307 



clirough the past fifty years and have put them in what even 

 the BliM higher echelon has been forced to admit is the best 

 condition they have been in this century. I am sure you all 

 will recall that fairly early in Secretary Babbitt's attack 

 on the western states an internal Interior Department 

 memorandum was leaked which stated that the public lands 

 were 'in such good condition generally that the Department 

 must concentrate on only the riparian areas to achieve its 

 purpose of restricting use. Then, suddenly, riparian 



planning became the watchword for the federal agencies 



even though range experts have paid attention to riparian 

 in^rovement for years . 



So, members of the Committee, where did the project teams 

 get their local input, particularly as to grazing and 

 recreation use? They did not call upon the grazing experts. 

 They did not call upon members of the Blue Ribbon Coalition 

 with regard to recreation uses of the Icuads . Please ask 

 them to specify the local input they received — as to 

 subject and as to the so-called scientific data which they 

 used in con^jleting their draft. 



The preliminary draft of the EIS has simply not been 

 prepared in con5)lianc€ with federal statutory mandates as to 

 local input and planning involvement. Throughout 

 development of this draft there has been no coordination of 

 planning with Owyhee County, a county involved in the land 

 use planning process regarding the federally managed lands . 

 Participation of the Coalition of Counties in the process 

 does not substitute for coordination with individual y 

 covinties which is required by federal law. 



From the very inception of the spread of the Kastside 

 Ecosystem Project to Idaho in the form of the Upper Columbia 

 River Basin Project we in Owyhee County urged the federal , 

 "teams" to follow the mandates of federal law regarding 

 coordination of laind use plans with those coxinty governments 

 which are involved in the land use process. We wrote to the 

 Secretary of Interior, to the relevEuit BLM administrators 

 and to Steve Mealey, team leader for the Upper Columbia. 



We pointed out in specific terms that the Federal Land 

 Policy and Management Act mandated in 43 U.S.C. Sec. ' 

 1712(c) (9) that the Secretary of Interior "SHALL" 

 "coordinate the land use inventory, planning and management 

 activities. . .with the land use plaixning and management , 

 programs of other federal departments and agencies and of 

 the State and LOCAL GOVERNMENTS within which the lands are 

 located . " Other sections of the Act require that local 

 government officials be allowed "meaningful" participation 

 in development of federal plans. We further pointed out 

 that since the ecosystem planning was designed to be applied 

 by the BLM, and since the BLM was an integral part of the 

 ecosystem project, the terms of FLPMA were applicable. 



