Land Board Denies Trident's Appeal to Reverse Land Exchange Rejection

Tuesday morning the Land board voted unanimously to deny Trident’s request to overturn the Idaho Department of Lands’ (IDL) decision rejecting their proposal to acquire and privatize more than 21,000 acres of endowment lands surrounding Payette Lake. Attorney General Wasden summed it up nicely, “Ultimately, there is no legal right in play here.”

There have been several developments on this issue in the last month, which has created a lot of questions from the public regarding process and where Trident and the state lands now stand. So, we will walk you through a timeline, then discuss the current and future status of the landscape.

  • June 2020- Trident publicizes their so-called “Preserve McCall” proposal for a three way land exchange between itself (as a provider of capital), undisclosed timber companies in North Idaho, and endowment lands surrounding the Payette lakes.

  • December 2020- IDL publishes their draft Payette Endowment Land Strategy (PELS) at the direction of the Land Board, in order clarify path forward for potential short- and long-term management visions for the parcels within the McCall endowment lands.

  • February 2021- Trident submits their “Preserve McCall” proposal to IDL. Like any proposal to IDL, the agency will take a few months to analyze.

  • March 2021- Land Board approves final version of the PELS, which gives IDL the latitude to seek strategies for its implementation. The PELS also shows that some acreage is subject to sale if revenue thresholds are not met.

  • August 2021- IDL rejects Trident’s proposal. Trident threatens litigation.

  • Early September 2021- Trident appeals to the Land Board to rescind IDL’s rejection and files litigation in Ada County District Court to vacate IDL’s decision.

  • Late September 2021- Land Board denies Trident’s rescission appeal.

That brings us up to speed. So what now? The Land Board’s 5-0 vote is the latest blow to Trident in an 18 month saga, but they aren’t gone yet. There is still a pending litigation and Trident can always come back to IDL with a new, different proposal for these lands.

That is… unless another proposal for these lands is put forward and accepted by IDL and the Land Board. Stay tuned later this week for more on this.


Brian Brooks