SEELEY LAKE - The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in collaboration with The Blackfoot Challenge, held a public meeting Nov. 16 to provide updates on the Clearwater-Blackfoot Project. TNC had purchased 117,000 acres in January 2015 from Plum Creek. TNC discussed what they worked on during the field season, shared their goals for stewardship work in 2016 and opened up the meeting for discussion and questions about the project.
TNC Western Montana Land Steward Steve Kloetzel highlighted the accomplishments for 2015 and goals for 2016. He said that 2015 and 2016 are years for studying and inventorying the land.
“It’s a lot of country,” said Kloetzel. “It’s 117,000 acres so it’s going to take us a little while to get up to speed and figure out what we’ve got.”
Some of the work Kloetzel highlighted from 2015 included:
• Road inventory of 1,264 miles of roads including all 460 stream crossings and noxious weeds.
• Mapped fences, power lines and illegal motorized vehicle routes.
• Treated eight of the 12 locations identified with new invader weeds including yellow and orange hawkweed, Dalmatian and yellow toadflax and Hairy cat’s ear. They were all behind gates and associated with recent heavy equipment use.
• Released biological controls for knapweed.
• Sprayed weeds on an estimated 20 miles of road.
• Improved grazing management, signage and locks on gates.
• Began and completed multiple projects including various clean-up, bridge and culvert repairs, secured gates and restored user-created routes.
• Identified two species of concern, sundews, like a Venus Fly Trap found in floating bogs, and a Northern Bog Lemming.
Stewardship plans for the project in 2016 include:
• Forest and other biological inventories.
• Forest carnivore monitoring looking for wolverine, lynx and fisher.
• Development of a ten-year management plan including some recreation management planning.
• Fundraising and implementation for high-priority restoration opportunities.
• Continue projects started in 2015.
TNC contracted with InRoads Consulting, LLC of Missoula, Mont. to generate a database for TNC of the road network. This information allows TNC to prioritize the road maintenance needs and opportunities for restoration in the project area.
TNC focused on the road system because they learned with past land exchanges that roads are an asset in maintaining a working forest as well as a significant liability should the road or culvert blow out causing stream degradation and water quality issues.
Principal Ecologist Adam Switalski said the whole project area is roaded and has been logged in the last 20 years. The road density averages 6.7 road miles per square mile with road densities as high as 8 road miles per square mile.
Of the 460 stream crossings, Switalski and his crew identified 50 stream crossing “hot spots” with more than 50 percent blockage. This creates a potential for road washouts during high flow events. In addition, 89 stream crossings were labeled as a lower priority because of partial blockage. Switalski also noted that most culverts did not have enough water to allow fish passage when they were inventoried.
InRoads Consulting identified 50 road “hot spots” where there was a significant amount of erosion due to more than six inches of gullying and road-triggered landslides. There were also 88 sites on the roads with drainage problems in blocked ditch-relief culverts or inadequately drained springs.
Switalski inventoried the access issues. While most of the system was gated or barriered, 29 gates and barricades were breached and the crew identified 15 illegal motorized routes.
“The reason we are gathering this information on roads and stream crossings is to find some of these hot spots and repair them with partnerships,” said Bryant. “It is important to bring in partners to help us fund and deal with some of these problems now that we have them.”
Several members of the public suggested opening up more of the roads to help control some of the illegal motorized use. Switalski felt that a long-term travel plan for the area would be beneficial to help in recreation and travel management. Bryant said they are not in a position to implement a travel management plan but they need to manage the land to fit with whoever owns the land after TNC. TNC plans to work with the Seeley Lake Trails Group to help answer some of the questions about motorized and non-motorized use. Kloetzel also recommended that the Seeley-Swan ATV Club get more involved with TNC and project.
TNC is working on the sale of eight sections of project land north of Johnsrud Park east to Ninemile Prairie to extend existing Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. The land is currently being appraised. The land will be conveyed to the BLM and will be managed under their Corridor Management Plan.
Bryant said TNC is beginning to develop private out sales criteria for small land purchases. While only six parties to date have approached them, TNC wants to develop an avenue for private parties to purchase land. There are also inholdings within the project boundary. TNC would like to work with those landowners to consolidate the land ownership.
“One of the goals of this project is to keep this landscape intact to deal with management issues on a large scale,” said Bryant. “We want to be careful about how we think about this.”
For more information about the road and stream cross inventory and restoration contact Switalski at inroadsnw@gmail.com or 406-396-1941. For more information about the project or to get more involved with TNC, contact Kloetzel at skloetzel@tnc.org or call 406-214-2036
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