March, 2018 Information and News for Colorado s Public Lands Counties In this issue: A Variety of Public Lands Issues Were on the Agenda at NACo Legislative Conference CCI Public Lands Supports Westerner to Head Forest Service; Counties Await Fate of Anvil Points Payments; CCI/NACo Continue Push for PILT/SRS Funding; DOI Announces Reorganizational Plan; Bolton, Suckla Lead CCI Public Lands in DC; Energy/Environment Symposium A Variety of Public Lands Issues Were on the Agenda at NACo Legislative Conference By John (Chip) Taylor The recently concluded NACo Legislative Conference included discussion of a number of public lands topics. USFS Chief Tony Tooke reviewed the Forest Service s concerns about national forests. These priority concerns include the 80 million acres of Forest Service land that is at risk of infestation, fire or both. Chief Tooke emphasized the need to take preventative steps and his feeling that they are making progress but always balancing the public desire for access against the damage and fire risk associated with public access. He also noted the opportunities using cross-laminated wood to make low-value timber more valuable and usable. One of the comments he received was that FS regulations which prohibit cutting some timber until it is unsafe can cause otherwise valuable dead trees to be left in place until they no longer have value in the market. He also fielded comments concerning the revocability of FS road agreements, local appointment of RAC Board members, and disposing of more of the Forest Service s administrative parcels. (continued on next page)
Commissioners also heard from Cynthia Moses-Nedd, with the Department of the Interior, on the efforts to update DOI s Cooperation Handbook and provide a more standardized approach for federal managers who are working with local officials. As noted in the article below, she also reiterated the call for comments on DOI s most recent regional reorganization proposal and emphasized the department s desire to empower federal regional managers to work with their counterparts at other federal agencies and at the local level. Participants also talked about the role of rural counties in strengthening local economies and NACo staffer Jack Morgan mentioned that the Coal Communities conference will be coming back to Colorado in the fall (stay tuned for details). A discussion of tourism in the west focused on the Park Service because National Parks attract tourists and also generate fees, although not nearly enough to cover a $12 billion need for deferred maintenance. The dilemma of Park Service funding is that it is a popular agency to fund because of the visibility of its work but there is still a need to fund PILT and the ever-increasing firefighting costs on federal lands. Other perennial PL topics included updates from the National Endangered Species Reform Coalition on its priorities for the year, including better understanding of the conditions that allow for species to be de-listed and better incentives for voluntary efforts to protect habitat and species that are listed. On wildfire preparedness, representatives from the Wildland Fire Leadership Council previewed their work on an online portal for information about your county and counties like yours, as well as messaging and strategies that match your county s needs. They expect to preview this new tool at the WIR conference in Blaine County, Idaho, May 23-25. Make your plans to attend! John (Chip) Taylor is CCI s Executive Director. CCI Public Lands Supports Westerner to Lead Forest Service CCI Public Lands met on March 16 with over 25 Colorado commissioners in attendance. Under the leadership of chair and Rio Blanco Commissioner Shawn Bolton, the participants voted unanimously to send a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue urging him to select a westerner, with first-hand knowledge of public lands issues, to serve as the next chief of the U.S. Forest Service. The group also reviewed positions on public lands-related legislation before the Colorado General Assembly and heard reports from CCI members who participated in the NACo Public Lands Steering Committee meeting at the recent NACo Legislative Conference in Washington. Garfield County Commissioner John Martin gave an optimistic report that R.S. 2477, Preservation of Historic Rights of Way appears to finally have bipartisan support in Congress. He said he was hopeful that both the U.S. House and Senate, both of which have held hearings in the subject, will adopt the measure before the end of March. In other discussion, the group noted the threat to fruit crops and trees posed by the spread of the spotted lanternfly in the western United States, and expressed their hope that that the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would be moved from Washington to a location in the western United States. Grand Junction, Colorado, is under consideration, and Denver and Salt Lake City have been mentioned as possibilities. The move, which would require Congressional approval, has the support of Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner.
