While Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) is applicable to all areas in Idaho, once again Custer and Lemhi counties, located in the High Divide region, are poster case studies for LCD implementation. Recommended Practices for LCD was announced by the Landscape Conservation Cooperative Network (LCCN) in September, 2018, describing LCD as "...a partner-driven approach to achieve a sustainable, resilient socio-ecological landscape. It is an iterative, collaborative, and holistic process resulting in strategic and spatial products that provide information, analytical tools, maps, and strategies to achieve landscape goals collectively held among partners." The process includes initiating LCD, convening stakeholders, assessing future desired conditions, and creating spatial and strategy designs. What this gibberish really means is federal and state governments join non-governmental organizations (NGO) in collecting multiple types of data to determine what an area currently looks like and then decide how they think it should look for conservation and connectivity, or rather sustainability. This includes manipulating citizens with fluffy words that are vague and nowhere close to telling the truth about what they are doing. On page 19, the High Divide (HD) area is highlighted as a Section 2 Example/Case Study that describes specific applications of the practices. The complete area can be found on the LCD Mapper. On this map, scroll down on the left to the High Divide area, Phase 1. If you click on "show more" at the bottom, it brings up all the involved parties, including the Heart Of The Rockies Initiative (HOTRI), Salmon Valley Stewardship (SVS), Lemhi Regional Land Trust (LRLT), Region 4 Forest Service, multiple NGOs, federal agencies, Idaho Fish & Game (IDFG), and many others. HOTRI and its facilitated group, the High Divide Collaborative (HDC), formed in 2013, are identified as leading the design process which serves as the "framework for conservation planning and delivery in the High Divide landscape." While recognizing mistrust of outside interests and government agencies, the HDC still proceeded with landscape conservation funding through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Even before the Recommended Practices LCD document was created, HDC was already well on its way implementing LCD through SVS as shown by the following examples. The Central Idaho Public Lands Collaborative (CIPLC), created by SVS, is achieving one LCD process with its working groups. According to LCD design, a Bridging Organization "identifies and convenes an inclusive set of stakeholders...within the defined geography...that use specific mechanisms such as working groups to link and facilitate interactions among individual actors". Working groups are used to designate "priority management areas" for the "amount of habitat" needed for objectives. and geospatial data is used to create maps that "evaluate the potential of every acre of habitat to support a species’ population". CIPLC working groups include Socio-Economic Impacts, Grazing, Forest and Watershed Health, Recreation, and Lands and Minerals. SVS recently launched the Forestry and Fire working group, and will be launching the Wildlife Connectivity working group. Another LCD task accomplished by SVS was convening an "inclusive" set of partners which included ranchers and local "stakeholders". Of course, federal and state agencies were in line to be included along with other NGOs. As for building trust, and claiming to listen "to all stakeholders"...and creating "recurring opportunities for all perspectives to be heard", they are only referring to themselves. True to its LCD task, the HDC Coordinating Committee has held workshops and celebrations of themselves. The Lemhi County Economic Development Association (LCEDA) tracks the local economic data, which is shared with Headwaters Economics (HE). Socioeconomic data collected by HE on Custer and Lemhi counties is highly detailed as seen on this map, both reports receiving "significant BLM and USFS financial and intellectual contributions to the operation and content." These reports also seem to be consistent with the 2018 SCNF socioeconomic assessment. The socioeconomic piece of LCD is for the purposes of dictating how communities function. HE and Executive Director Ray Rasker are HDC partners along with the Central Idaho Rangeland Network. HE uses data to make future investment decisions on recreation, healthcare, and education, which is why LCEDA, as part of LCD, may be spearheading the Education Project. LCEDA was very clear on their intentions in 2011, "Sustainability can be achieved through changing the community." LCD "Primary conservation goals" were identified for their "shared vision for the future of the High Divide landscape." Their "shared conservation goals has yielded strong support from our congressional delegations..." and "...has resulted in substantial federal investments in our priority conservation initiatives." The money just keeps pouring in for the takeover of local land management. In order to sustain the Collaborative, the "LCD must clearly lead to greater opportunity for effective conservation delivery". It is up to citizens to stop that delivery. A pretty hefty federal investment was made by the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GNLCC) for these objectives in 2015-2016, which included funding of $150,000 from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and $157,100 from other sources, a total of $307,100. The purpose of this support was to "identify and evaluate future landscape configurations...while conserving the High Divides unique landscape resources...emphasize