Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project Update

ICBEMP (ick-bump) is a massive federal land-use plan that covers 144 million acres in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. 72 million acres are currently under Federal control and the other 72 million acres is private property, state, county and tribal lands.

The project’s stated goal is to "restore" this area to a condition that might have existed if European settlers had never arrived. It would create the template for "ecosystem management" to be used across the nation.

The real purpose is to further restrict and curtail logging, mining, grazing and other resource development and to limit or end access to Federally-managed lands by closing thousands of miles of roads. This would be a major disaster ~ economically, culturally and ecologically.

ICBEMP Forest Service and BLM teams are pouring over thousands of comments received during the designated period. However, implementations have already begun ~ road closures, limiting access, land-use restrictions, etc.

Language has been added to the Interior Appropriations bill that would end ICBEMP and send the scientific findings to the local level for use by individual forests and BLM districts. It would give local managers and local users the information for site-specific decisions.