During a recent meeting of the Board of County Commissioners of Ravalli County to consider the appointment of a new planning administrator, several people raised objection to coordination and spoke as if this were a radical new process. To the contrary, the United States Congress defined coordination in 1976 when it passed the Federal Land Management and Policy Act (FLPMA). Congress has mandated in federal statute that federal agencies shall coordinate their federal planning process and management activities with local government. This makes the duty of the federal agencies to coordinate a requirement not an option. It also levels the playing field so local government is equal not subordinate to federal government.
One has to question the resistance to making federal agencies plans and policies consistent with Ravalli County’s local policies.
Congress set forth specific criteria to be followed in the FLPMA that includes:
1. Keep apprised of State, local and tribal land use plans.
2. Assure consideration is given to those plans
3. Assist in resolving inconsistencies between Federal and non-Federal Government plans.
4. Provide meaningful involvement of local governments including early public notice.
5. Make Federal plans consistent with local plans.
This criterion also applies to the National Forest Management Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act and others.
Considering over 70% of Ravalli County is managed by federal agencies, and those agencies decisions affect and impact the residents and governments of Ravalli County, it is crucial we have the ability to utilize the coordination process.
Coordination will help us to protect our wildlife, water, timber, and other resource utilization within national forests that are critical to the local economy and our rural way of life. We also have cultural and historic ties to managed lands with access to those lands that must be preserved. It is certainly within Ravalli County’s best interests to assert coordination with federal agencies for these and many other reasons.
I wonder how different things would be if we had invoked coordination prior to the federal government releasing an apex predator, the gray wolf, without providing a defined and defensible exit strategy from the Endangered Species Act or considering all the negative social, economic, and biologic impacts we are now suffering with.
Keith Kubista
Stevensville