wildlife connectivity between large protected core areas: Yellowstone, the Crown, and central Idaho"...and..."coupling socio-economic data and trends with conservation modeling in a holistic landscape conservation design process." The Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC) also had their fingers in the game in 2014, including IDFG, Y2Y, and the USFWS, In the Conserving an Intact and Connected GNLCC Landscape word document at the bottom of the above link, the High Divide area was summarized as having convened the HDC, assessed ground conditions, created spatial and strategic LCD to inform habitat connectivity decision making, with LWCF funding being committed for "major land acquisitions, conservation easements, and restoration". This was during the time of the GNLCC Ecological Connectivity Project which created spatial design and strategic approaches for LCD. The Lemhi Regional Land Trust (LRLT) is the HDC partner that pursues conservation easements and other land acquisitions while SVS is involved in restoration projects through their Lemhi Forest Restoration Group. This is how the scam works, the GNLCC, now defunded, was a conglomerate of government agencies and large landscape initiatives such as the HOTRI, Y2Y, CLLC, Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (RVCC), and land trusts. HOTRI created the HDC after SVS was established. In partnership with governments, SVS then proceeded to implement LCD objectives at the local level with their NGO buddies with funding primarily coming from your tax dollar. All of these groups and individuals think they have the right to determine how they want your community to look, how the land should be managed, and how citizens should live while sharing data to create those changes. For the claim that "The recommendations, findings, and conclusions in the guide are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service." What a bunch of crock, they sure don't have any problem posting it on their website. All of this is an internal government led coup d'état over the foundation of our Republic. Bottom line, this is a clear validation that federal and state governments are conspiring with NGOs to redesign Idaho land for conservation and communities, bypassing jurisdictional boundaries, omitting citizen involvement, and most obnoxious of all, violating every aspect of our Constitution and laws. Implentation of LCD has been in the works for years, a complete takeover of Custer and Lemhi counties by a tyrannical government. Citizens are the only ones who can stop it, and that time is now.
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On the Salmon Valley Stewardship (SVS) website, it doesn't provide a clear picture of how the organization was started, other than it began with "assistance" and "funding" by the Sonoran Institute in 2004 with the hiring of their first full time staff. Adrienne Blauser was a Sonoran staff member at that time into 2005, and eventually became the SVS Coordinator. Sonoran credits itself for establishing SVS (pg 9). In 2005 Ms. Blauser attended a White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation (pg 3), along with multiple other non-governmental organizations (NGO). This conference followed an executive order that "directed federal agencies to promote cooperative conservation in partnership with states local governments, tribes and individuals". It was nothing more than giving power to NGOs. The SVS website states Sonoran, a proponent of "collaborative conservation", provided two years of seed money for what was then called the Salmon River Mountains Working Group. The arrangement ended in July 2006, with SVS no longer receiving funding from Sonoran. In October, 2004, Robert Cope, Lemhi County Commissioner at the time, a BLM staff, Tom McFarland, rancher, and Jay Townsend from Salmon were the Executive Committee, and Ms. Blauser the Coordinator. However, along with Sonoran, other participants in the creation of SVS included the Nature Conservancy and Brainerd Foundation. SVS filed for non-profit status on 11/14/05. Sonoran was a recipient of funding from the Brainerd Foundation up to 2008. While SVS states no further funding was received from Sonoran, funding was merely shifted from Sonoran to Brainerd in 2006 once SVS was created. Over the years Brainerd grantees have been actively "investing" in the High Divide (HD) region on conservation efforts. The Wilburforce Foundation also contributes to SVS, having funded SVS $115,000 from 2017-2019 for the Yellowstone to Yukon program area. Gina Knudson, with SVS since 2006, became the SVS Executive Director (ED) in 2007, leaving that position in 2016 to become the Salmon-Challis National Forest (SCNF) Collaboration specialist. Ms. Knudson has been involved in several organizations that have landscape conservation objectives. At a 2014 Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GNLCC) steering committee meeting, Ms. Knudson, along with Merrill Beyeler, running for state representative, participated in a panel discussion on Community Based Conservation at the Landscape Scale in the High Divide. The now defunct GNLCC, created by Obama via a memorandum in 2010, was a partnership between federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGO), land trusts, Tribes, and even Canada, to conduct science for the purposes of designing landscapes for conservation. No citizen involvement or recognition of jurisdictional boundaries. Other SVS participants have included NGOs, foundations, and federal, state, and local agencies. Ms. Knudson was involved in other concerning activities via her SVS role such as the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (RVCC) as