County eyes state fix to sign Good Neighbor Authority, taps $650,000 grant for shared public-lands attorney

Garfield County commissioners said they will seek a legal and administrative path to speed up timber sales and other forest work after learning the state cannot currently sign a Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) agreement with the U.S. Forest Service.

The chair told the commission the county secured a $650,000 legislative grant to fund a public-lands attorney shared among five counties, but that the existing attorney has resigned to take a new role in Washington, D.C. "We're going to let out the request for proposals," the chair said, asking prospective public-lands attorneys to apply for the remaining contract years.

The chair said a state lawmaker's objection had left the county unable to move forward with the GNA as-is, and the commission will seek a sponsor to insert an amendment that would allow execution in a special legislative session. "Hopefully, we can get it in a special session," the chair said, adding that the governor and the proper state officials would need to approve the change.

Commissioners described how delayed National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) work and limited Forest Service staffing have kept timber sales from being released. "One of their big excuses is first, they couldn't get the NEPA done," the chair said. Commissioners proposed using part of the grant money to hire county staff and consultants to administer and process timber sales, reducing reliance on Forest Service capacity. The chair specifically mentioned consultant Terry DeLay as someone familiar with the local landscape-scale NEPA process and proposed advertising for a consultant through the RFP process.

County officials said the arrangement would allow the county to advertise timber sales and provide resource flow to local sawmills once NEPA and administrative hurdles are cleared. The chair said the county had already identified internal candidates to help administer timber sales and noted an expectation that the county could move more quickly if state-level legal obstacles are resolved.

Next steps the commission identified were issuing the RFP for a public-lands attorney to cover the remaining 2½ years of the grant-funded work and pursuing the state amendment to allow the GNA to be signed. The commission did not set specific dates for the RFP release or for any special session and said those remain to be determined.