Rehberg could support phased-in wilderness plan

U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg said Monday that he could support U.S. Sen. Jon Tester's plan to expand wilderness and increase logging - but only with more assurances that the logging will occur. Rehberg, who has held 22 meetings on the measure, said he doesn't think Tester's plan accomplishes its intended goals the way it's written. Tester's bill would create more than 600,000 acres of wilderness, mostly in southwestern Montana's Beaverhead- Deerlodge National Forest, and mandate 70,000 acres of logging in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge over the next decade. The aim is to provide a steady source of timber for the state's ailing logging industry following a string of recent mill closures, while giving wilderness advocates their first new declaration in years. "There is that lingering question: Does this bill accomplish what it intends to," Rehberg said in an interview. "It can't be done the way it's written." Rehberg said he would like to see the wilderness areas created in pieces if logging benchmarks a r e me t . Ot h e rwi s e, t h e Republican said, the logging could get tied up in court after the wilderness is created. Rehberg envisions an annual analysis to make sure each side gets what it wants. If 7,000 acres have been logged as stated, then a part of the new wilderness area can be established, he said. The idea came during his tour of The state. "That made sense to me. That is a commonsense solution that sounds reasonable," Rehberg said. "I think all people could say this holds everyone's feet to the fire." Tester, a Democrat, has championed the bill as a carefully balanced compromise coming from years of negotiation between timber interests and wilderness advocates. His office said Monday that a phased-in approach has been tried before and stumbled in Congress. "The loggers who support this bill know trigger language won't fly in Congress. It would kill the bill," said spokesman Aaron Murphy. Sherm Anderson, owner of Sun Mountain Lumber, said he want's the logging — but doesn't think Rehberg's plan would work. A n d e r s o n , a f o rme r Republican state legislator who helped draft the plan, said the proposal would upset the compromise and be impossible to sell in Congress. "What he's advocating may be good in theory, but I don't think it's workable," Anderson said. Anderson said he thinks the collaborative deal makes future legal challenges to the logging difficult, and pointed out the Forest Service is mandated to log 7,000 acres a year no matter how many times it is sued on individual projects. Rehberg said he appreciates the work done in the collaboration but now believes consensus needs to reach further. "It's just not their land. It's our land," Rehberg said. "This is the public's land." The Republican said he genuinely would like to meet with Tester and work out the issues in an open forum. One proposal from Tester that they meet in Missoula hit a scheduling conflict, Rehberg said, but he said another is needed. But Rehberg, a veteran Republican who has fought battles against wilderness for three decades, said something must be done or else huge tracts of land remain tied up in wilderness study areas indefinitely. And no additional logging is done. "If legislation is not passed to release the acreage that is currently held up in these wilderness studies, then by de facto it all becomes wilderness," Rehberg said. "Doing nothing is not an option."