part of the Leadership Team, and the National Forest Foundation (NFF), participating in an NFF Collaborative Project Design session in 2009, and speaking at a 2016 NFF workshop on socio-economic monitoring plans (pg 70). Perhaps the most disturbing activity Ms. Knudson participated in as the SVS ED is the Heart of the Rockies Initiative (HOTRI), with its participating NGOs, and facilitated group, the High Divide Collaborative (HDC). SVS is considered a HOTRI "collaborative partner", along with the government, foundations, and land trusts. The HDC has multiple NGO and land trust participants, along with state and federal agencies. The only collaboration going on is between these groups. In 2010, the HOTRI developed a plan for cooperative conservation. Page 11 gives a complete explanation of their intent for using the High Divide as a linkage area, while page 13 shows the map that includes Lemhi and Custer counties. Their intent, "develop and implement a collective strategy to ensure that, by working with willing private land owners, the most significant private lands in the High Divide are conserved in perpetuity." SVS is listed on page 88 as a participant in the High Divide Focal Area Workshops. Pages 108-116 are specific to focus areas for conservation in Salmon-Lemhi, with the Sonoran Institute, Nature Conservancy, USFS, BLM, IDFG, HOTRI, Lemhi Regional Land Trust, American Wildlands (which promotes connectivity), and Ms. Knudson as participants in the workshop, held in August, 2009. While SVS claims a separate and independent status from Sonoran, involvement with Sonoran has continued. In 2011 SVS also participated in a Sonoran survey, providing information about the Salmon area. Starting on page 22, Ms. Knudson gives an alarming account of who all is involved, their objectives, and collaboration doesn't necessarily involve citizens. SVS also participated in an Idaho Land Use Analysis in 2010 with Idaho Smart Growth. In 2016, Ms. Knudson, along with other NGOs and government agencies, attended an HDC workshop to discuss "their vision for the desired future condition of the High Divide Landscape", "build trust and credibility within the collaborative and among stakeholders", "express their vision for the desired future condition of the High Divide Landscape", and various conservation strategies. Ms. Knudson spoke on wildfire threats, stating more fire was needed on the land, and logging operations were not feasible. Stakeholders do not include citizens, it is an arrangement between NGOs with the government. Everything you want to know about their plans can be found in this workshop. Federal and state governments are at the table with every NGO making these plans. Ms. Knudson, while serving in her new role as Collaboration Specialist, also attended the HD workshop in 2017, and discussed the beginning stages of the SCNF plan revision collaboration while "Alex Dunn, the Environmental/NEPA Coordinator for Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest then talked about examples of stakeholder led collaboratives that can lead to all lands conservation at large scale.", page 13. One question asked was "How can we advance achievement of our collaborative conservation goals?" Aptly stated, "our conservation planning for the High Divide landscape" is what the HOTRI and HDC is all about, planning nothing but conservation for the area, to be brought to citizens for acceptance. Connectivity was an often discussed issue at this workshop and SVS held a workshop on connectivity at the same time. The plan to involve themselves in forest plan updates and collaboratives was also discussed at this meeting, page 30. Toni Ruth became the SVS ED in 2016, having previously worked for IDFG seasonally, and as High Divide Coordinator for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a known partner with Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y). Not mentioned on her SVS bio is her being a coordinating committee member on the HOTRI facilitated HDC, or serving on the RVCC Leadership Team. She also attended the HD workshop in 2017, participated as a panel member on the 2018 HD workshop agenda, provided "gifts" to HOTRI, and plans to attend the HD celebration this month, hosted by the HDC, with Kim Trotter, Y2Y U.S. Program Director, by her side, even though the SVS website states it is not a participant in Y2Y. Ms. Ruth was also an HDC member during the same time SVS facilitated the Central Idaho Public Lands Collaborative (CIPLC) that would be providing input to the SCNF plan revision. In October, 2018 Ms. Ruth gave a talk on Rural Values and Multiple Use Insights from a Community Based Organization in Central Idaho. Those involved in the collaboratives set up by SVS will need to make their own decision on whether or not Ms. Ruth captured the true essence of those collaboratives, but she does reveal her thoughts on how Lemhi county has a true collaborative spirit, while Custer county is "challenging", have a "bitter taste", noting the 'angry villager" bumper stickers, with citizens showing up to "point fingers" and not "listen". Unclear as to her dismay over the angry villager stickers, it was her predecessor Gina Knudson that called Lemhi County residents "angry villagers" at a public forest plan revision meeting. Being non-defensive, citizens just took it on. Ms. Ruth also spoke at the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group meeting in June, 2019, Tension as Catalyst: Land Stewardship and Development Align for a Better Rural West was the subject. She was asked to be part of the panel as an Innovator. At the 40", 51:23", 59:42", and 1:06:05 marks, Ms. Ruth discussed a variety of