Forest Roads to be used for Timber Harvest Only

Plum Creek Timber Road Eastment Investigated by GAO

By Lucia Stewart, 10-13-08

	Photo by Emily Haas.

The Government Accountability Office released a letter Friday that questioned the closed-door land use plan between Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey and the Plum Creek Timber Company — the largest private landowners in Montana with 1.2 million acres.

The GAO investigators — provoked by the secretiveness of the land use easement and potential impact on Montana’s forestland — referenced the National Forest Roads and Trails Act passed by Congress in 1964, which states the purpose is “to facilitate timber harvesting,” and concluded the agency cannot grant a right greater than what the act allows.

Many argue private driveways are not facilitating timber harvest, particularly when the road easements detail “cost-sharing agreements,” where taxpayers and Plum Creek split cost of road construction and maintenance.

“As a general matter,” said GAO counsel Rich Johnson, reports the Missoulian, “an agency of the federal government can only give away public property to the extent that it’s been authorized to do so by Congress.”

In other news, Rick Holley, President and CEO of Plum Creek Timber, will be a Keynote Speaker at the upcoming Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies conference, and will be discussing the company’s approach to real estate activities.

Plum Creek Timber has recently aligned itself to be a real estate investment trust and reports its real estate revenue tripled to more than $330 million annually during the last five years, reports Michael Jamison from the Missoulian.

Recently, Missoula County discussed its option to potentially opt out of Plum Creek easement access.

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