CANYON CITY – Grant County’s Healthy Private Timberlands Study is done – so now what?
The Grant County Court decided last week not to let the study just sit on a shelf, often the fate of government reports and studies.
At the Court’s May 1 meeting, Sue Newstetter, the county’s Title III coordinator, proposed a facilitated, one-day session so the Court and interested parties can hash out the county’s next steps.
The study, done by Boise-based Forest Resources Affairs (FRA), lists 19 possible “action items” the county can take to bolster the health and economic viability of its private forest land. Although much smaller than the amount of public land in Grant County, the private timberlands offer significant economic potential and could be a factor in keeping the local sawmill running, the study found.
The actions listed by the report aren’t in priority, as FRA principal Bill Dryden felt the county should determine its own priorities.
Dryden’s team would come in to run the meeting.
Newstetter said the goal would be to select three to five actions “that we can put to work.”
The Court agreed to fund the session out of Title III funds, which also paid for the study. As a continuation of the original project, the new spending – estimated at $7,940 – doesn’t require a 45-day comment period.
Commissioner Chris Labhart agreed that too many studies end up on the shelf.
“This is too important not to do something with it,” he said.
Actions offered by the study include:
• Providing technical assistance or financial assistance programs for private timberland owners.
• Monitoring and pursuing more juniper control.
• Engage landowners in Community Wildfire Protect Plan efforts to protect timberland.
• Explore the potential for a logging skills and forest management training program, perhaps through a community college, in Grant County.
• Monitor carbon credit issues.
• Look into the potential for market-based partnerships for watershed services.
• Assess potential of biomass, tourism, and secondary wood products industries.
• Consider a county-facilitated land exchange program to increase private or county timberlands ownership.
While the study’s focus was on private lands, it acknowledges that the fate of those lands is linked to the state of federal forests. A couple of options target that relationship, suggesting a shaded fuel breaks program and a sanitation and salvage program on Forest Service lands. The former would mitigate the risk of catastrophic fire moving onto private lands, while the latter could provide material for local manufacturing while cleaning up timber stands.
In other business, the Court also moved ahead on Sheriff Glenn Palmer’s plan to purchase swift-water rescue equipment and training. The Court has agreed to spend up to $8,000 out of the remaining old Title III money for the project.
Final approval of the spending is expected after a required 45-day public comment period, which will end June 21.
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