It proposes overall management directives for all BLM and Forest Service land in Idaho. There is widespread concern over how this plan will affect resource-dependent communities, businesses, and individuals in the area. These concerns echo complaints about earlier federal management actions on endangered species and state water rights.
Emotions run hot when livelihoods are at stake.
They first funded grassroots community development planning, then put money via existing federal programs into the local priorities. As a result many timber-dependent citizens and communities found ways to cope with wrenching change. After all, we were impacted indirectly by the spotted owl and in even larger ways by endangered fish. And no matter what the outcome of the UCRB process, rural Idaho is facing adjustments to new grazing patterns and to timber harvests of lower-valued species and smaller trees. As the CERT process winds to a close in spotted owl country, perhaps a portion of the funding streams could help the UCRB region with its transition.