Green Daily

Earlier today, we reported on the felicitous news that a large chunk of land in Montana was on its way to being preserved. What's the opposite of a silver lining? Whatever it is, this deal definitely has it: The Washington Post reported today that the company which made the deal with the Nature Conservancy to preserve that land, Plum Creek Timber Co, didn't exit the negotiations empty-handed.

The Forest Service, which is run by a former timber lobbyist (I didn't know that!), agreed in a separate deal to allow Plum Creek to open large areas of its holdings up for residential development. The American West, as anybody who lives there knows, is a fast-growing real estate market, and Plum Creek lobbied for the rights to turn a bunch of land into residential subdivisions.

The Forest Service, reports the WaPo, may get sued by Missoula County for bypassing public review processes in granting the Plum Creek deal. Meanwhile, environmentalists in Montana are quoted as actually sort of missing the old-school extractive timber industries. At least a clear-cut forest has some potential to grow back, whereas if the land is covered by cul-de-sacs and giant second homes, the damage is almost permanent.