other roadless lands being released for other uses, said Mike Medberry, spokesman for the Secesh Wildlands Coalition.
"Our hope is that this process will provide the same sort of certainty for all of the diverse interests in central Idaho," Medberry said. "The time has come to resolve this contentious issue."
Comments will be taken until April 7 (by email) IDcomments@ fsroadless.org.
Written comments should be addressed to Roadless Area Conservation-Idaho, P.O. Box 162909, Sacramento, CA 95816-2909, or via FAX to (916) 456-6724.
Information on the plan is available at http://roadless.fs.fed.us/idaho.shtml.
Payette roadless areas
The state's recommendations for use of roadless areas on the Payette National Forest closely matches those already in place.
On the Payette forest, more than 900,000 acres of national forest have previously been designated as roadless in 22 separate areas. The areas range from the 247,000-acre Secesh roadless area east of Donnelly to the 390 acre Poison Creek area west of Donnelly that is adjacent to a roadless area on the Boise National Forest.
The state developed four categories for the roadless areas, ranging from de facto wilderness to areas that would be heavily logged. Here is a summary of those designations and the areas recommended on the Payette forest:
Wild Land Recreation
The Wild Land Recreation designation would be applied to areas that show "little evidence of historical or human use," according to a report on the roadless area released by the governor's
office.
The state recommends the areas be managed "to protect the wilderness characteristics and primitive recreation opportunities of the area." The state stopped short of recommending the areas as designated wilderness areas, saying that role was reserved by law for Congress.
Logging would be limited to those areas necessary for wildfire prevention and forest health.
These two areas, totaling about 206,000 acres in two areas, are recommended for Wild Land Recreation on the Payette:
- Needles: 91,054 acres.
- Secesh: 115,292 acres.
The areas, which are adjacent to each other east of Donnelly, have been recommended for wilderness designation in previous roadless studies.
Primitive Areas
Lands recommended as Primitive Areas are similar to the Wild Land Recreation areas but "fall short of the Forest Service's suitability criteria," according to the governor's report.
A variety of motorized and non-motorized uses would be allowed, as would campsites, major trailheads and other recreation sites.
There would be no roads or intensive timber management, but logging would be limited to that necessary for wildfire prevention and forest health. Areas recommended by the state for Primitive
Areas total about 176,000 acres in nine areas. They include:
- Cottontail Point/Pilot Peak: 37,203 acres.
- Council Mountain: 16,454 acres.
- Cuddy Mountain: 36,455 acres.
- French Creek: 11,994 acres.
- Hells Canyon/Seven Devils Scenic Area: 29,531 acres.
- Indian Creek: 4,806 acres.
- Needles: 10,944 acres.
- Patrick Butte: 24,979 acres.
- Placer Creek: 4,100 acres.
Backcountry/Restoration Areas
Areas recommended as Backcountry/Restoration Areas are those "where evidence of human use may or may not be present," according to the state's summary.
The are as would be managed to provide a variety of recreational uses, including trailheads, developed and non-developed sites, and ATV and snowmobile use.
Logging would be limited to those necessary for fire management and forest health.
Areas recommended as Backcountry/Restoration Areas total about 442,000 acres in 15 areas. They include:
- Big Creek Fringe: 1,083 acres.
- Caton Lake: 44,205 acres.
- Chimney Rock: 8,490 acres.
- Cottontail Point/Pilot Peak: 55,656 acres.
- Crystal Mountain: 12,984 acres.
- French Creek: 75,799 acres.
- Horse Heaven: 13,438 acres.
- Meadow Creek: 8,160 acres.
- Needles: 29,117 acres.
- Patrick Butte: 54,466 acres.
- Placer Creek: 2,830 acres.
- Poison Creek: 390 acres.
- Secesh: 121,871 acres.
- Sheep Gulch: 5,805 acres.
- Sugar Mountain: 10,333 acres.
General Forest
Areas recommended as General Forest, Grassland and Rangeland Areas already show high levels of human use, including roads, facilities, logging, grazing and mining, the state's summary said.
General Forest areas would be managed to provide a broad range of motorized and non-motorized uses, but would still retain some their roadless qualities. Intensive logging would take place in these areas.
Two areas totaling only 2,745 acres would be designated as General Forest on the Payette, including:
- Cuddy Mountain: 2,670 acres.
- French Creek: 75 acres.
Removal of Areas
The state's recommendations says six areastotaling26,000 acres should be removed from the list of roadless areas because they have roads in them or because they need to be logged for forest health. The largest of these areas would be 16,562 acres in the Council Mountain area.
Special Areas
The governor's proposal urges preservation of several "special areas" that are embedded within roadless areas along with accompanying restrictions.
Examples of special areas are:
- Historic sites and pioneer areas.
- Recommended or designated scenic, wild and recreational rivers
- Geological special interest areas
Wildfire Protection
The state's recommendation also designates areas of the forest that are near areas with full-time or vacation homes that are at risk from wildfire.
Those areas should be managed to remove overgrowth of timber and brush or diseased trees that could allow a wildfire the spread to those homes, the report said.
