BOISE (AP) -- The state Land Board has authorized a 2000-2001 state timber harvest of 165 million board feet, one of the smallest in years amid increasing out-of-state concern over the law that assures 95 percent of that timber will go to Idaho mills.
With logging on federal lands drastically reduced, Attorney General Al Lance and Lands Director Stan Hamilton both suggested to board members Tuesday that the situation could draw the first test of Idaho's 11-year-old Timber Supply Stabilization Act.About half the total cut is from state lands in northern Idaho that could be easily accessible to loggers in eastern Washington.
And just two months ago Bob Morton, a state senator from northeastern Washington, tried to convince his colleagues in Olympia to direct their attorney general to take Idaho to court over the law. That effort failed, but the concern remains.
Morton claims it is a matter of equity since Idaho companies can bid on all the Washington timber they want, and in fact harvested 68 million board feet in the last half of the 1990s, but Washington companies are limited to bidding for no more than 5 percent of Idaho's annual cut from state lands.
The impact, he maintains, is obvious since there are no mills left in Pend Oreille County, Wash., while several still operate just across the border in the Panhandle.
But Hamilton says the complaints are unwarranted since in the 11 years since the law was passed not one out-of-state logger or mill has bid on even one state land timber contract including the 5 percent of the cut specifically set aside for all comers, in-state and out.
The 55 sales proposed for the coming fiscal year are expected to generate $50 million to $55 million for the state, cash that goes to support public schools and state institutions.
In another move, the Land Board directed the Lands Department staff to put together all the possibilities for commercial develop of key tracts of state land.
The assessment was triggered by a proposal to open up a tract of state land at the junction of Interstate 15 and Idaho Highway 33 in the middle of the eastern Idaho desert for development as a truck stop.
The specifics of the proposal must still be worked out, but Lance said any deal should include the state getting a percentage of the gross revenues generated by the business rather than a flat annual fee for essentially leasing the land.
Controller J.D. Williams called commercialization on state land "the next wave of income for the schools."
He is looking for a 20-year plan for development that moves the state away from sole reliance on logging and grazing to generate cash for schools.