vision2020@moscow.com: land use planning and wildlife habitat
land use planning and wildlife habitat
Jo Williams (tajs@potlatch.com)
Fri, 20 Jun 1997 10:34:17 -0700
There was an article in the Wed., June 18th Daily News discussing the
Idaho Fish and Game Department's wildlife habitat maps of Latah County.
One map showed the habitat areas and the second "... tries to define a
land use plan based on... the first map." While reading this article, I
kept thinking about the reserved mineral rights contained in the title
description on a piece of our property. Mineral rights owned by a private
corporation- covering every conceivable retrievable; including clay.
Would it be possible to find/create an `overlay' map of sorts that would
show where private mineral rights in Latah county are located? How much
of the proposed wildlife habitat (if any) might someday be subject to the
exercise of these mineral rights?
While I agree that wildlife habitat concerns may be equal to those of
farming, grazing or development, it doesn't seem fair to restrict the
surface rights if the county has no jurisdiction to equally restrict the
subsurface rights.
Another concern I had while reading the article; what prevents owners of
land in these habitat areas from clear cutting (or even responsibly
thinning) their land to the point that it is no longer wildlife habitat?
How much control will it take to achieve these goals?
Would tax incentives be a better tool to achieve and maintain healthy
wildlife habitat in the county?
Comments and info welcome. Jo Williams tajs@potlatch.com
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