A proposed timber project on the Bitterroot National Forest was one of 13 selected to receive state funding as part of a program to increase the pace and scale of efforts to improve forest and watershed health in Montana.
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation announced earlier this week that it would provide nearly $1 million in state funding to Forest Service projects in 11 Montana counties.
The money comes from the state’s wildlife suppression account being used to fund Montana’s Forests in Focus Initiative. The 2013 Legislature agreed that up to $5 million can be used every two years for fuels reduction, mitigation, forest restoration and purchase of fire equipment.
“We see our assistance in accelerating restoration on federal lands as an investment in forest management across ownerships,” said DNRC Director John Tubbs. “Wildlife and insect and disease outbreaks don’t stop at boundary lines. Federal lands in Montana make up over half of our state’s forested landscape – investing in them matters.”
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On the Bitterroot Forest, the state will offer $135,990 to help pay for timber sale preparation and silvicultural prescription field work on the Westside Collaborative Vegetation Management project that proposes to treat about 2,000 acres over a nine-mile reach between Lost Horse and Roaring Lion canyons.
The current proposal would reduce the wildfire hazard on 472 acres of the wildland/urban interface through intensive non-commercial thinning. Another 1,500 acres would be treated through commercial harvest. Once that work is completed, the plans call for introducing prescribed fire to further reduce the wildfire hazard.
There would also be work to restore aspen stands and promote re-vegetation of native plants on 115 acres of disturbed sites.
The project is expected to produce about 6.3 million board feet of commercial timber. Work could begin as soon as next summer.
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A group of local citizens representing a broad spectrum of vocations and viewpoints called the Bitterroot Forest Restoration Committee first brought the idea of a fuel reduction and forest restoration project in that area to the Forest Service’s attention in 2011.
That group wrote a letter to Gov. Steve Bullock in support of the project.
“Westside is a worthy project now under consideration that presents an opportunity to work with the Bitterroot National Forest and private landowners and address a serious issue,” wrote the committee’s chair, Wayne Hedman.
The Bitterroot Restoration Committee was the first to bring the proposal to the Forest Service, said the Bitterroot Forest’s Darby District Ranger Chuck Oliver.
“A large part of this project is adjacent to private lands,” Oliver said. “It’s logically the next step in addressing the wildland/urban interface after we finish the Como project.”
Since the project does include a large portion of non-commercial thinning, funding was going to be a challenge, Oliver said.
“We wouldn’t have been able to fund it right away,” he said. “This money is going to make a difference. It will free up some money that we wouldn’t have been able to spend elsewhere. It will help us hire those additional seasonal workers that we need to get the work done on the ground.
“This is a huge step on the part of the state,” Oliver said.
These investments are just one of the ways the state is looking to grow a partnership between state and federal land managers, said Mo Bookwalter, the liaison between DNRC and Forest Service.
“Since wildfires and insects and disease don’t recognize boundary lines, looking past those lines and increasing forest health across ownerships helps the state to better manage our trust lands and assist private landowners,” Bookwalter said.
Beyond that, investing in projects that produce timber supports the state’s wood products sector, she said.
“These markets and skilled workforce are essential in meeting the larger goals of forest resiliency and forest health,” she said.
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The federal 2014 Farm Bill provided governors with an opportunity to recommend priority areas on national forest lands for treatment to improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk.
Gov. Bullock nominated close to 5 million acres, including the Bitterroot Forest lands encompassed by this project.
“Rather than promote the transfer of federal lands to the states, I believe we should help federal agencies succeed in managing lands under their jurisdiction,” Bullock said. “Growing the state-federal partnership is vital to meeting forest health challenges and the needs of our state’s rural communities.”
“Since wildfires and insects and disease don’t recognize boundary lines, looking past those lines and increasing forest health across ownerships helps the state to better manage our trust lands and assist private landowners.”
Mo Bookwalter, liaison officer between the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the U.S. Forest Service.
