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Simpson: CIEDRA preserves economic development provisions for Custer County

 

BY TODD ADAMS

Proposed changes announced last week to Rep. Mike Simpson’s Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA) preserve economic development for Custer County and motorized access, contrary to claims by an anti-CIEDRA group, Simpson staff say.Lindsay Slater, Simpson’s chief of staff, was responding to claims recently made in ads by the Idaho Recreation Council.

Custer County commissioners Lin Hintze and Wayne Butts say they still support CIEDRA for its economic development provisions. The Challis Messenger was unable to contact Commissioner Cliff Hansen by press time.

The commissioners are on record opposing the designation of more than 300,000 acres of new wilderness, but supporting the bill’s release of 131,670 acres of wilderness study areas back into multiple use.

Simpson proposed the changes to make the bill more acceptable to the Democrats who now control Congress, Slater said. So far, he said, there has been no reaction from Democrats on the House Committee on Natural Resources chaired by Rep. Nick J. Rahall II. Simpson’s bill is still waiting for a committee hearing.

“The number one priority I have relayed to the committee is that Custer County must be compensated with guaranteed economic development money if they plan to take any lands off the table,” Simpson said in a statement last week. “I believe the guaranteed funding mechanism I have proposed will meet the needs of the citizens of Custer County and uphold the promises I have made to the Commissioners.”

Key changes

Simpson removed two controversial Sawtooth National Recreation Area land transfers to the City of Stanley and Custer County totaling 94 acres.

Parcel A, the so-called Benner Street parcel, would have transferred eight acres to Stanley that could have been sold for four homesites. Parcel B would have transferred 86 acres for 10 homesites to Custer County in the Nip and Tuck Creek area above Lower Stanley.

Stanley Parcel C, 73 acres along Valley Creek, remains in the bill and would be used for public purposes, Slater said, such as affordable housing. The transfer of 4,990 acres of BLM lands to Custer County and its municipalities also stays in the bill, he said.

The idea was to stimulate the county’s economy by increasing its tax base. In exchange for removing the two SNRA parcels, Simpson has put in a provision to transfer $3 million to Custer County.

That money would be guaranteed upon passage of CIEDRA and the money would come from diverting 25 percent of federal mineral leasing payments in Idaho to the county until the $3 million total is reached, Slater said.

A separate $5 million appropriation to Custer County remains in the bill, but is not guaranteed upon CIEDRA’s passage. Congress would have to pass a separate appropriations bill for Custer County to see that money.

The county commissioners have said they want to set up an economic development trust fund and use the interest to fund economic development projects.

Voluntary buyouts of federal grazing allotments held by East Fork ranchers are back in the bill. A national conservation group that wishes to remain anonymous has offered to put up $2 million to retire livestock grazing, Slater said.

CIEDRA originally proposed a federal appropriation of $7 million for the buyouts, but Simpson eliminated that provision after the Idaho Cattle Association opposed it.

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An IRC ad in last week’s issue of The Challis Messenger stated, “CIEDRA?No land and money guaranteed! Simpson backs out on CIEDRA deal with Custer County. Simpson’s promises of land transfers are removed from the bill.”

“They’re lying,” Commissioner Hintze told The Messenger. He said Simpson backed off on the SNRA parcels because groups opposed CIEDRA for selling off public lands for the development of trophy homes.

“They’re happy because there are no houses,” Hintze said. “We’re happy because we get the money, the $3 million.”

An Idaho Recreation Council commercial running on KSRA radio urges listeners to contact the commissioners and tell Simpson to “kill this bill before it kills our way of life.”

Sandra Mitchell, director of public lands for the Idaho State Snowmobile Association, a member group of IRC, admitted the ad was misleading. It didn’t specify that only two of the three Stanley parcels were removed, she said, or mention the 4,990 acres of BLM land transfers still in the bill.

The group’s latest statement specifies that just the two parcels totaling 94 acres have been dropped, Mitchell said. “Gone also is the ?Boulder White Clouds Management Area’ which would have protected some degree of motorized recreation access,” she wrote in a May 28 guest opinion to the Idaho Falls Post Register.

Slater said that’s not true ? removal of the management area does not change motorized access. Motorized trails stay the same and are detailed in Map 9, “CIEDRA Travel Plan” on Simpson’s website.

“The term and reference to the Boulder White Clouds Management Area is eliminated,” Slater wrote in a summary of changes, because it was controversial and confusing. CIEDRA opponents were concerned it would weaken land management in the SNRA.

The former management area perimeter included the 318,765 acres of wilderness that CIEDRA proposes to designate, plus surrounding non-wilderness lands that would maintain current management by the Salmon-Challis and Sawtooth national forests, the SNRA and the Challis district of the Bureau of Land Management.

Hintze challenged Mitchell; the IRC and others opposed to CIEDRA to come up with a development alternative for Custer County. “If IRC can come up with an alternative, I don’t want more wilderness, either,” Hintze said.

Mitchell told The Messenger the alternative is long-term growth in the form of a recreation economy that preserves current levels of motorized and mechanized (mountain bikes) access to the Boulder and White Cloud mountains.

The money, whether it’s $3 million or more, is tempting to take, but is only temporary and won’t last, as will recreation, Mitchell said.

“The money provisions of CIEDRA are payoffs to the locals to support CIEDRA; once the bill is passed that support is no longer needed,” Mitchell wrote in her opinion piece.

Studies have shown that snowmobiling, mountain biking and such recreation keep rural economies going.

Snowmobilers spend up to $319 each per day, Mitchell said, adding there’s a lot of snowmobiling in the Boulder and White Cloud mountains from which Stanley benefits.

As a compromise, IRC has said it’s willing to support about 40,000 acres of wilderness, versus the 300,000-plus acres now proposed.