From the October 2000 Idaho Observer:

Candidate plans protest logging of “federal” timber

FERNWOOD -- State House candidate Andy Jolliff plans to log some “Forest Service (USFS)” timber if he wins the election. Under a state constitutional provision which grants prosecutorial immunity for legislators en route to or from the legislature, and while the legislature is in session, Jolliff would stage a protest logging of alleged USFS timber on his way to Boise from his home here.

Born and raised in northern Idaho and employed in the timber industry, Jolliff has been witness to the destruction of our forests through wasteful, illogical and unscientific federal forest management. Years of fire suppression, which has prevented nature from taking its course, has been compounded by USFS failure to engage in intelligent active management of our public forests. The result is a tinderbox condition, evidenced by this year's major fire season which burned millions of acres west of the Rocky Mountains. The federally-denuded forests are now likely to experience erosion exponentially more devastating than that caused by roads which USFS has been obliterating and gating against public access.

Among the issues behind Jolliff's planned protest is: who's public lands are these anyway? Jolliff, an ardent student of the state and federal constitutions, has found a few interesting facts:

Article 10, Section 4, of the state Constitution grants all property of the Territory of Idaho to the new state upon admission to the Union. USFS has been “administering” it's alleged lands acquired through presidential proclamations and other unconstitutional “takings.”

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal Constitution limits ownership of lands in a state by the federal government to “forts, arsenals, magazines, dockyards and other needful buildings.” The federal Constitution makes no mention of federal ownership of state forest lands.

The 10th Amendment further limits the federal government to the powers enumerated to it by the Constitution.

Jolliff is a co-founder of the Small Loggers Council where he was instrumental in developing a salvage logging program for the Department of Lands to provide small, direct no-bid sales of timber to loggers that harvested dead or dying trees to help keep our forests healthy. The program began as a local experiment funded by the state legislature and has been adopted statewide.

The program functions by loggers paying the state-determined asking price and state foresters designating the trees that can be harvested. These trees are either dead, dying, windblown and broken, have root-rot or are diseased and bug infested.

The program has been a great success and provides the people of Idaho employment and economic opportunities that would not exist without it, since USFS terminated a similar federal program a decade ago.

Jolliff is running as a Libertarian in District 7 for Representative Position B. “I have decided that we have reached our threshold on government intervention in our lives.  I have come to believe that Thomas Jefferson was right - That which governs least, governs best. As long as what you are doing does not endanger me or mine or infringe on our rights you should be free to do as you please. You own you - I own me! If we respect each other we will always get along. I believe strongly that people should be responsible for their own lives and their actions. I believe the state of Idaho should be managed for Idaho. We are a sovereign and equal state of the union, not a territory or a serfdom,” Jolliff stated.

“I can win this seat. Your donations can help. If you feel I would be a good state Representative that works for freedom and smaller government please contribute to my campaign.”

Contact: Andy Jolliff Campaign Fund, Box 501, Fernwood, Idaho 83830. Email: candidate47@hotmail.com