subjects about the local economy, jobs, SVS work, and the formation of the Lemhi Forest Restoration Group (LFRG). It wasn't until the 1:10:50" mark that she revealed SVS funding from federal partners, grants, and individual donations, but never mentions funding from foundations, but does finally admit to involvement with the HDC, minimizing what that collaborative is really about. Nor does Ms. Ruth mention the Forest Service funding SVS for the "Your Forests Your Future" partnership that exceeded $938,000. Ms. Ruth has even partnered with the BLM, IDFG, and SCNF to host an Aspen Workshop. On the SVS Board of Directors there is a USFS employee and others who have worked for the federal government, how enmeshed is that. The Central Idaho Public Lands Collaborative (CIPLC) is another SVS front group, created in 2015, promoting the USFS "landscape scale conservation" agenda. Starting in 2016, the initial group was comprised of almost half NGO, state, and federal individuals and included many of the 2016 HDC workshop objectives. CIPLC has now created their own "forest vision". CIPLC is nothing more than another group to promote the false pretense that citizens are involved, use it as a means of promoting a phony narrative of consensus, overpower citizen input by forcing them to work through the collaborative, and implement federal government and NGO objectives. It should be no surprise Ms. Knudson was selected as "Collaboration Specialist", the USFS has been working with her for years on the same objectives, in the same groups. Creating a "diverse group of citizens" really means diverse federal and NGO members. Sustainable Northwest (SN), based in Oregon, created the RVCC program in 2000. LFRG, with its SN, NGO, and government partners, has been "coordinated" by RVCC partner SVS since 2006. Other conservation initiatives focusing on the High Divide are the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), Y2Y, and previously the GNLCC. As part of their objective to prioritize routes for grizzlies and wolverines, they intend to secure "protection of those routes from development" including purchasing private land, establishing conservation easements, preclude development such as timber harvest, oil and gas development, mineral extraction, and road building, limiting hunting, guiding land development with regulations, educating the public and children on connectivity", and the list goes on. SVS has participated with these groups for the same objectives, and very prominently with government agencies. These objectives will continue to destroy the economic viability of the Salmon-Challis area. Two new front groups, born out of the HDC, are being funded, the Forestry and Fire Working Group, and Wildlife Connectivity Working Group. Since the 2005 White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation, decisions are being made between federal and state governments with NGOs. Collaboration is between them, a lie, a deceitful way in which the federal government uses NGOs to implement their agenda for our land. Like a cancer cell replicating itself, these NGOs continue to grow themselves with new front groups in partnership with the government. It is one way the government has grown itself and the agenda is controlling land use. NGOs call it "capacity building". SVS is a Sonoran created front group for Brainerd that only collaborates with other NGOs, the "stakeholders" for the same conservation objectives, bringing those objectives to the table for citizens to swallow, then can't understand why citizens reject them. Even more objectionable is the fact that SVS and the others are planning all of this with our governments. Every one of these groups that SVS engages with are also involved with the government. Shame on them and shame on our government. All of these NGOs have only one goal in mind, conservation of land, mapping out and planning how they think the land should be managed and used. Using money from foundations and your tax dollar, their goal is taking land for permanent protection, using wildlife and other environmental aspects to create corridors, targeting private property and unprotected land for linkage areas between protected areas for connectivity, and interfering in local land use plans to insert conservation regulations. Those foundations should be giving all of that money to citizens, let citizens use it for restoration projects without all of the agenda ridden objectives. Same with the government, give our tax dollar back to us so we can use it for the benefit of where we live, quit laundering it through NGOs for your and their objectives to take and control more land. For all of these NGO leaders who don't understand, let us put it in simple terms to help you understand. Our Republic does not operate on collaboration and consensus, decisions are made by local government jurisdictions and citizens, not "stakeholders", according to law. Representatives are elected by citizens at the local level, and it is their job to listen to how those citizens want their jurisdiction and land managed. Those decisions do not belong with individuals or groups outside of the area, who are used as a money laundering scheme for foundations and government entities, especially with contrived plans on how they think land should be "visioned". You and the government are buddies, admit it. Jurisdictional planning does not include regional decisions. For the confusion about trust, it is really very simple. SVS and other NGOs operate without full disclosure. Behind the scenes planning and decisions are being made by NGOs and the government for citizens, without their involvement, and with massive amounts of funding in support of