CANYON CITY – The County Court last week appointed three people to serve with Commissioner Boyd Britton on a committee reviewing proposals for a healthy forest and private timberlands study.

The three are Roje Gootee, a forest policy consultant and landowner in the Ritter area; Sue Newstetter, the county’s Title III coordinator; and Larry Blasing, a retired forester and member of the Grant County Public Forest Commission.

Britton said he also sent an invitation to Dennis Reynolds, former Grant County judge, to serve on the committee but had not heard back by the Aug. 3 Court meeting. If Reynolds agrees to serve, he will be appointed at the next Court meeting.

The committee will review the proposals submitted in July by three consulting firms that want to do the study for the county. The county’s request for qualifications drew responses from ECONorthwest, which has offices in Eugene, Portland, Seattle and New Orleans; Forest Resources Affairs LLC of Boise, Idaho; and US Forest Capital LLC of Portland.

The goal of the project is to study the private forest land ownership and assess the pressures that could take it out of production management. The study also would look at wildfire threats, local mill needs, and healthy forest issues.