Last week, The Nature Conservancy staff from Washington state joined Montana staff to look at the forests burned this summer by the Liberty Fire, which affected roughly 7,000 acres of the land recently acquired by the Conservancy. Dozens of local contractors and crews from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and U.S. Forest Service have been working for weeks on rehabilitation efforts, including repair of roads and firelines. We are grateful for all of the good work and long days that have gone into this effort and happy that all of our land is once again open to public use. We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding during the period of closure.
The Conservancy is committed to a long-term investment in these forests and in the community that relies on them. Like everyone in this community, we will be evaluating the effects of this fire season for some time to come. Our initial evaluation is that the fire had a variety of ecological effects but we are still trying to get the full picture.
Forest managers, including staff from The Nature Conservancy, will continue to assess the results of the fire and decide what actions might need to be taken to speed the recovery of this ecosystem, such as measures to reduce sediment running into local streams.
We are committed to using these lands and this experience as a learning opportunity. We will continue to engage with the local community, scientists and land management agencies to understand how we can increase the vitality and resilience of these forests before the next fire.
As we continue to experience higher temperatures, lower snowpack, earlier springs and drought, our forests are threatened by more frequent and severe fires and increased pest damage. Many forests in western Montana need restoration in order to maintain natural benefits for people, water and wildlife. Restoration won’t stop wildfires but it can make them less severe and damaging.
The Nature Conservancy and our partners are focused on restoring our forests so they, like the residents of Seeley Lake, will be resilient in the face of fire. Above all, this fall has reminded us how fortunate we are to be working in this community, a community whose generosity extends more than a thousand miles to fire-ravaged communities of northern California. The offer to open up homes to the people who lost theirs is testimony to the strength and kindness of Seeley Lake residents.
As our colleagues from Washington toured Pyramid Lumber and dropped in on local businesses, they learned two things that we have known for a long time: this community is committed to an economic future that includes a sustainable forest economy and it is a spectacular place to come together to talk about the future of our shared forests.
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