Action on Conservation

• Offered measure to clarify the federal role in funding land trust purchases of Agricultural Land Easements during the Farm Bill consideration.  The Senate ultimately approved the provision.

• Crapo has commended Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s decision to fund the Weiser-Little Salmon Headwaters Project and Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative (KVRI) under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) program. The two collaborative efforts will join the Clearwater Basin Collaborative’s north-central Idaho Selway-Middle Fork Clearwater Project in receiving funding from the Forest Service for landscape restoration to reduce wildfire risk, improve fish and wildlife habitat and increase timber harvest.

  “Idaho is home to millions of acres of federal land, including eight national forests that provide jobs and recreation to many Idaho communities,” Crapo said. “Secretary Vilsack’s selection of two additional Idaho collaboratives for CFLR funding highlights the challenging and productive efforts by Idahoans in these communities to come together to find solutions to land management conflicts that stretch back decades. Collaboration is neither fast nor easy, but as evidenced by the Forest Service’s announcement today, significant progress can be made when folks agree to come to the table to find mutually agreeable and lasting solutions to issues on our public lands.”