Senate bill addresses Black Hills timber thinning

By Tim Paluch, Journal Staff Writer | Thursday, June 06, 2002

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WASHINGTON - The Senate late Thursday passed a supplemental appropriations bill that, among other things, could expedite timber thinning in two areas of the Black Hills that have become an environmental battleground.

The part of the bill dealing with the Black Hills directs the Department of Agriculture to craft legislation to thin the dead and dying trees in the Beaver Park Roadless Area near Sturgis and the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve, said Jay Carson, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

The legislation that is part of the appropriations bill is significant for two reasons, Carson said:

* The supplemental appropriations bill is a "must pass" bill. "The president wants it passed, and he wants to sign it."

* Language in the bill pertaining to Black Hills tree thinning was based on language agreed to this spring in a negotiated agreement among parties involved in the Beaver Park and Norbeck controversy.

Government officials, the U.S. Forest Service and environmental groups reached a renegotiated agreement on two court settlements that had banned logging in the two areas, which are considered an extreme forest fire risk.

"This legislation reflects the settlement agreement that was reached by all the stakeholders - the timber industry, Black Hills officials, the Forest Service, environmentalists," Carson said Thursday night. "That's why it's a big development for Black Hills management, because it will allow that settlement agreement to be part of the supplemental bill."

Carson said the House had previously passed the supplemental appropriations bill, but without the Black Hills-specific language, which Daschle and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., both worked on. "Now that it's passed the Senate, we hope to get it through a House-Senate conference committee and signed by the president as soon as possible," he said.

Daschle and Johnson, in a joint statement released Thursday, said legislation based on language in the negotiated agreement would hold the greatest promise for avoiding lawsuits.

"Our objective has always been to start thinning in Beaver Park and Norbeck as soon as possible," Daschle said. "A comprehensive agreement negotiated by local stakeholders is the most effective way to achieve that goal quickly."

Carson stopped short of saying whether thinning in the two areas could still be done this summer. "It is certainly the hope to get people on the ground as soon as possible," he said.

Earlier Thursday, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, had told the House Forestry Subcommittee that Congress must pass a new law before any thinning of dead and dying trees occurs in the two areas in the Black Hills.

Rey said at a subcommittee hearing that lawsuit-settlement negotiations that would have allowed thinning in Beaver Park and Norbeck had failed to produce a solution because two parties to the original agreement had walked out of the negotiations.

A new law, he said, was the only option left.

Environmental activist Brian Brademeyer of Rapid City and Biodiversity Associates, a Laramie, Wyo., environmental group, were the only two parties to the original settlements that did not reach an agreement.

Rey told Congress Thursday that the Justice Department informed him that there is no effective legal process to adopt the modified agreement in the absence of the two parties, thus putting an end to the eight-week negotiation process.

Rep. John Thune, R-S.D., had said earlier Thursday he also planned to work with the USDA on legislation of his own.

In April, Thune introduced legislation that would have declared an emergency in the two areas of the Black Hills, thus allowing forest officials to disregard the logging bans established by the two lawsuits.

Thune tried to attach his legislation to the farm bill, but Daschle blocked it. He said Thune's legislation would have resulted in more lawsuits.

Black Hills homeowner Rick Finn and Black Hills National Forest Supervisor John Twiss also testified before the committee Thursday.

Finn, whose property is

only half a mile east of Beaver Park, told the subcommittee that the Forest Service is made up of professionals who shouldn't continue to have their hands tied by environmental groups.

He said his home is at risk of being engulfed should a

major fire occur in Beaver Park. He blamed groups that stop the Forest Service from managing effectively.

"Time and again, the agency attempts to implement sensible resource-management decisions that are supported by an overwhelming majority of its users, only to have special-interest groups tie their hands," he said in his prepared testimony.

Twiss testified that "litigation and excessive analysis" have slowed the Forest Service's ability to thin the forest and protect private property and communities around the

forest.

Twiss said the mountain pine-beetle infestation in Beaver Park that has resulted in thousands of dead and

dying trees, as well as the overgrowth of vegetation in Norbeck, would provide large amounts of fuel for fires.

If a fire were to start in one of those areas, Twiss said, it could burn out of control and spread to healthy areas of the forest as well as onto private property.

But Brademeyer said there is no evidence that supports the idea that logging reduces the threat of catastrophic fire. In fact, he said, evidence points to the contrary.

Journal City Editor Ron Bender contributed to this story.