Flathead Forest Plan draws wilderness debate

Conservation groups may agree the new Flathead National Forest plan should contain recommended wilderness, but there’s some disagreement about where.

Amy Robinson, Northwest Montana field director for the Montana Wilderness Association, says her organization is focused on preserving areas that have been recommended in the past as well as areas largely adjacent to existing wilderness.

MWA participated in the Whitefish Range Partnership, a collaboration of timber interests, private residents, recreational users and others that agreed about 83,000 acres of the northern Whitefish Range were suitable as wilderness.

In addition, MWA supports a recommended wilderness designation for 9,600 acres adjacent to the Bob Marshall Wilderness near Bunker Creek, 55,000 acres adjacent to The Bob along the Swan Front from Inspiration Point to Carmen Peak, and small parcels that could be added to the Mission Mountain Wilderness.

“We want to make realistic recommendations with a balanced approach,” she said.

Headwaters Montana director Dave Hadden, who also participated in the Whitefish Range Partnership, has actively advocated for wilderness in the Whitefish Range for years.

He said his organization supports wilderness designation for the 15,000-acre Jewel Basin Hiking Area. The area is currently managed as a primitive area and is only open to hikers on foot — no horse or other stock is allowed.

The Swan View Coalition would like to see broad swaths of new wilderness, chairman Keith Hammer said, including all inventoried roadless areas in the Flathead National Forest.

The largest of those areas runs along both sides of the Swan Crest west of the Hungry Horse Reservoir. Those lands were recommended for wilderness in a 1988 Montana wilderness bill that passed both the House and Senate but was vetoed by President Reagan.

There hasn’t been a successful wilderness bill in Montana since then, and mechanized use on public lands nationwide has increased.

“Our philosophy is we need wilderness now more than ever,” Hammer said.

The Swan Crest has long had multiple uses. Currently, the Forest Service allows logging, snowmobiling and dirt bike riding — several roads allow motorized access to all but the steepest terrain.

Gaining broad public support for a large swath of new wilderness seems doubtful. Hammer and Robinson both agreed with Hadden that Jewel Basin should be designated as wilderness and expanded. The Jewel Basin and 15,000 adjacent acres was the only recommended wilderness area in the Flathead National Forest’s 1986 Forest Plan.

The current Forest planning process requires that inventoried roadless areas and some primitive areas outside inventoried areas be managed as wilderness. All told, more than 620,000 acres of the Flathead Forest have been initially identified as suitable for wilderness.

Ultimately, Forest supervisor Chip Weber will make a determination on what lands, if any, will be recommended for wilderness when the Forest plan is finalized, Forest Plan revision team leader Joe Krueger says. One group’s views don’t have any greater weight than another’s, he said.

“There’s no mandate that we do any lands (as wilderness),” he said.

There’s also been pushback from motorized users. Some take issue with the way the Forest Service made wilderness recommendations to begin with — just because an area hasn’t been logged in 40 years and has old roads doesn’t make it suitable for wilderness, they argue.

There’s strong disagreements even among conservation groups. Hammer has been openly critical of the Whitefish Range Partnership, claiming the conservation groups who participated allowed the timber base in the North Fork to be nearly doubled in exchange for wilderness.

“We’re unfortunately seeing horse trading,” he claimed.

Michael Jamison, who helped bring the partnership together, strongly disagrees. The process brought a diverse group of interests together for over a year to come up with a plan for the North Fork, whether it exacts changes to the final Forest Plan or not, he noted.

“Our approach was to negotiate rather than litigate,” Jamison said. “To get to know neighbors rather than stereotype neighbors.”

The Swan View Coalition has sued the Flathead National Forest numerous times over the years, contesting land management and timber sales.

The Forest Service will evaluate the recommendations over the coming weeks and will release a proposed plan for public comment in late fall.

The rubber really meets the road for the Forest Plan in 2015 when its draft environmental impact statement is released, along with alternatives. A final plan is expected in 2016.