Curry County commissioners presented a draft proclamation on Wednesday to declare a state of emergency for the purpose of taking over management of public forests from federal authorities.
Those in support of the proposal say it is needed due to federal agencies鈥� failure to manage their forests for wildfire.
At the recent meeting, Commissioner Jay Trost claimed every major recent fire in the county occurred on state and federal land.
鈥淭he private timber industry is managing their land right,鈥� said Trost.
The proclamation also claims that the forest mismanagement, along with state regulations for homeowners in high wildfire hazard zones, will impact county housing costs and supply.
鈥淲e're not looking to be the owners of this federal land. The main idea is that we are going to be holding the agencies accountable to continue to do their jobs,鈥� said Commissioner Patrick Hollinger.
Hollinger said the county isn鈥檛 trying to clearcut forests or start strip mining. But, he said, their management would support industries like logging and biomass.
鈥淸M]ultiple-use management, timber sales, mineral utilization and livestock grazing have been curtailed to the point of causing greatly diminished health on our forests and have created catastrophic health, safety, welfare and economic effects to Curry County,鈥� according to the proclamation.
The proclamation alleges that federal authorities are not following legal requirements for cooperation and consultation with the county for public forest management.
Hollinger explained that the emergency declaration is modeled after a resolution used in Apache County, Arizona to manage federal lands there. That Arizona resolution was championed by Doyel Shamley with Veritas Research Consulting who visited Curry County recently to discuss land management and the Constitution with commissioners.
The draft resolution wasn鈥檛 passed, but a public workshop on the proposal will be held next week.
