News

Pat Williams: Days of mining, timber, cattle are over

The timber era, the mining era, the cattle era are all over, and it’s time to end the years of warring over natural resources and
land management in the West, says former Congressman Pat Williams.

By the Associated Press The Montana Standard

It is time to find ways for communities to make the transition from an extractive to a conservation economy, he told the Missoula Kiwanis Club lun
cheon on Tuesday.
“ There are, throughout the Northern Rockies, including in Montana, a number of problems in search of solutions,” he said. “ The Forest Service is
not a change agent and simply can’t find those solutions. However, local people empowered to do so will find them.”
Now a senior fellow at the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, Williams said he likes the idea of a new “ vir tual region” of the U.S. Forest
Service that would contain pilot forest management projects all across the country.
Congress and the president, Williams said, would create a committee of citizens that would solicit proposals from communities interested in
cooperative, out-of-the-ordinary forest management projects. Congress would have the final say on the projects.
“ I recognize the risk in this,” Williams said in an interview later. “ I want to keep up the backstop of regulations and environmental laws. I am not
interested in lowering environ mental standards. The American people simply won’t have it.”
He also wants to keep the land in public ownership: “ I am not for giv ing federal land ownership to other entities.”
But new approaches are needed, something that breaks the Forest Service out of what its chief calls the “ analysis paralysis,” Williams said. “ We
ought to stop dressing up in bear suits and pestering forest supervisors. We ought to stop the shovel brigades. We ought to fire the paid lobbyists.”
Williams touted the “ virtual region” idea last week at a hearing of the House Resources Committee. The emphasis would be on “ mature”
collaborative groups that represent ed all interests in their community, he said. And again, Congress would retain its control over federal land
management.
He suggested the Swan Valley of northwestern Montana as a pilot site. Plum Creek Timber Co. inevitably is going to sell off its thousands of acres of
industrial tim berland there, Williams said.
“ The Swan Valley is going to be laced with fences that will mess up game habitat and deny people’s access to favorite fishing holes,” he said. “
There are ways to prevent that from happening, but it’s going to take local collaboration to find them.”
Congress probably will authorize some kind of land management experiments within the next two years, Williams predicted, and at least a few of the
efforts likely will be in western Montana.
“ Things have changed in the northern Rockies, but in my judg ment, they have changed for the bet ter,” he said. “ Any time there is a transition,
there is also tension. And frayed nerve endings. That’s why we need good, calm, determined leader ship.”
Williams does not like the Bush administration’s proposal to Congress for locally managed “ char ter forests,” a term inspired by “ charter schools.”
He said it is vague. Environmentalists have denounced it as a trick to hand over control of the national forests to tim ber and mining companies.

http://www.mtstandard.com/newslocal/lnews1.html

Posted in:

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.