Colorado Counties Await Fate of Anvil Points Royalty Payments Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's surprise announcement that the federal government finally will make royalty payments to affected Colorado counties from the Anvil Points shale site shines a bright light on HB 1249 being considered by the Colorado General Assembly. Anvil Points was the site of a research project to test ways to turn oil shale into a mineable energy resource. It was shut down and environmental cleanup efforts ensued. Supported by CCI and sponsored by Rep. Bob Rankin, HB 1249 calls for the royalties to be distributed to specific Colorado counties in the following manner: 40 percent to Garfield; 40 percent to Rio Blanco; 10 percent to Mesa; and 10 percent to Moffat. Without the bill, state law would require any money from the federal government to go through the normal process of federal mineral lease payment distribution, meaning it would be spread around the state and area counties would receive only a fraction of what they are due. To prevent that, HB 1249 would need to pass and be signed by the Governor before the end of March. On March 16, the bill passed the house on second reading. On March 20, the bill passed the senate on second ready. The senate sponsor is Sen. Kevin Lundberg. CCI/NACo Continue to Push for PILT/SRS Funding CCI and NACo continue to press for full funding of PILT/SRS an effort highlighted in a press conference held in Washington, DC on March 6, 2018 during the NACo Legislative Conference, and covered in Energy and Environment News under the headline GOP and Dems: County payment programs are funding priority. At the press conference, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and other lawmakers defended SRS and PILT. "It's especially important that we secure these funds Secure Rural Schools and PILT at a time when the federal government continues to engage in practices that make it hard for rural folks to manage their land," said Wyden, who helped shepherd into law the 2000 Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Wyden specifically cited the "destructive" practice of fire borrowing, referring to the government's habit of taking money from other accounts to pay for increasingly deadly wildfires. Wyden said after passing a massive tax cut late last year that it would be "particularly offensive" for Congress to hold back funds for programs like SRS and PILT, which would "turn rural America into a sacrifice zone." For the complete article, click here.
Department of Interior Announces Reorganizational Plan Secretary Ryan Zinke's plan for reorganizing the Department of Interior (DOI) includes dividing management of millions of federal acres into 13 multistate regions along boundaries of watersheds and basins. Zinke has said publicly he wants to reorganize the department to make it more efficient, and he has testified before Congress that he wants to reduce the department's workforce by 4,000 full-time jobs. He has also floated the idea of moving some agency headquarters, such as that of the Bureau of Land Management, out of Washington to Denver or another location in the West, where the vast majority of federally managed lands are located. DOI currently has 10 bureaus and 40 distinct regions, each operating with unique regional boundaries. The proposed 13 common regions are illustrated in the following two maps. For more on DOI reorganization, click here. To provide feedback, click here.
Bolton, Suckla Lead CCI Public Lands in DC Commissioners Shawn Bolton (Rio Blanco) (left in photo above) and Larry Don Suckla (Montezuma) (right in photo), chair and vice chair, respectively, of CCI Public Lands for 2018-2019, were among 55 CCI members who traveled to Washington, DC on March 3-7 for the NACo Legislative Conference. They were joined on the NACo Public Lands Steering Committee by commissioners Keith Baker (Chaffee), John Justman (Mesa), John Martin (Garfield), Roger Partridge (Douglas), Jeff Rector (Rio Blanco), and Ramona Weber (Mineral). The group participated in the NACo Public Lands Committee meeting and many attended sessions with members of the Colorado Congressional delegation where they lent their voices to the efforts to fund PILT/SRS. Energy & Environment Symposium Set April 18-19 Registration is now open for the 6 th Annual Energy & Environment Symposium on April 18-19 in Garfield County. This popular event was attended by 220 local government officials last year. The educational content is targeted to everyone who navigates energy industry issues for a local government, including commissioners, administrators, finance officers, and consultants. Topics include county and state mineral revenue projections, an overview of the energy market (pricing, production and demand forecasts), oil and gas development in the urban landscape, air quality impacts of oil and gas extraction and production, and many more. There is also a field trip to an active drilling and fracking site and an opening night Steak Night in the Gas Patch networking event. For more information on the program and to register, click here.