Public lands issues advance

On balance, the first session of the 105th Congress has been a good one for public lands issues. Top of the agenda - additional funding for Payments In Lieu of Taxes Programs (PILT) - the number one legislative priority for the NACo public lands. For the second time since 1976, Congress bumped up funding by six percent to $120 million.

Another major priority is the reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The program has been operating without authorizing legislation since 1990, but Congress has chosen to continue the program through annual appropriations.

A breakthrough occurred when Senator Dirk Kempthorne (R-Idaho) introduced S. 1180, a comprehensive rewrite of the ESA that has received bipartisan support and the Administration's blessing. It contains many of the concepts proposed by the NACo Public Lands Committee two years ago. It is likely to receive Senate consideration early next year.

Forest health is another issue of critical interest to the Western Interstate Region (WIR) and the Public Lands Steering Committee. Both groups have devoted significant time to learning about, discussing and proposing solutions.

Their efforts are beginning to pay off. House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Bob Smith (R-Ore.) has introduced H.R. 2515, a significant legislative vehicle to spark debate in Congress and focus attention on this very serious problem.

Public Lands counties also support another forest health bill, H.R. 858, known as the Quincy Library bill, and sponsored by Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.). It has passed the House and is expected to soon pass the Senate. This legislation would establish a pilot forest health project in the northern Sierra Nevada area of California. Former Plumas County (Calif.) Supervisor (and WIR President) Bill Coates was instrumental in the creation of the grassroots Quincy Library Project, and was the catalyst for the support behind the legislation.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has introduced a comprehensive forest management bill which would incorporate forest health projects into the core responsibilities of federal land management agencies. NACo has testified during workshops on the development of the bill and will be working with Craig and his staff.

One of the debates on public land management over the past several years has been over grazing policy and grazing fees. The House has passed new grazing legislation, H.R. 2493, a bipartisan compromise, that may relieve pressure on Congress to enact more extensive legislation.

It increases fees and establishes new standards for managing federal grazing lands. NACo supports efforts to resolve this long-standing dispute.

Another important victory for counties in the first session of the 105th Congress was the defeat of amendments to the Interior Appropriations bill that would have significantly reduced the forest roads program and eliminated purchaser road credits.

Passage of these amendments would have cost timber counties scores of millions of dollars by the elimination of shared revenue from timber sales, not to mention the severe economic dislocation caused by a reduced timber program.

Success was also posted when Congress continued its support for the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Program, guaranteeing that critical socio-economic studies would be completed before environmental impact studies have wrapped up.

Roads, rivers and monuments
Public Lands counties are also closely watching the development of several other issues: establishing limitations on the Department of the Interior's effort to reduce counties' ability to establish rights of way across public lands pursuant to Revised Statute 2477, reasserting congressional intent on portages and access for motorized boats in the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota, restrictions on presidential use of the Antiquities Act to establish National Monuments and limitations on President Clinton's American Heritage Rivers program. While NACo has not taken a specific stand on all of these issues, they are of importance and interest to the Public Lands Committee.