Western Governors, Feds Ponder New Landscape Initiative

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter says the relationship between federal land management agencies and Western states to find collaborative ways to deal with landscape-scale problems is improving but could be better.

Otter and U.S. Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary Jim Lyons addressed a two-day workshop of the Western Governors' Association's National Forest and Rangeland Management Initiative that ended Friday in Boise.

The initiative is intended to bring local, state, federal and private entities together to find common ground that Lyons says is desperately needed to restore Western landscapes.

About 75 participants took part in the workshop that's the second for the initiative launched in August by the 19-state Western Governors' Association.

The initiative is in its early stages. A third workshop is planned in South Dakota in December.