BigHornRam
Well-known member
Land-use plan would serve mixed interests in Montana
Posted on Jan. 24
By SUSAN GALLAGHER of the Associated Press
HELENA - Logging and wilderness, snowmobiling and solitude - there appears to be something for almost everyone in a management proposal for nearly half a million acres in Montana's fabled Blackfoot Valley.
The plan unveiled Wednesday by a consortium that includes timber and environmental interests offers recommendations for managing lands in the watershed of the Blackfoot River, the fly-fishing stream chronicled in the Norman Maclean novel "A River Runs Through It."
Lands covered by the Blackfoot Cooperative Landscape Stewardship Pilot Project are near the Bob Marshall and the Scapegoat wilderness areas, and consist chiefly of 400,000 acres in the Lolo National Forest's Seeley Lake Ranger District. An additional 41,000 acres covered by the project are publicly and privately owned.
"This proposal represents a commonsense approach that recognizes diverse uses of the land," said Bob Ekey, regional director of The Wilderness Society, part of the consortium that includes Pyramid Mountain Lumber Inc. of Seeley Lake, and ranch interests.
The plan is up for public comment, changes are possible and if the support ultimately is adequate, then congressional action to advance the package will be sought, preferably later this year, said Gordy Sanders of Pyramid Mountain Lumber.
Seeley Lake Ranger Tim Love said the proposal does not clash with the Forest Service's plan for the area. Both plans call for designation of more wilderness.
Ekey said the consortium "tried to look at the whole ranger district and see if we could take the forest plan prepared by the Forest Service and find a way to provide more flexibility."
For the Forest Service, "the funding isn't always there to do all the work that needs to be done," Love said Wednesday. The consortium might succeed in securing federal money through avenues outside the Forest Service's usual funding mechanism, he said.
"This is a separate effort independent of the Forest Service and our budget process," Love said.
The consortium anticipates a proposed federal appropriation of $790,000 a year for 10 years, to fund work in the Blackfoot project. Encompassed in that work would be management and restoration, such as obliteration of forest roads and improvement of wildlife habitat.
The consortium's plan includes adding 75,000 acres to the Bob Marshall and the Scapegoat wilderness areas, and 6,000 acres to the Mission Mountains Wilderness; logging and livestock grazing at lower elevations; and a biomass project, funded publicly and privately apart from the $790,000 annual appropriation, that would burn forest waste to help power Pyramid Mountain Lumber. The plan's recreational provisions include additional places for snowmobiling.
"The entire proposal includes our input and does a good job balancing uses across the landscape," said Ron Ogden, president of the Seeley Lake Drift Riders snowmobile group.
The management plan emerged after two years of discussions, supporters said.
Posted on Jan. 24
By SUSAN GALLAGHER of the Associated Press
HELENA - Logging and wilderness, snowmobiling and solitude - there appears to be something for almost everyone in a management proposal for nearly half a million acres in Montana's fabled Blackfoot Valley.
The plan unveiled Wednesday by a consortium that includes timber and environmental interests offers recommendations for managing lands in the watershed of the Blackfoot River, the fly-fishing stream chronicled in the Norman Maclean novel "A River Runs Through It."
Lands covered by the Blackfoot Cooperative Landscape Stewardship Pilot Project are near the Bob Marshall and the Scapegoat wilderness areas, and consist chiefly of 400,000 acres in the Lolo National Forest's Seeley Lake Ranger District. An additional 41,000 acres covered by the project are publicly and privately owned.
"This proposal represents a commonsense approach that recognizes diverse uses of the land," said Bob Ekey, regional director of The Wilderness Society, part of the consortium that includes Pyramid Mountain Lumber Inc. of Seeley Lake, and ranch interests.
The plan is up for public comment, changes are possible and if the support ultimately is adequate, then congressional action to advance the package will be sought, preferably later this year, said Gordy Sanders of Pyramid Mountain Lumber.
Seeley Lake Ranger Tim Love said the proposal does not clash with the Forest Service's plan for the area. Both plans call for designation of more wilderness.
Ekey said the consortium "tried to look at the whole ranger district and see if we could take the forest plan prepared by the Forest Service and find a way to provide more flexibility."
For the Forest Service, "the funding isn't always there to do all the work that needs to be done," Love said Wednesday. The consortium might succeed in securing federal money through avenues outside the Forest Service's usual funding mechanism, he said.
"This is a separate effort independent of the Forest Service and our budget process," Love said.
The consortium anticipates a proposed federal appropriation of $790,000 a year for 10 years, to fund work in the Blackfoot project. Encompassed in that work would be management and restoration, such as obliteration of forest roads and improvement of wildlife habitat.
The consortium's plan includes adding 75,000 acres to the Bob Marshall and the Scapegoat wilderness areas, and 6,000 acres to the Mission Mountains Wilderness; logging and livestock grazing at lower elevations; and a biomass project, funded publicly and privately apart from the $790,000 annual appropriation, that would burn forest waste to help power Pyramid Mountain Lumber. The plan's recreational provisions include additional places for snowmobiling.
"The entire proposal includes our input and does a good job balancing uses across the landscape," said Ron Ogden, president of the Seeley Lake Drift Riders snowmobile group.
The management plan emerged after two years of discussions, supporters said.
