HELENA - A new grant from Montana’s Forests in Focus program will make homes safer, create well-paying jobs and improve forest health – all at the same time.
The $249,534 grant will be used to thin out dense forest to reduce the hazards posed by wildfire. Besides reducing the fuel load for any potential wildfire, the work will open up the forest, allowing more light and moisture in to nurture the trees that are left.
The work will create 17 jobs between this December and November of next year and will supply 3,166 tons of materials to local mills. The operation will take place on The Nature Conservancy’s Clearwater-Blackfoot Project and two neighboring properties located in the lower Blackfoot Valley, eight miles east of Bonner.
Jeff Holliday, the owner of Timber Trail and Spur, who will perform the thinning, took the initiative to connect the landowners and put together the successful proposal.
“In the highly contentious world of logging and litigation this is a real gem that should be a model for states around the country. In the end, we are utilizing excess wildfire suppression money to improve Montana forests to the benefit of everyone and everything involved,” said Holliday.
The Forests in Focus program is an initiative created by Governor Steve Bullock and is aimed at promoting sustainable forest management across the state. The program is funded by the Department of Natural Resources’ fire suppression fund.
In 2013, the Montana legislature passed a bill that allows some of these funds to be spent on fuels reduction and forest restoration. Key strategies of Forests in Focus are targeted at increasing the scale and pace of restoration on forests in Montana.
“The state’s Forests in Focus Program is a wonderful way to bring together multiple landowners to reduce the fuels that feed wildfires that put homes, lives and habitat at risk,” says landowner Dave Atkins, whose land will be part of the thinning operation under the grant. “The governor and legislature are to be commended for working together to make this possible.”
That’s a sentiment echoed by Chris Bryant, Western Montana Land Protection Director for The Nature Conservancy.
“Governor Bullock has continued to demonstrate his commitment to sound forest management and rural economies through the Forest in Focus grant awards,” said Bryant. “The Conservancy is happy to have partnered with neighboring landowners and a local forester with the initiative to put this project together.”
The ultimate goal of the operation is to restore the open, park-like condition of the fire-dependent ponderosa forests common before a century of fire suppression allowed them to become crowded with young and unhealthy Douglas firs.
Reader Comments(0)