Interesting story in the Black Hills Pioneer where there appears to be a divergence of opinion between what the forest service is saying, and how South Dakota officials recall discussions.
In fact, it appears that the United States Forest Service might have been caught in a blatant lie.
The head of the Black Hills National Forest is adding his voice of opposition to a piece of federal legislation that would trade land between the federal and state governments ultimately leading to the formation of the proposed Spearfish Canyon State Park.
Mark Van Every, Black Hills National Forest supervisor, discussed his concerns about the land swap with the Pioneer Monday. He joins opposition from Leslie Weldon, deputy chief of the National Forest System, who testified against bills by Sen. John Thune and Rep. Kristi Noem Sept. 22 and said in a written statement that “the bill is unnecessary and contains provisions that raise concerns.”
“In a normal land exchange process we start out with two willing parties and come up with a mutually beneficial land exchange in which both parties feel that they are getting a fair deal in the process,” Van Every said. “That process has not happened in this case. There has not been any consultation, nor has the Forest Service been involved with the proposal or consultation.”
“That is blatantly false,” said Hunter Roberts, a policy advisor for Gov. Dennis Daugaard.
Roberts said the state reached out to the Black Hills National Forest at least a dozen times seeking input for the pending legislation.
“We spent a lot of time, a multitude of times, giving them an opportunity to provide input into our proposed land exchange. Continually, their statement is, ‘It is not Forest Service policy to comment on legislation until it has been introduced.’ In my opinion, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. You can’t say, ‘This is the first we’ve heard of it, we weren’t consulted,’ when you were consulted on it and just chose not to give input on it.”
This sounds like the people who didn’t participate in the Dakota Access hearings, and then started protesting over not being consulted. For a federal agency to not give their input after repeated requests, and then to deny they had a seat at the table is unconscionable.
It’s not as if this is a new development. The State has been working on this for most of the year. And NOW, the forest service is trying to claim they weren’t consulted? I’m calling bullsh*t on this one.
Our federal delegation needs to press forward with their legislation – AND get to the bottom of what is going on with the US Forest Service.
Forest Service lives in a bubble where they think they own the public’s land and it’s their way or the highway. Truthfulness be damned.
FS needs to realize South Dakotans love their State Parks. They should give land to the State because they manage it better.
Everybody in the Forest Service should be fired.
So should most in state government. Poor leadership. Zero talent. Secrecacy. Shady side deals. Taking the money and running. The GOP has turned the state into a giant Ponzi scheme that enriches themselves. Jokes. All of them.
Easy to state all these accusations, but can you give some examples?
EB5, Gearup, using stimulus dollars designed to help PRIVATE business update their buildings on their own buildings.
I could go on…
Venhuizen has no talent. He’s only looking to enrich himself rather than do good for the people of South Dakota.
The Service was blindsided by Thune, Noem election year gymnastics? What a shocker.
Ah, so the poor federal government wasn’t informed and they are being taken advantage of? Good joke, Comrade Anonymous 9:42; you make silly joke at expense of capitalist pig-dogs.
Do you have a problem with state control rather than centralized control by the almighty federal gubmint?
Do you blindly take the federal representative at his word and automatically assume that the representatives of the state are the bad guys?
the current crop of federal bureaucrats lies to cover it’s own collective butt? shocking and totally unexpected *cue sarcastic eyebrow raise*
It is hard for me to ever side with the Forest Service, but this Governor is such a buffoon that I have to side with the Federal bureaucrats on this one.
South Dakota would do a terrible job! Especially this motley crew under Daugaard. Can’t wait till he’s gone and the remnants, Roberts, VenHuizen, Johnson, et al. are unemployed.
With scandal after scandal and ZERO accountability from the governor’s office and the failed industrial park to nowhere, no one should have faith in our state government. At least with USFS we know we’ll get red tape and no action. State government has repeatedly sold us all a bill of goods. In 2019 Daugaard and company can join Bushes and Kasich on a nice cruise to political has beens who put their interests ahead of the people.