Mister Peck goes to Washington

Lincoln County’s most junior commissioner, Mark Peck, is jumping into the political world with both feet. He has been invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 24.

“I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t intimidating,” Peck said. “But how do I turn down the opportunity to convey this message for our county?”

Peck said he wants to spend a small portion of his time explaining the problems Lincoln County and its residents have faced during the past several years, but his primary focus is going to be on presenting solutions to the senators.

Peck said he is unsure of what an exact solution to Lincoln County’s economic woes would look like, but is certain that continuing on the current path is not going to work.

“What we’ve been doing for the past 30 years hasn’t been working. It’s time for new approaches to the problem.”

One of those solutions, said Peck, is for the United States Forest Service to look to states and counties for alternative management solutions in the forests.

“There are excellent ideas being generated out of this county on how to move the natural resources and conservation conversation forward to solutions and implementation,” Peck said.

One aspect of that solution is a pilot trust forest program he wants to see in the Kootenai National Forest, based upon recommendations from the Kootenai Forest Stakeholders’ Coalition.

The program would involve a more active management role in the forest that takes into account the desires of timber management and company interests, jobs, conservation and recreation.

“It’s a solution that’s been vetted both socially and scientifically,” Peck said. “And it’s worked pretty well at the state level.”

Cooperation, he stressed, is the key to making things work. He praised the work of the stakeholders’ coalition. The coalition is a group of people representing diverse interests in the forest, from conservationists to recreation enthusiasts, from timber management and mining industry folks to environmentalists.

“We’re all going to have to sit down at the table and figure this all out. Any solution has to involve wilderness, sound management practices, conservation and recreation. But we can have it all in the Kootenai National Forest,” he said.

The biggest limitations he sees on the horizon are based upon funding new initiatives.

“We can say we want to harvest 130 million board feet of timber from the Kootenai, but the forest service doesn’t have the budget or the staff to make that happen,” he said.

Peck is just starting to formalize his remarks for the committee, but said his primary message is going to be about cooperation, not contention, between the various groups with interests in the forest.

“I’m not asking for local government control. I’m asking for local, not just government, influence to help guide our own destiny,” he said.

That destiny, he said, will be shaped by looking forward at solutions; not by looking backward at the problems. He believes Congress is looking in the same direction.

“I want to focus on solutions, and I think that’s where they’re at,” he said.

Peck will testify before the committee at 10 a.m. Eastern on March 24.