Kootenai Forest Plan recommends wilderness on Whitefish Range
About 16,000 acres of land at the north end of the Whitefish Range has been recommended for wilderness in the recently completed Forest Plan for the Kootenai National Forest.
Labeled on the Forest Plan map as the “Whitefish Divide,” the recommended wilderness is bordered by Graves Creek to the north and Williams Creek to the south and encompasses the Blue Sky Creek drainage.
The recommended wilderness area lies south of the Ten Lakes Wilderness Study Area, about 34,100 acres in the Kootenai Forest that was congressionally designated in 1977 and which remains a study area in the revised plan.
The updated Forest Plan also recommends adding 29,900 acres of wilderness to the 93,700 acres of designated wilderness around the Cabinet Range. It also recommends 23,500 acres of wilderness in the Roderick Peak area of the Yaak and 35,900 acres in the Scotchman Peaks area near the Idaho border.
National Forest lands that are recommended for wilderness need approval by Congress before they are included in the National Wilderness Preservation System.
The revised Kootenai Forest Plan, final environmental impact statement and draft record of decision were formally published on Sept. 19. A 60-day objection filing period that began Sept. 19 will be followed by a 90-day objection review period.
The Kootenai Forest’s first Forest Plan was implemented in 1987. Forest planners spent 12 years developing a revised plan, which is intended to guide forest management on the Forest’s 2.2 million acres for the next 10 to 15 years.
Kootenai Forest planner Ellen Frament called the revised plan a cumulative document.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” she said. “We’ve been working on it for many years. We’ve tried to produce a plan that adheres to many desires.”
Former Kootenai Forest supervisor Jim Rathbun, who was the supervisor when the first plan was implemented, criticized the revised plan for not allowing more timber harvesting.
“We’re just not managing the forest like we should,” he said. “There are so many resources out there in our forests, and we’re not using them. I just don’t understand it.”
Robyn King, the executive director of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, was glad the plan was finally completed.
“We’re happy to have a Forest Plan that we can look at,” she said. “It’s been a long process. We’re hopeful the timber targets can be met while meeting all the interests.”
Debo Powers, a part-time North Fork resident who’s spent 34 years hiking in the Whitefish Range, praised the Kootenai Forest for recommending more wilderness on the Whitefish Range.
“I stand with Montanans who have spoken out to conserve wilderness values in the Whitefish Range for nearly a hundred years,” she said. “I think the Kootenai Forest has seized an incredible opportunity to ensure that Glacier National Park’s neighboring mountain range stays the way it is today.”
Montana Wilderness Association board member Doug Ferrell said his group was generally pleased with the Forest Plan but expressed disappointment that the Ten Lakes Wilderness Study Area was not recommended for wilderness.
To read the revised Forest Plan and related documents, visit online at www.fs.usda.gov/kootenai. For more information, call the supervisor’s office at 406-293-6211.