In early March, the County Commissioners of Idaho’s Benewah, Shoshone, Bonner, Boundary and Kootenai counties requested a 45-day extension of the public’s comment period for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests Draft Management Plan and were granted a 30-day extension. The new public comment deadline is May 7, 2012.

The Idaho Panhandle National Forests consist of three individual proclaimed national forests—the Kaniksu, the Coeur d’ Alene and the St. Joe—and of the total 2,500,700 acres, about 2,351,100 acres are in North Idaho.

Given that the activities in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests are vital to the economic, cultural and social well being of each county, the Commissioners feel it is vital that the proposed draft be understood and analyzed in-depth as to the potential effects on each county.

Therefore, the Commissioners requested a presentation of the Draft Management Plan. The Kootenai County Commissioners are sponsoring this presentation on Monday, April 23 at 5:30 p.m. in the Kootenai County Administration Building, Room 1A/1B.

Kent Wellner, Forest Planner with the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, will present a PowerPoint presentation of the proposed plan with a question and answer session to follow.  Mounted maps will be on display for the public’s viewing.

We invite and encourage the public to attend this presentation.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Kootenai County Commissioner’s office at 446-1600 or kcbocc@kcgov.us.