Want to trade some old-growth forest for overgrazed cliff faces? Our government does, and the many land swap proposals throughout the West seem to signal the beginning of a new corporate land rush. Last summer, a phone call from a concerned Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee alerted several conservation groups to the cushy relationship between timber corporations and the agencies charged with stewardship of our public lands.
Unable to continue the clearcut-and-run style of logging on public lands, timber corporations have found a new scam to continue liquidating ancient forestsïland exchanges. With the help of intermediaries, such as Clearwater Land Exchange, based in Orofino, Idaho, familiar corporations such as Boise Cascade, Plum Creek and Weyerhaeuser are gaining title to valuable old growth, critical wildlife and salmon habitat, and trading away thousands of acres of clearcut or overgrazed lands. One recent exchange saw Trillium Corporation obtain and log old-growth Alaskan yellow cedar, some trees as large as six feet across.
In northeastern Washington, the BLM plans to trade away 4,500 acres of mostly unlogged parcels, all with valuable timber. In exchange, the BLM would receive 25,000 acres, including part of an old ranch that has been grazed for decades, logged-over Boise Cascade land, and sagebrush steppe with little commercial valueïall in need of extensive restoration. An economic analysis of this trade showed that the BLM would be giving up over $20 million in valuable timber, in exchange for overgrazed scrublands and de-forested acreage worth less than $3 million.
Supposedly, a fair appraisal system is used by the agencies, but often the timber companies and land exchange companies do the appraisals and are only occasionally are they checked by the government. Valuations based on stumpage prices, rather than market prices, make the trades appear equal. The values of wildlife, clean water and recreation are not considered.
The Northeastern Assembled Land Exchange involves the exchange of 75,000 acres in Oregon. While information has been difficult to obtain from the BLM, it is known that numerous parcels containing stands of old growth are proposed for disposal. The area to be acquired is overgrazed, high-graded land along the N. Fork John Day River. With the intent of restoring damaged bull trout habitat, the BLM will let the cows remain, supposedly better managed.
The Huckleberry Land Exchange in Western Washington would trade 32,000 acres of cut-over Weyerhaeuser land for 6,000 acres of valuable National Forest. The carrot is a small chunk of land near the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. Residents of Greenwater, who live downstream from the lands Weyerhaeuser would obtain and log, are very concerned about flooding and degradation of water quality. An appeal of the Huckleberry Land Exchange has been filed by Pilchuck Audubon, Huckleberry Mountain Protection Society and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.
Wildlife surveys and timber stand exams are often performed by the land exchange companies. In many cases, the federal agencies do not even have legal access to the lands they hope to acquire until after the trade is completed. Impacts on many species, such as neo-tropical migrant birds, are not even considered.
In nearly every trade, property owners with land adjacent to BLM timber parcels will not be able to participate in a competitive bidding process, as these lands will be exchanged to timber companies in a package deal. A letter obtained in a BLM Freedom of Information Act request derided the efforts of adjoining owners to keep Boise Cascade from obtaining public lands and revealed a cozy relationship between Clearwater Land Exchange and the BLM staff. Outraged residents in Washington complain that trading public land to Boise Cascade will degrade nearby water quality, lower property values and destroy remnant pockets of low elevation ponderosa pine habitat.
The rights of Indian tribes are also at stake, and public law includes language giving them first-buy rights on traditional territories adjacent to their lands. RS 2455 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior "...to order into market and sell at public auction... any isolated or disconnected tractè which, in his judgment, it would be proper to expose for sale... Provided, that for a period of not less than 30 days after the highest bid has been received, any owner or owners of contiguous land shall have preference right to buy the offered lands at such highest bid price...." In response, the BLM believes that the preferential right was taken away with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in 1976 and that these are exchanges and not sales.
In some cases the agencies see an opportunity to obtain rare or threatened habitat. For example, the BLM believes that obtaining sage-steppe habitat in Eastern Washington is desirable for ecological concerns. However, restoration is expensive and uncertain in this era of government downsizing. Some rangelands are so damaged that they will never recover their original plant communities. Some restoration dollars have already washed downstream as willow plantings were swept away during annual high water events. The costs of rehabilitating the overgrazed and cut-over lands that will be received by the BLM will be an ongoing tax burden to the American people.
Consolidation of their land is another reason the BLM/Forest Service gives for land exchanges. A map of most states shows a bewildering mix of private and public lands. In the northern tier states, Washington, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota have a swath of alternating square-mile sections slicing through them. The 1864 Northern Pacific Railroad Grant gave the railroad ownership of millions of acres of forest land. Despite disputes over returning those lands, Northern Pacific Railroad, later Burlington Northern, then Plum Creek Timber Co. have sawed their way through this checkerboard, literally clearcutting every section they controlled.
The wildlife and fisheries caught in this deadly chess game have been decimated, and the agencies are attempting to consolidate ownership. In the Huckleberry Land Exchange, Northern Pacific railroad lands were sold to Weyerhaeuser, who now wants to trade some of that cut-over land back to the Forest Service. While consolidation might allow better management by the Forest Service, Weyerhaeuser won't be logging them for decades in any case. Returning them to tribal or public ownership through revision of the 1864 Land Grant is a better option, but one that will be complicated by the proposed trade.
The problem with this consolidation is one of perspective. The BLM has been mandated by Congress to consolidate its isolated parcels to more effectively manage their lands. But, the abused land may take decades, even centuries, to heal. Restoration money is often not available or depends on tax money, or on cutting more trees to finance projects. Trading forested land to timber corporations signs a death sentence for those lands. Corporations don't acquire these lands to set aside for future generations.
This February, Plum Creek Timber Co. (known as the Darth Vader of the timber industry) tried to broker a deal to buy public land in Montana. The money would pay off part of the cash settlement for stopping the New World Mine near Yellowstone National Park. They backed off only after stiff opposition from hunters, Forest Service retirees and other conservationists. This scheme would have allowed Plum Creek to log and then give Crown Butte Mining Company the mineral rights!
The Kettle Range Conservation Group, Blue Mountain Native Forest Alliance, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Oregon Natural Desert Association and Portland Audubon Society have taken the BLM to court to stop the eastern Oregon and eastern Washington land trades. In addition, these groups, along with Pilchuck Audubon, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance and the Huckleberry Mountain Protection Society have asked Washington Senator Patty Murray and Oregon Senator Ron Wyden to request a General Accounting Office investigation of the method in which the BLM handles its land exchanges throughout the West.
To exchange information on land exchanges, contact the newly formed Western Land Exchange Task Force directed by Janine Blaeloch. Their address is POB 95545, Seattle, WA 98145-2545.