Moscow-Pullman Daily News - His View: ULX: Who do Jim and Raúl represent?

Op-Ed

By Nels Mitchell

Shortly after I entered the U.S. Senate race against Jim Risch, Idaho's junior senator, I began to hear complaints about the role he was playing in "giving" away prime public land to a private company called Western Pacific Timber LLC.

Latah County folks told me prime recreational land on Moscow Mountain would be given away. Idaho County folks told me they would lose a substantial part of their property tax base. Leaders of the Nez Perce tribe were concerned about losing treaty rights on the public lands. And folks in Clearwater County were concerned about the costs of providing law enforcement and other services after public lands in their county were given to Western Pacific.

Standing at the center of this controversy are Jim Risch and U.S. Rep. Raúl Labrador. Last September they sent a letter to the Forest Service saying they intended to work out a "legislative" solution for Western Pacific. They also said they intended to seek input from various stakeholders. I have, however, been told they are not listening to their Idaho constituents, which is why I have been hearing so many complaints.

Before going further, I should provide a little background. There are large sections of private land on the Upper Lochsa that were logged, and then transferred to Western Pacific. The Forest Service would like to acquire these lands, which are a critical part of the Upper Lochsa watershed and are surrounded by national forest. The Forest Service has funds it can use to purchase this type of land from the fees that are charged from offshore oil and gas revenues.

Several years ago, Western Pacific said it would trade its logged-over land on the Upper Lochsa in exchange for several prime parcels of public land that it had cherry-picked from around the state. This became known as the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange or ULX.

Two of my first questions were: Who is Western Pacific? And why are Risch and Labrador doing special favors for it? Several people told me the person behind Western Pacific is shady guy from Montana -- Tim Blixseth who has been found by federal judges in Montana and California to have committed a $200 million fraud. The answer is not so simple.

It turns out that Western Pacific is a secretive, private company. Figuring out who is behind it is like peeling back layers of an onion. Western Pacific lists only two members -- Keewadin Holdings LLC and Longball Sports LLC. Keewaydin is a private Pennsylvania company whose principal is another company called 1776 Holdings LLC, which appears to be controlled by an individual named Robert Duncan and other companies that he controls.

Duncan and his companies have admitted to defrauding the government in the past. One year after they agreed to pay a $2 million civil penalty to settle an Environmental Protection Agency lawsuit in 2010, the government had to file a fraud action against Duncan and several of his other companies (including 1776 Investments and Holdings), alleging they fraudulently transferred assets.

I have not peeled back all of the layers of this onion. However, I have learned enough to say that as the U.S. senator for Idaho, I will not be doing special favors or behind-closed-door deals for the likes of Duncan, 1776 Holdings or Western Pacific.

More importantly, my priority will be to serve the interests of my fellow Idahoans, not some out-of-state private companies. Our prime public lands should not be sold or given away with special legislation engineered by the likes of Jim Risch or Raúl Labrador.

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