those hidden objectives. If it is truly the intent to listen to citizens, be inclusive, and acknowledge other perspectives as SVS claims, then why is Ms. Ruth so mystified about the reaction of Custer county citizens? Is it because citizens are not buying into the pre-laid plans made by the HOTRI, HDC, NGOs, and the government, instead choosing to advocate for their right to determine how their land is managed? Is that the source of frustration for you Ms. Ruth? Given your and others lack of transparency about what you are really doing, perhaps those fingers being pointed at you are justified, and citizens are tired of listening to your rhetoric. Those citizens have had the courage to speak up about their shunned perspectives, the nefarious relationship between SVS and the USFS, and the unwillingness of the USFS and SVS to give consideration to anything they have to say. "Stakeholders" is a word really meant only for the relationship between NGOs and other cronies, and a slick way to hide the lack of citizen involvement and input. It is an empty word, citizens are not being given any legitimate place in the conversation, behind the scenes activities, or at the "collaborative" table. This is a statewide problem, it is the exact same dynamic that NGOs and the governments play elsewhere. As for the solution, the foundation of our Republican form of government should be reinstituted. The USFS is a public servant, responsible to citizens, and should only be working with those who live in the forest plan revision area. This should also include citizen elected local representatives, and it is citizen perspectives that should be given priority, not from some group created "consensus", which dilutes citizen voices. The collaboratives set up by SVS should be dismantled. New groups should be formed with only Custer and Lemhi county citizens, local representatives, and USFS employees. It is time this long game is ended. There is no shared stewardship, the Republic does not operate that way, authority lies with the people in the local jurisdiction. SVS is a front group of the HOTRI and HDC, with full government support and backing, created for the sole purpose of targeting the Salmon-Challis area, and strengthened by the White House "cooperative conservation" conference, there is nothing community based about it. SVS and their NGO partners should disclose what they are really doing, the work they have engaged in for years with the GNLCC, HOTRI, and HDC, having their planned landscape conservation design to be executed on local communities. Let them come forward with their vision of conservation for the whole area that does not recognize jurisdictional boundaries, and the connectivity objectives they are planning with corridors, linkage areas, use of conservation easements, and land purchases to accomplish this objective. It should also be brought forth their interfering with local land use plans that include regulatory restrictions on land use such as Ms. Knudson did with the Lemhi comprehensive plan in 2012, and NGO intent to insert themselves into forest revision plans. Speak to those issues SVS because those are the facts. The responsibility for local growth, the economy, and jobs was never assigned to you. In fact, it has been the work of NGOs to prohibit logging and proper forest management, both which have lead to catastrophic fires, that has contributed to the economic difficulties. You own that. You and your NGO and government counterparts are responsible for destroying the economic base and are just continuing the same agenda with your conservation objectives. With all of their little "collaboration" groups, it is responsibility of SVS to get citizens to accept the fixed objectives and plans for conservation by them, HOTRI, HDC, and the government. This will no longer be the case. To SVS and their NGO and government pals, don't underestimate the intelligence of citizens, or their ability to recognize when they are being manipulated or dismissed. It is time for citizens to take the narrative back and exercise their authority. Below is a report on the High Divide workshop, with funding by foundations and the US Fish & Wildlife service, held in April, 2017. It is relevant because it identifies participants and the strategy for the Salmon area. The framework was Landscape Conservation Design which is designing a large area in a way conservationists think it should look, what should be protected, designing areas for wildlife and other corridors, all laid out for connectivity. Some of the participants included Gina Knudson, Collaboration Specialist and previously from Salmon Valley Stewardship, Merrill Beyeler, Kristin Troy, Executive Director at the Lemhi Regional Land Trust, and others mentioned including Josh Milligan, Toni Ruth, and Kim Trotter. Regarding forests on page 30, they saw opportunity to "Be involved in Forest Plan updates", "Analyze stakeholders and what power they have to influence change", and "Use our High Divide platform to influence policy changes for stewardship contracting...include some preference to local contractors" that would "...help tamp down the anti-federal sentiment." Bear in mind several federal agencies participated in this workshop as well as Idaho Fish & Game. Opportunity was also seen to "put fire back in the landscape". Two years ago these groups and individuals were laying out their strategy on how they planned to execute their goals. The current collaborations are nothing more than a front to impose their objectives on citizens, the decision has already been made for you in the revision. All of this is supported by their weighing down the groups with their ideological friends and partners. |