A new committee to be formed by Koochiching County will explore whether white cedar stands may be managed to serve as wetland credits.

The committee, made up of resource managers, commissioners from Koochiching and Lake of the Woods counties, a state forester, and land surveyors, will develop a plan that would outline management techniques that would allow some or all of the county’s 13,000 acres of white cedar to be used as credits when governments need to mitigate disturbances to wetlands through development.

The plan must be approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees federal wetland issues.

Commissioners informally discussed the plan with some members of the committee Tuesday.

White cedar is becoming more rare in Minnesota, and is a slow-growing species. The plan may involve managing the stands to encourage new growth and a mixed age of trees.

Commissioner Wade Pavleck said using the county’s white cedar for wetland credits “is the best chance we’ve ever had to be able to do something with the wetland problem.”

Area officials for years have argued that federal and state rules on development in wetlands has hurt the local economy by hindering and sometimes prohibiting projects.

But some members of the committee cautioned Pavleck that the process to develop the plan with the input from the corps may be lengthy and involved.

Tom Toratti, a county forester who previously worked for the Koochiching County Soil and Water Conservation District, said the area has had 17 years of active regulation by the corps and still no wetland credit bank has been established, despite numerous efforts by county officials.

“You want to be real cautious if you think this is a miracle cure,” Toratti said.

Toratti also suggested the corps would control where the credits may be used, if it approves the plan.

Justin Berg, district technician with the conservation district, suggested officials think of the plan as a “one-of-a-kind pilot project for the entire state.”

He said he’s identified fives sites for which different management plans could be developed and offered to the corps for input. “If that goes through, we will know what they were looking for and we can unroll the rest,” he said.

Pavleck said it’s critical to get the support of the corps, as well as the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources.

Commissioners meeting as a committee also discussed a draft proposal offered by Pavleck on rural fire service.

Pavleck said he wanted to present the proposal to International Falls and Rural Fire Protection Association Board members prior to discussing it publicly.

The plan would see the city continue to provide fire protection to rural areas with a critical role played by RFPA.

In other business, the board approved, on a 3-2 vote, increases in rates charged for renting county highway department equipment.

At issue is an increase from $25 to $35 per trip to widen private driveways in emergency situations when a four-wheel drive pickup cannot do the job. A $1 per minute charge was eliminated.

County Engineer Doug Grindall said the increase is necessary to cover the county’s costs.

Commissioner Mike Hanson objected, saying the downturn in the economy and the high costs of utilities are impacting rural residents. “Now is not the right time,” he said of the increases.