Boise Cascade has completed the sale of its timberlands.
What does this mean to you? You know how you used to recreate around Horsethief Reservoir and ride your four-wheelers around the lake with impugnity, but now most of it is fenced off? That's because private corporations bought the Boise Cascade land around it. Pretty much anything that didn't already belong to the State is now property of real estate developers and the YMCA of Boise.
You know how some of your favorite hunting areas are now posted No Tresspassing? That's because private individuals bought them.
Are we getting any closer as to what the purchase by this group could mean for the general public here in Idaho?
Let's look closer: Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC is a "private equity management group". More specifically, "Madison Dearborn Partners, headquartered in Chicago, is one of the most experienced and largest private equity investment firms in the country with approximately $8 billion of assets under management. Madison Dearborn focuses on investments in several specific industries including natural resources, communications, consumer, health care and financial services."
Hmm, what's making money here in the West Central Idaho mountains? Ski resorts. Golf courses. Destination resorts. Real estate development.
Wait, what was that last one? Real estate development? Boys and girls, it is my educated opinion that Madison Dearborn Partners intends to make their money from the area Boise Cascade lands, not by selling pulpwood, but by selling land. To private developers. It's already happening in past Boise Cascade sales.
Does it bug you to think of areas like Horsethief and Clear Creek and the North Fork of the Payette River being locked up against the traditional public use that has been occurring in the past with Boise Cascade's blessing? It should, because the developers at places like Tamarack Resort have already made it abundantly clear to the locals that they're not welcome to recreate like they have in the past. Heck, land prices, lift tickets and greens fees have been priced so high that no local has a prayer of joining in the fun up there.
I don't have a solution for you, but I sure would like to see a lot of people here in Idaho thinking a lot harder about how wild areas are being sold and developed.