PLC Priorities Mapped Out

Earlier this month the Public Lands Council held its Annual Meeting in Deadwood, South Dakota with more than 100 members attending.

PLC Executive Director Dustin Van Liew says it was an upbeat meeting and is where the organization sets its legislative priorities for the next year.

Van Liew: "In the short term of the next three months before the calendar year winds out. We are focused on the appropriations process and hopeful that Congress will work towards an appropriation with various writers and language that will be helpful to industry including the extension of that grazing writer that allows those permits to be renewed in light of the NEPA backlog. In addition to appropriations, we are still focused on our highest priority legislation the Grazing Improvement Act which codifies that grazing writer for permit renewals and also extends grazing permits from a term of 10 years to 20 years. That has passed the House Resources Committee and we are working now to see it pass the full House."

A recent legislative win for the PLC as well as timber communities in the Pacific Northwest was U.S. House of Representative's passage of legislation that will improve federal forest management to prevent catastrophic wildfire and support rural economies. The Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, H.R. 1526, passed with resounding support bipartisan vote.