More than 2,000 acres of state endowment land around Payette Lake would become part of the Payette National Forest under an exchange being negotiated by the Forest Service and the Idaho Department of Lands.
Valley Lookout obtained details on the negotiations, which remain in progress, by obtaining public records under the Idaho Public Records Act
The records include email conversations, voicemails, documents, and maps distributed between the agencies since last March, when the Forest Service presented an initial offer to IDL.
Details regarding the land exchange as currently proposed have not been publicly disclosed prior to this reporting. The agencies discussed a much larger land exchange in 2021, as BoiseDev reported, but that proposal did not advance beyond preliminary stages.
The proposal
As currently proposed, the exchange centers on 21,553 acres of National Forest land, including more than 3,500 acres bordering Tamarack Resort, which would become endowment lands managed by IDL.
In return, the Forest Service would receive 5,372 acres of state endowment land, including 2,244 acres around Payette Lake.
The Payette Lake lands include 1,309 acres west of Warren Wagon Road and 935 acres along Eastside Drive from Fall Creek to the North Beach Unit of Ponderosa State Park.
Not included in current negotiations are about 2,400 acres of endowment land around the lake’s northwest shoreline and surrounding the North Fork Payette River Meanders north of the lake.
The other 3,128 acres the Payette would receive are state parcels within the Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness and “isolated backcountry” parcels within the McCall and Krassel ranger districts.
What would the state get in return?
Most of the Forest Service land the state would receive would come from about 18,000 acres in Adams County along both sides of U.S. 95 between Lost Valley Reservoir Road and the northern outlet of the Fruitvale Glendale Road.
The state would also get 3,508 acres bordering Tamarack, most of which are subject to the resort’s expansion plans. That includes 3,002 acres south of the resort’s current boundary and 506 acres north of the boundary.
Emails show that Tamarack President Scott Turlington has been involved in negotiations related to the lands near Tamarack, which Turlington confirmed to Valley Lookout.
If the exchange is approved, Tamarack intends to lease the lands from the state instead of operating under a special use permit from the Forest Service, Turlington said.
“We’ve not had formal discussions on the lease terms, but it would have to make sense for both parties,” he said.
Sharla Arledge, an IDL spokesperson, provided a statement on the exchange, but declined further comment.
“It is too early to discuss any specifics regarding a possible land exchange with the Forest Service,” Arledge said. “If anything ever comes to fruition it has to be something each sees as a benefit to its mission.”
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For the state, acquiring land around Tamarack could help create a steady funding source for endowment land beneficiaries, including public schools and hospitals.
The lands department operates under a mandate in the Idaho Constitution that requires it to maximize long-term returns from endowment lands, which are primarily managed as timberlands. In 2021, a plan adopted by IDL found endowment lands around Payette Lake to be producing lower returns than expected, calling into question their long-term viability as public lands held by the state. The plan tabbed nearly 400 acres of endowment land around McCall for sale or lease within 20 years, though none of those parcels have been included so far in negotiations.
4:1 ratio in state’s favor
As proposed, the exchange would net IDL nearly four times as much land as it would trade to the Forest Service. Officials from both agencies noted such a ratio would be necessary to compensate for the high value of endowment lands around Payette Lake — including the estimated value of more than $4.6 million for the 2,224 acres that could be included in the exchange.
“In order to ensure we are reasonably close to equal value, it will be necessary to identify ~3:1 acres as potential federal lands that would be transferred to the state,” Allison Ginn, the Idaho State Liaison for the Forest Service’s Intermountain Region, said in a Sept. 30 email to IDL staffers.
Still, Scott Corkill, who heads the Payette Lakes Supervisory Area for IDL, warned that additional federal lands may need to be added to the swap to balance values.
“These lands were analyzed and would be acceptable on certain levels, but I don’t think it would get us to the finish line for the lands around Payette Lake,” Corkill said in a Sept. 25 voicemail to Ginn.
Sense of urgency
Despite not having details of the land exchange ironed out, IDL officials gave Ginn the impression that the agency wanted to move forward sooner rather than later.
Ginn outlined multiple reasons for this perceived sense of urgency in the Sept. 30 email, including fear of an outside proposal involving the Payette Lake lands, like one proposed in 2020 by Trident Holdings, a Boise investment firm that sought to trade for more than 20,000 acres of endowment land around the lake.
“There is also concern that a new proposal may come in for development of these lands in the interim, which IDL would be required to consider under their mandates,” Ginn said.
Arledge told Valley Lookout that IDL had not received any inquiries or had discussions about large-scale land exchanges involving endowment lands around Payette Lake since Trident’s 2020 proposal, excluding the current negotiations with the Forest Service.
Federal process influencing timeline
The Lands Department’s sense of urgency has also been driven by a federal process that would be required to approve the exchange.
If the exchange is agreed upon by IDL and the Forest Service, then it would advance to the State Board of Land Commissioners. Then, if approved by the land board, it would require federal legislators to approve a bill authorizing the exchange since it involves federal lands.
“IDL is concerned about missing a potential omnibus public lands package if active resolution is further delayed,” Ginn said in the Sept. 30 email.
Turlington, a former lobbyist and staffer under former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, told Valley Lookout that he plans to assist in pitching the exchange at the federal level if the proposal moves forward.
Former Forest Service Chief involved
Ginn also noted “social pressure” on IDL to include the City of McCall and Valley County in the negotiations, including from former U.S. Forest Chief Tom Tidwell, who lives in McCall.
In May, Tidwell suggested potential ways to conserve endowment lands around Payette Lake in an email that circulated among several IDL staffers. He also explained his urgency to see an exchange completed.
“Based on the Land Board’s Payette Endowment Lands Strategy (PELS), IDL will continue to sell endowment lands around McCall, while the community continues to pursue opportunities to keep some of these lands open for public recreation and to sustain healthy watershed,” Tidwell said in the email. “Often we lose both when lands become private.”
Tidwell, who led the Forest Service from 2009 to 2017 and began his career in the Boise National Forest, did not respond to Valley Lookout’s request for an interview.
However, Turlington confirmed Tidwell’s involvement and said he was the first to urge Tamarack to get involved in the negotiations.
“Tom’s the first guy that reached out to me,” Turlington said. “A short period of time after that, the state kind of reached out to start inquiring.”
Public involvement
The idea of seeking public opinion on the exchange was floated by IDL Director Dustin Miller as far back as last March.
“At some point, we should talk about a broader convo with the community as we discussed,” he said in a March 12 email to Mary Farnsworth, the regional forester for the Forest Service.
However, it remains unclear if the agencies intend to seek public comments before moving forward with the exchange.
The Forest Service confirmed to Valley Lookout that IDL “expressed interest” in a land exchange including areas around Payette,” but declined to answer specific questions about the negotiations.
“There has been no formal proposal for an exchange but both agencies have discussed how the federal land exchange process works,” said Shawntae White, a spokesperson for the Payette National Forest. “We remain committed to working with our state partners to find opportunities that benefit the people and communities both agencies serve.”
