NEWS
For Immediate Release
June 1, 2000 Contact: Stefany Bales
(208) 667-4641

Forestry Professionals Applaud Western Governors' Leadership

BOISE, ID - Forestry professionals said today that the Governors from Idaho, Montana, and Oregon are on the right track in their efforts to ensure western states will have a more meaningful and active role in federal land management. The Governors are in Boise today to discuss recommendations they would make to the next president of the United States for improving federal land management issues.

Jim Riley, Executive Director of the Intermountain Forest Association, applauded the Governors' efforts to address tough environmental issues with courage and vision.

"There are ways to break out of the pattern of conflict and litigation over federal land management," Riley said. "The State leaders here today offer a vision to move beyond the polarized debate through state leadership rather than national directives. They are right. We hope our national leaders are listening."

Riley said over the past eight years, the Clinton-Gore administration has visited sweeping changes on the use of, and access to, western federal lands. "Clinton-Gore environmental policies have ignored the needs and advice of western people, and have consequently rendered our forests wildfire disasters waiting to happen," he said.

"This administration's mismanagement of our western forests has done nothing but set the stage for catastrophic wildfires like the ones in Los Alamos and Las Vegas, New Mexico, and has fueled the conflict and mistrust within our western communities," Riley said.

"Today, we heard a coalition of western leaders strongly encourage the next president of the U.S. to listen to the people who live here, embrace open collaborative processes that consider all sides of the issues, and to better understand the unique challenges of federal land management," Riley said.

"We appreciate their candid analysis, leadership and courage. It's refreshing and we renew our pledge to work with them on new solutions to the old problems that plague federal forest management," Riley said.

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