1975-06-15 Char-Koosta News

              NEW FORESTRY PLAN WOULD CUT VIRGIN STANDS
Dixon: The Bureau of Indian Affairs has completed an in-tricatley detailed ten-year forest management plan which aims at bringing most of the reservation forest under intense timber production by 1981.
The document...which is some 410 pages long...was presented to the Tribal Council May 23, by its principle
author, Forestry Officer, Bob Miller. Miller, and other a-gency foresters, will review the recommendations and options of the plan with the council later this month. The completed plan will set a course for reservation forest management over the next decade and set a pattern for forest use over the next century.
The plan proposes    intense concentration on the remaining virgin and overstocked portions of the reservation forest. The plan recommends cutting these areas over the next ten years in order to bring them under maximum growth conditions. Miller calculates that at the end of the ten-year period, the sustained yield allow-
able cut for the forest would reach 56.4 million board feet. However, the plan targets this annual allowable cut throughout the ten-year period in order to bring the virgin and over-stocked areas under control.
Although Miller recommends a maximum production -maximum return plan
Forest Plan (See Page 6)
HOW TAX EXEMPTION
Volume 5 - Number 4 FULL MOON OF THE CAMAS June 15,1975
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LOGGING UNITS CLOSED TO HUNTING
Dixon: Hunting will no longer be allowed in logging units that are under contract. The new policy...approved by the tribal council May 23...is designed to take pressure off of dwindling reservation game herds.
The new rule will immediately affect four recently approved logging sales. They are the Hot Springs unit west of Hot Springs...the Welcome Springs unit south of Hot Springs...the Dream Sale, north of Rainbow Lake... and the Fringe unit just west of Hot Springs. All subset quent sales will also carry the same hunting restrictions.
The policy calls for a strictly enforced ban on hunting in units under contract from the day the sale is approved by the council until all logging activity has stopped. It is hoped the policy will prevent excessive pressure on game animals in newly opened areas.
COUNCIL APPROVES BREAKING REVAIS INTO THREE UNITS
Dixon: Preliminary sale preparation on three fragments of the former Revais logging unit was approved by the Tribal Council, May 23.
The three smaller units... the 15 million board feet Fin-ley, the 7.3 million board feet Cold Creek and the 3.3 million board feet Black Rock...will be prepared for sale in fiscal year 1977. The three new units are splinters of the 40 million board feet Revais unit.
In February, the council refused to approve the sale of the sprawling unit south of Dixon because it would have placed the entire south boundary of the reservation under simultaneous logging pressure. Large-scale logging in the Revais, as well as the on-going Granjo to the west and the Valley unit to the east, would have further stressed the already depleted game population in the southern reservation area.
The new action, splitting up the Revais unit, came under fire from councilmen Fred Whit worth, Arlee, and Tom "Bearhead" Swaney, St. Ignatius. Whitworth noted at the May 23 meeting, that in March the council has suspended both the Revais and the northern Reservation Irvine unit from the logging schedule. He said that action to go ahead with sales preparation on the three splintered units was a contradiction of the March action. He also pointed out that breaking the Revais into three smaller units would not relieve the game situation because it would still place about 25 million board feet of Revais timber under contract at the same time both the Granjo and the Valley units are being logged.
Swaney agreed with Whitworth and added that the bureau had still not filled several
Ravais (See Page 3)
WORKS
Thompson Falls: Although Flathead Reservation resident tribal members no longer have to pay personal property taxes on automobiles, both Sanders and Lake county are still collecting new car taxes and gross vehicle weight taxes from otherwise exempt Indians.
A policy statement drafted recently by Sanders County Attorney Robert Fletcher spells out the procedure a tribal member must observe to be eligible for property tax exemption. The letter also notes the reasons why certain taxes are still being assessed against tribal members.
Fletcher outlines three requirements that enrolled tribal members who live on the reservation must satisfy in order to qualify for personal property tax exemption. They are:
...A letter from Tribal Secretary Fred Houle, certifying that the applicant is enrolled and a resident of the reservation.
...Title to the vehicle showing that the applicant is the actual owner. In the case of farm equipment or cattle, brand certification or titles are required. If the property is not owned entirely by the tribal member then "it should be fully taxed".
...Applicants must also prove they are actual residents of
Property (See Page 2)