Call on Montana delegation to work together
For about a decade now, steady collaboration on the ground in Montana has produced a number of proposals to increase active management, ensure recreational access and protect some of our last best places. But those proposals went to Washington, D.C., only to join the logjam of public lands legislation that had been building there for years.
The logjam finally broke in December. Sen. Jon Tester worked alongside Sen. Steve Daines to pass the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act and the North Fork Watershed Protection Act, as well as several other important lands bills.
As residents of the Blackfoot and Clearwater river valleys, I and the undersigned applaud their efforts. We also hope that this strong bipartisan work is a sign of more good things to come, because many collaborative land management proposals are still waiting for action in the 114th Congress. One of those proposals was built by friends and neighbors in small towns along the Blackfoot and Clearwater rivers.
About a decade ago, residents of Seeley Lake and Ovando recognized that our forests weren’t being managed quite as well as we wanted. We rolled up our sleeves, set aside our differences and went to work towards a better future for public lands and local economies in our area. We’ve been pretty busy since then.
In 2005, we worked with the U.S. Forest Service to amend the Lolo National Forest’s Forest Plan through a collaborative, citizen-led process. That amendment removed snowmobile use from the West Fork of the Clearwater River, a sensitive area high in the Mission Mountains. The amendment also opened up a new play area at Lake Elsina, which was actually more attractive to snowmobile enthusiasts due to its steady snowpack and spacious bowls.
But, we didn’t stop there. We began talking with Pyramid Mountain Lumber Co. about how to balance timber harvest with conservation of wilderness quality lands. In 2008, following public meetings in Seeley Lake, Ovando and Missoula, we announced a consensus-driven proposal for the long-term management of the Seeley Lake Ranger District on the Lolo National Forest. A year later, Sen. Tester included our proposal in the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.
Congress has been slow to act on the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, despite a bipartisan vote for the bill in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during the last congressional session.
But we haven’t wasted our time waiting. In 2009, we helped launch the Southwestern Crown Collaborative, which was selected by the Forest Service as one of 10 pilot projects nationwide under the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program. For the last five years, $4 million has been authorized, annually, for restoration, monitoring, management and planning on the Seeley Lake Ranger District and two adjacent districts.
Over the past five years, the Southwestern Crown Collaborative has created and/or maintained 239 full- and part-time jobs annually, treated 28,817 acres of terrestrial and aquatic invasives and exotics, and reduced fuels over 13,113 acres in the wildland-urban interface, protecting communities from wildfires.
Yet today, despite our achievements to date, essential components of our original proposal for long-term management of the Blackfoot and Swan remain out of reach. These goals include the establishment of permanent snowmobile recreation areas, protection for 87,000 acres of wilderness lands adjacent to the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountain wilderness areas, and new legislative tools to help us complete forest restoration projects more efficiently.
With strong local and statewide support for these remaining goals and a new session of Congress underway, we’re excited to continue working together to achieve these goals.
Following the political breakthrough on public lands issues in December, we also know that our congressional delegation is capable of working together in the same way that regular Montanans are working together every day. We’re counting on Sen. Tester, Sen. Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke to maintain this new trend and we look forward to working with them in 2015.
Addrien Marx is the owner of Rovero’s in Seeley Lake. She was joined in signing this letter by Gordy Sanders, Pyramid Mountain Lumber Co.; Steve Thompson, Seeley Lake Driftriders Snowmobile Club; Mack and Connie Long, Bob Marshall Wilderness Outfitters; Tim Love, retired district ranger, Seeley Lake Ranger District; Smoke Elser, retired outfitter; Lee Boman, Montana Wilderness Association; Bill Wall, Sustainability Inc.; Roger D. Marshall, Seeley Lake forester; and Jack Rich, Rich Ranch Outfitting.