Private Forestry Access, Easements, and Forest Management Legal Issues

This workshop will address easements, rights of way, and related ownership and management issues. Additional topics will include legal and sociopolitical relationships with federal, tribal and local governments, federal law management issues that can involve private lands, options for reconfiguring land ownership, conservation easements, and state laws uniquely relevant to private forestry, such as timber trespass. The presentation will discuss and is geared to participants from Idaho, Eastern Washington and Montana. We encourage attendees to come with specific questions and be ready to participate in an active discussion on topics within the boundaries of the agenda.

About the Speaker

Paul Turcke is a partner in the Boise firm Moore Smith Buxton & Turcke, specializing in public lands and access issues. Mr. Turcke addresses a full spectrum of issues involving the National Forest System, including land ownership, access, permitted uses, endangered species and local communities. His clients are frequently recreation advocacy organizations, outfitters, backcountry pilots, private and corporate landowners, and local governments. In 2010 he successfully argued to an en banc court for the elimination of the 9th Circuit’s “federal defendant” limit on intervention, allowing for greater participation by all nonfederal stakeholders in environmental litigation. His litigation activities have spanned fifteen U.S. District Courts, four Circuit Courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Turcke received his law degree cum laude from the University of Idaho in 1993 and graduated with honors in psychology and minor in biology from Whitman College in 1987. Prior to entering private practice he worked as Idaho district court law clerk, a deputy public defender, and a deputy prosecuting attorney.