Lincoln County Commissioner Robert King says timber sales objectives will be discussed in the upcoming Greys River Forest collaborative meeting in Etna Thursday.

He says the purpose of the meeting, led by the Star Valley Conservation District, is forest health and safety.

“One of the things we’re looking at is cleaning up our forest and making it healthy again,” King said. “And that leads us to timber sales.”

He says he is hoping the Tri-Basin Timber sale will come together this year. He also says the county commission is going around to potential buyers of the timber.

“It’s important that people bid on these timber sales,” King said. “Once we get them up and available to them.”

He says the county has hired a forester to help it do more with the forest industries. The commission is working with the Good Neighbor Authority which King says will help assist in that.

“As well as stewardship agreements,” King said. “Those stewardship agreements are something we can use to help the Forest Service get timber sales up and going. That’s something they just had a struggle doing because they lost a lot of their foresters.”

He says they don’t have the funds to do some of these things. He also says timber harvest and management will help in preventing fires like the one seen in Roosevelt.

The county commission is hoping to get to bid this year and see the harvest begin hopefully this year. If not, next year.

King says they are working on a five year plan with Forest Service as well. The timber sales take place in the Greys River District and the Kemmerer District.