MOLLY IVINS ON THE STATE OF IDAHO

["Dena Marchant" <wyakin@hotmail.com>]

>> In case you missed this column this week by Texas writer Molly Ivins: 
>> 
>>      AUSTIN  --  I have been to Idaho and so am feeling better about
>> Texas. 
>> 
>>       This may sound odd, since the Great State is frying away down
>> here: It's so hot that the railroad tracks are warping, the poor
>> farmers are losing everything, and we're baked brown all across 
Texas.
>> Idaho, on the other hand, remains its spectacularly beautiful self,
>> laced with gorgeous rivers and trout streams, snow still on the
>> mountains, the glorious smell of pine forests and wonderful scenic
>> vistas, and it's cool even in August. 
>> 
>>       Although Texas may be represented in Congress by Huey, Dewey 
and
>> Louie (Dick Armey, Tom DeLay and Bill Archer), at least we don't have
>> to claim Republican Sens. Larry Craig and Dirk Kempthorne, and Rep.
>> Helen Chenoweth. Sheesh, what a bunch of darbs. 
>> 
>>       Try this for people's representation: Kempthorne slipped a 
rider
>> onto the 1999 Defense Authorization Bill that will expand the Air
>> Force
>> bombing range in Idaho's Owyhee Canyonlands by 12,000 acres, which in
>> turn will impact at least another 2 million acres, despite the
>> following facts: 
>> 
>>       The U.S. Air Force has said in court it doesn't need an 
expanded
>> bombing range in Idaho and already has existing bombing ranges in
>> Idaho, Utah and Nevada. 
>> 
>>       Public hearings over the past 10 years on this proposal have
>> averaged 6 to 1 against the expansion. 
>> 
>>       The area is not only pricelessly beautiful, a sister of the
>> Grand
>> Canyon with some of the most dramatic white-water rafting in the
>> country, it is also the largest roadless area in the Lower 48,
>> contains
>> the largest stock of bighorn sheep in the country and is full of mule
>> deer and Indian artifacts. It is the ancestral burial grounds of the
>> Paiute-Shoshone tribe, and these Indians are already assaulted daily
>> with sonic booms and low-flying jets. 
>> 
>>       But that's not the best part. It turns out that a rancher named
>> Bert Brackett, who is also a big giver to the Republican Party in
>> Idaho, runs cattle on the land in the expanded bombing range. He
>> doesn't own the land, he's just been leasing it for a long time for
>> $3,000 a year. Now, if this expanded bombing range goes through,
>> Rancher Brackett can still run his cattle on the public land, but his
>> cows could be traumatized, so Sen. Craig wants to compensate him  -- 
>> with up to $1 million. Brackett's daughter happens to work for Craig.
>> Nice, hey? 
>> 
>>       The matter of grazing permits in Idaho is beyond funny. Jon
>> Marvel of the Idaho Watersheds Project, which is hell-bent on getting
>> cattle out of Idaho rivers and streams because they destroy the
>> riverside (their defecation poisons fish, they silt up the rivers,
>> etc.), has been having some wonderful adventures. At one permit
>> auction, Marvel opened the bidding at $30, and the local rancher who
>> had held the permit said, ``That's too damn much. I'm not bidding.''
>> The rancher then appealed to the Land Board, which awarded him the
>> lease. After a two-year legal fight, the Idaho Supreme Court said the
>> board couldn't give a permit to someone who hadn't even bid. A new
>> auction was held, the rancher bid $10, Marvel bid $2,000  --  and the
>> Land Board awarded the rancher the lease. 
>> 
>>       Marvel has exposed the good-ol'-boy system that allows these
>> permits to be sold off for a fraction of their market value, costing
>> the taxpayers an arm and a leg. About 80 percent of the population of
>> Idaho lives in urban areas (if you consider Twin Falls a city), and 
as
>> near as I can tell, they all love the wilderness. Yet they continue 
to
>> elect people dedicated to destroying it in the name of ``multiple
>> use.'' ``Multiple use'' means you let the welfare ranchers, the 
timber
>> companies and the mining corporations destroy whatever they want to
>> and
>> then pretend you are protecting the wilderness. 
>> 
>>       The Idaho Land Board is comprised of the state's top five
>> elected
>> officials, including Ann Fox, the superintendent of public
>> instruction,
>> who theoretically would have a special interest in maximizing grazing
>> fees since the money goes to the schools. However, Fox has said,
>> ``It's
>> important to keep all these leases in the hands of ranchers because
>> Idaho's economy is dependent on them.'' 
>> 
>>       Actually, public-lands ranching provides one-seventh of 1
>> percent
>> of the employment in Idaho and one-third of 1 percent of the gross
>> economic product. Fox also has said she doesn't think the children of
>> Idaho need more academic courses, but they do need shooting ranges. 
>> 
>> 
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