Forest fuels to be reduced in West Fork

by JOHN CRAMER - Ravalli Republic

The Bitterroot National Forest plans to use thinning and prescribed fire to reduce fuels and improve forest health, fisheries and soil stability on 5,100 acres in the lower West Fork.

The forest is seeking public comment on the project’s draft environmental impact statement, which was released this week.

The Lower West Fork project is designed to improve the forest’s resiliency to natural disturbances such as fires, insects and disease, while also taking care of soil rehabilitation and watershed improvement work.

Link to full article.

Forest wants to analyze thinning

by PERRY BACKUS - Ravalli Republic

DARBY - There are thousands of acres of national forest overstocked with planted trees that the Bitterroot National Forest is hoping to start thinning someday soon.

The agency is near to wrapping up a 30-day scoping and comment period on a proposal to initiate an environmental analysis for a forest-wide non-commercial thinning project on 7,550 acres of overstocked young conifer plantations.

Link to article.

Supreme Court limits challenges to logging in federal forests

By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A closely divided Supreme Court on Tuesday limited environmentalists' ability to challenge Forest Service rules in a case that arose from a controversial Sequoia National Forest salvage logging project.

Link to full article.

USFS has $100 million in projects ready to go

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

Montana's forests could play a part in putting America back to work, according to a group of timber and wilderness advocates.

The U.S. Forest Service has about $100 million in “shovel-ready” forest restoration projects on the shelf that could put loggers, scientists, heavy-equipment operators and other timber-related workers on the payroll, members of the Montana Forest Restoration Committee said.

Link to complete article.

Ninth Circuit rules in favor of Forest Service

by PERRY BACKUS - Ravalli Republic

The 2½-year long legal saga of Montana’s first Healthy Forest Restoration Act fuel reduction project may be over.

A three-judge Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed Thursday a Missoula district court’s ruling that rejected a long list of legal claims challenging the Middle East Fork Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project on the Bitterroot National Forest from two environmental organizations.

Wildwest Institute and Friends of the Bitterroot sued the Forest Service in April 2006 to stop the project that proposed to thin trees on about 5,000 acres of national forest lands about two miles east of Sula. The project was designed to reduce wildland fire threats to the Middle East Fork community and treat areas impacted by a Douglas fir bark beetle epidemic.

Link to complete article.

Signs of The Times: Missoulian Coverage

Log houses lagging: Some custom home businesses getting by while others hit hard

Link to article.

Stimson Lumber Co. prepares for auction at shuttered mill

Link to article.

Fire officials laud Gunbarrel effort

Though the Gunbarrel fire is not yet extinguished - its eastern flank is still smoldering - forest managers are already sharing lessons from the big blaze, saying it will serve as a model for fighting wildland fires next summer.

But the circumstances that allowed for successfully managing a fire that often raged with ferocious intensity across more than 68,000 acres didn't happen by chance. They are largely the result of efforts by forest workers and owners of cabins and lodges to clear trees, brush and other fuels from around structures.

Link to full Billings Gazette article.

DeBaugan fuels reduction project final EIS released

The final environmental impact statement for the DeBaugan fuels reduction project has been released. The document is available on the Lolo National Forest website at http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/lolo/projects/.

The project specifically addresses the need for fuel reduction work within the wildland urban interface near the communities of Saltese, Haugan, DeBorgia and Cabin City, approximately 80 miles northwest of Missoula on the Superior Ranger District. Work is proposed on approximately 5,220 acres near private property on both sides of Interstate 90 - with specific activities aimed at reducing the potential for crown fires and reducing surface fire intensity near communities and out-lying homes.

Link to Missoulian article.

Project creates jobs, protects environment

Guest Editorial in Missoulian
By LOREN ROSE, FRANK MARADEO and SMOKE ELSER

One year ago, the Jocko Lakes fire blew up and burned to the edge of Seeley Lake. The fire, created by a lightning strike several days earlier, soon became the highest-priority fire in the nation, burning 36,388 acres and costing $30 million. Only courageous firefighting and a last-second weather change kept the fire from burning through the community.

Fires have always played a role in Montana’s forests and the combination of climate change, drought, past forest management practices, increasing temperatures, and more people living in or near the woods means future fires will impact Montana more, not less.

So what can Montanans do? In the Blackfoot and Clearwater River drainages, local folks have come together, crafting a proposal that creates jobs in the woods, increases community fire safety, enhances forest restoration, advances renewable energy development, and protects our backcountry and wilderness traditions for current and future generations.

Such home-grown collaborative projects are a model for future forestry work. The Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project is supported by a broad range of local Montanans including the wood products industry, county commissioners, outfitters, recreation groups and conservationists.

The hazardous fuels situation within the Wildland Urban Interface around Seeley Lake - where the forest meets the community - has been greatly improved through coordinated efforts of the local Fuels Mitigation Task Force and cooperating agencies. However, a substantial amount of work remains to be done, and the Seeley Ranger District of the Lolo National Forest is looking at several areas for fuels treatment and ecological restoration using a combination of mechanical harvest and prescribed fire.

