HELENA — Last June, Gov. Greg Gianforte signed an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service that he said could lead to speeding up forest management projects across the state. Now, leaders have identified the first two areas of the state where that agreement will be put into place.
“Keeping these landscapes healthy is critical to protecting our water supply, supporting our economy, and preserving our Montana way of life,” Gianforte said Friday. “The challenges we face are the same whether or not the land is owned by the federal or state government, which is why we're working together and why that matters so much.”
Gianforte and USFS Chief Tom Schultz held a news conference at the Montana State Capitol Friday, where they announced two “shared forest management landscapes.” The first covers around 214,000 acres in the Flathead and Kootenai National Forests, between Kalispell and Libby. The second includes about 200,000 acres in the Bitterroot National Forest in southern Ravalli County, south of Darby.
In the past, the Forest Service has cooperated with states like Montana through the “Good Neighbor Authority.” Under that program, USFS designs timber sales and then lets the state conduct the sales and oversee the projects.
Schultz said, under the new “Shared Stewardship Agreement,” the state will take on a larger role in planning the specific timber projects.
“They're going to be executing the work, but also designing the work, in the long-term nature of this,” he said. “What we see that it provides predictability to the citizens, but also provides predictability to the infrastructure – so if you're a mill and you know that there's certainty out there, your ability to make investments long-term is significant.”
Leaders said they chose these first two landscapes because of the wildfire risk to nearby communities and infrastructure, the opportunities for shared planning and how ready they were for the start of work.
The first project under the Shared Stewardship Agreement is the Blacktail Powerline Project, getting underway this year. It’s intended to thin the forest and reduce fuel loads to address fire risk along a powerline corridor on Blacktail Mountain, near Lakeside.
Gianforte has made more active forest management a priority throughout his administration, and he says this agreement shows federal leadership is now aligned with that goal. He says the most important part of the agreement is that it will extend for 20 years.
“That is going to allow certainty in log supply, so we can keep our mills open,” he said. “Think of this 400,000 acres as the initial sandbox in which we're going to design projects.”
