LANDS: Keep them public

In last week’s Idaho Statesman, Rocky Barker writes of a huge land purchase of 172,000 acres by a private company listed as D.F. Development, LLC of Cisco, Texas. Rocky Barker researched the company and found Robert Early is the chief financial officer for the Wilks Brothers, founders of Frac-Tech Services.

The Wilks have bought up to 300,000 acres in Montana. They bought 38,000 acres of land in Idaho County according to Rocky Barker and the Lewiston Tribune and closed access to local fishermen and hunters.

Rocky Barker writes that Congressman Mike Simpson believes that this purchase could spell the future of federal lands if the states take over those lands.

The state of Idaho just sold off lots on Payette Lake just as the lots at Priest Lake were sold. This is a one-time payout. It’s like driving your car to the casino, selling it for gambling money, and then not being able to get home or to work. If Idaho had leased those lots at a fair price, at ever-increasing rents, those lands would have brought in money for Idaho schools into the distant future.

The entire story is available online from the Idaho Statesman and it has sent chills up the spines of many Idaho sportsmen all around the state. The sportsmen, hikers, four-wheelers, horsemen, skiers, fishermen all have the best possible deal they can get now — access to public lands. In closing, forest lands provide habitat for wildlife. Private owners could destroy that habitat.

DONNA HARVEY

Hayden