Forest restoration efforts are focused on the re-establishment of historical stand structure and ecological function in forests with an emphasis on safely returning fire to the land. This approach should greatly increase the resilience of our forests to the impacts of climate change and specifically to increasing occurrence of fire on the landscape.

In addition to increased fire safety, the project entails forest stewardship projects, and a biomass project in Seeley Lake, as well as adding 87,000 acres to the Bob Marshall-Scapegoat and Mission Mountain wilderness areas. The proposal is entirely consistent with the existing Lolo National Forest land and Resource Management Plan.

A detailed analysis shows that the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project would provide a variety of direct economic benefits to local communities and businesses n including 45 to 50 new jobs, increased small business income, and at least $1.2 million in new wages n while continuing long-term benefits to the region from healthier lands, cleaner water and better habitat.

We support this proposal not only because of its fire safety and economic aspects but also because of the importance the project places on recreation and preserving our rural way of life. The Blackfoot-Clearwater is one of the best places for hunting, hiking and other outdoor activities, and we’re working together to protect continued access and backcountry traditions so important to Montana families.

The Blackfoot Clearwater Project is the product of several years of negotiations between the widest possible variety of interests in the same cooperative spirit as other successful projects in the Blackfoot drainage. These efforts represent the future of forest work in Montana: working together on the landscape to find the right balance of sustainable forestry, while protecting traditional ranching, hunting, fishing and other uses in concert with conserving water, wildlife, and wilderness.

The Blackfoot Clearwater proposal shows there can be a different, cooperative way of doing things n the right things for the right reasons. We believe the project’s balanced approach to the economy and conservation will have tremendous benefits to restoring our forests, protecting our communities, and benefiting our small-town way of life.

Now we need Congress to take this project across the finish line. The local support, expertise and local cooperation all are in place so that the project can provide immediate benefits to Montanans while preserving our long-term traditions. Please join us in urging our congressional delegation to support this proposal and protect our jobs, our community and our forests.

--

Loren Rose is the controller with Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Frank Maradeo is Fire Chief with Seeley Lake Rural Fire District and Smoke Elser heads Wilderness Outfitters Consulting.

Link to Missoulian page.

Have a safe holiday weekend!

Why is the West burning?

Why is the West burning? Our current drought, and 100 years of active fire suppression? A "let it burn" attitude from environmental organizations? Lawsuits?

How about all of the above! Should we just let it all burn or should we take action?

This organization believes decisive action is needed to reduce fuel loads in our overgrown forest. The natural burn cycle and the western landscape needs our help.

Link to National Geographic photo essay by Mark Thiessen

Call for State Action on National Forests Grows

Schweitzer suggests state of Montana take over management of some federal forests to reduce wildfire danger

Gov. Brian Schweitzer says that creating healthier forests, possibly by having the state take over management of some federal timberland, is the best way to combat the infestation of bark beetles in the West.

Sounds like a good idea to us.

Link to AP article.

Benefit Concert Slated

Ready to ring in the summer season? So are we!

Join us for an evening of down home fun, with Floating Glass Balls, an eclectic bluegrass band from Oregon. The band will be traveling from a performance at the Weiser Fiddle Festival in Idaho and stopping here to put on a show for Bitterroot residents.

Thursday, June 19
Darby Clubhouse, Darby, Montana
Doors open 6 p.m.
Show: 7 p.m.
Tickets: $12 Advance | $15 Door

Advance tickets available at Little Blue Joint in Darby, and the Music Box in Hamilton.

Tell your friends!

Global Warming: Chilling Report from USDA

The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity

Why should we act now to reduce fuel loads in our forest lands? Can we make a difference? We may not be able to stop global warming, but we can must take bold steps to manage our forests better before it is simply too late to do anything.

This isn't the usual global warming fodder, with vague but dire predictions. The USDA report is more frightening because it states the practical changes in farming, forestry and water that are transforming the landscape now and will do so again over the next few decades. Here are a few excerpts:

"Climate change has very likely increased the size and number of forest fires, insect outbreaks, and tree mortality in the interior West, the Southwest, and Alaska, and will continue to do so."

"Rising CO2 will very likely increase photosynthesis for forests, but this increase will likely only enhance wood production in young forests on fertile soils."

"Nitrogen deposition and warmer temperatures have very likely increased forest growth where adequate water is available and will continue to do so in the near future."

Link to USDA report Executive Summary PDF.
Link to full report by sections.

Treehuggers against trees

A brief article with a historical perspective on wildfires in the west. Here are a few paragraphs:

"With wildfires burning, it is useful to turn to the wisdom of the ancients. When the pioneers first entered the great forests of America, they found that the Native Americans had managed the forests for centuries. Their woodlands contained very few big trees—maybe fifty such trees per acre."

"In the 1890s, the average Ponderosa pine stand would have held twenty to sixty trees per acre. A century later, it holds three hundred to nine hundred trees."

"The wildfires we see year after year are in fact the result of well-meaning but foolish policies imposed to the detriment of forests, wildlife and people."

Link to Denver Post article.