Leaders in Land Stewardship Begin Community Forest Discussions

SEELEY LAKE - Timber companies and conservationists may seem like unlikely partners—for those who don’t know the Blackfoot, that is. For years, Seeley Lake’s Pyramid Mountain Lumber has partnered with many groups on conservation initiatives around watersheds to protect clean water for fish, wildlife and people. For more than a decade, Pyramid and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), along with other groups including the Blackfoot Challenge, have been working together to find sustainable solutions for the region’s forests.

Over the last twenty years, TNC has conserved vast stretches of former industrial timberland in western Montana. The organization’s most recent acquisition protects more than 117,000 acres spanning the Clearwater and Blackfoot Valleys. Like past purchases, TNC does not intend to own and manage the lands in perpetuity. From the outset of the project we have been seeking public input on long-term ownership possibilities that will protect conservation values and serve community needs.

Pyramid has been a longtime supporter of this unique conservation opportunity. Over the last several years, they have played key roles in community discussions and have spoken up in Helena and Washington, D.C., lending their support for transferring these lands to the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the State of Montana.

While it might seem strange for a timber company to advocate for public ownership of timberlands, these transitions help to stabilize land management in forests surrounding the community. In the long run, avoiding a potentially volatile real estate market by putting these lands into stable long-term ownership is good for conservation, stewardship and forestry as well as supporting community values such as access for recreation.

For much of the landscape, public ownership makes sense. Some tracts of the most recent acquisition, the Clearwater-Blackfoot Project, have already been transferred to the Bureau of Land Management and more are likely to be transferred to the Lolo National Forest to unify management and clean up the checkerboard pattern of ownership. But that’s not the whole picture. At public meetings and in working groups, we have heard a great deal of interest in outcomes that include more local creativity and innovation.

One of the most intriguing and complicated possibilities is the development of a community forest. While the specific types vary largely, at their core community forests are about placing the responsibilities and authority to manage and use a forest and its resources with the local communities that most depend on them.

TNC, along with partners in Washington state and the Seeley Lake Community Foundation, commissioned a feasibility study to look at existing community forest models that we all could learn from. The results are in and we are excited to share them and begin moving forward.

A key finding is that community leadership and investment are essential to a project like this. Community involvement has been important in every one of the decisions to transfer land but to establish some sort of a community forest will require an entirely new level of investment in terms of both time and funding. We learned this firsthand in working with the Blackfoot Challenge to establish the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area near Ovando more than a decade ago. We are lucky to have a model so close to learn from as we investigate new possibilities.

Dedicated local leadership is what makes community forests work. For a forest to work for all needs, from recreation to sustainable forestry and ranching, we need to hear from people with a wide variety of skills and interests.

Simply put, we need your help. We need to hear from you. Read the summary at nature.org/blackfoot.

We will be holding a series of public meetings in partnership with the Blackfoot Challenge, starting May 1, at 6 p.m. at the Seeley Lake Community Hall.

For more information, please contact Chris Bryant, Western Montana Land Protection Director for The Nature Conservancy in Montana: cbryant@tnc.org or 406-214-6437.

Chris Bryant is the Western Montana Land Protection Director with The Nature Conservancy & Loren Rose is the Operations Chief Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Inc.