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| In this day and age of declining or non-existing agency funding for maintaining - let alone restoring - facilities, some pro-active agency managers have come up with alternative funding sources. RAC Funding In 2000, Congress passed the “Secure Rural School and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000”, commonly known as “Payments to States”. The purpose of the Act was to stabilize payments to counties that had received revenues from timber harvest on Federal lands (payment in lieu of taxes). The community collaboration with federal land managers in recommending projects is accomplished through local groups called Resource Advisory Committees (RACs). Additional information can be found on the Payments to States website, http://wwwnotes.fs.fed.us:81/r4/payments_to_states.nsf. Details of proposed and funded projects are included, although not all RAC links have been updated for the current year. The following lookout restoration projects are examples of ones that were among those funded in 2005: Idaho - Idaho Panhandle RAC: Deer Ridge Lookout - $8,747 for materials and safety upgrades. Shorty Peak Lookout - $9,930 for safety upgrade materials . Montana - Lincoln County RAC: Barren Peak Lookout - $4,000 for materials for catwalk, roof, and interior preservation work. A local outfitter will do the work under the direction of a Regional Preservation Specialist in return for day-use of the site (public use will still be welcomed).Montana - Sanders County RAC: Seven Point Lookout Preservation - $12,000 for materials and supplies to reconstruct the lookout. The FFLA has been invited to partner in this project. Eddy Mountain and Pat’s Knob Lookout Maintenance - $10,125 for the replacement of catwalks, stairs, and handrails. Oregon - Hood & Willamette RAC: Coffin Mountain Brush Disposal - $50,000 for hand piling and burning 100 acres of thinning slash that threatens the lookout. Indian Ridge Lookout Toilet - $27,500 for an accessible vault-toilet restroom facility which meets current standards. Oregon - Rogue & Umpqua RAC: Illahee Rock Lookout Repair - $39,375 to maintain the staffed L-4 tower and to complete repairs to the 1925 D-6 ground house to bring it to acceptable standards for rental.Oregon - Siskiyou RAC: Bald Knob Lookout Repair, Toilet, and Parking - $19,695 for repair and maintenance of the lookout (used both for detection and as a rental), to replace the toilet and improve parking area.Washington - Wenatchee-Okanogan RAC: Leecher Mountain Lookout Maintenance -$21,393 to provide badly needed maintenance and bring the structure up to current safety codes. Local retired smokejumpers will volunteer to do much of the work.Thorp Mountain Lookout - $18,800 to repair the lookout and once again staff it for fire detection. Recreation Grant Funding A Washington State Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation (IAC) Grant for $100,000 was awarded to the Newport and Sullivan Lake Ranger Districts (Colville NF) for Salmo Mountain, Sullivan Mountain, and Timber Mountain lookouts. The three lookouts are to be brought up to current safety standards and placed on the rental program. Part of the “match” for the grant includes volunteer labor, at least some of which is expected to come from FFLA members. |