SEELEY LAKE – Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Clearwater Unit Supervisor Kristen Baker-Dickinson and US Forest Service Seeley Lake District Ranger Quinn Carver presented about the local applications of the Good Neighbor Authority at the Seeley Lake Community Council meeting June 10. They are both excited about this opportunity to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration and resiliency work in the area.
The Good Neighbor Authority was put into law in the 2014 Farm Bill and the authority expanded in the 2018 Omnibus Bill to include categorical exclusions up to 3,000 acres. Carver said the GNA codifies the relationship between state entities and the National Forest System. The Omnibus authority also extends to include Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, County and tribal lands.
The GNA allows the Forest Service to enter into agreements with the DNRC where the Forest Service contracts their resources. The Forest appraises the sale and the value of the timber, including reforestation, and sells it to the DNRC. Any revenue generated beyond the purchase of the timber goes into a state fund that can be used locally.
Baker-Dickinson said the state of Montana is trying to take a harder look at the National Cohesive Wildland Strategy. That Strategy speaks to fire adapted communities, resilient landscapes and effective firefighting response.
The Strategy and GNA are currently housed under Governor Steve Bullock’s Forest in Focus 2.0. Forest in Focus 2.0 is tied to resilient landscapes and is about increasing the pace and scale of restoration on the landscape. In the past decade, 11 million of the 23 million forested acres in Montana faced some sort of insect and disease epidemic.
“We need to increase the pace and scale of restoring landscapes. One way to do that is not just focus on the private and state grounds but to also look to our federal partners,” said Baker-Dickinson. “This is a true partnership. We are trying to work together to do more good. I think we have a good working relationship.”
When the Farm Bill was authorized in 2014 it included a map of priority landscapes. In 2016 the DNRC signed a Master Agreement with Region 1 of the Forest Service. Over the past three years, there has been movement across the landscape in various National Forests.
There are currently two projects proposed on the Seeley Lake Ranger District, Westside Bypass and Kozy by the Fire, that fit within the priority landscapes on the Lolo. They would utilize the GNA to reduce fuel loads and be more effective in firefighting response. Baker-Dickinson said that past District Ranger Rachel Feigley targeted these areas so this is just the forward momentum that the public is seeing.
“It’s about really looking at the landscape and recognizing where we continue to need fuel treatments that provides us with a great opportunity to work together to get more work done,” said Baker-Dickinson. “Individually we only have so much capacity, particularly if we are only looking at things on the landscape. This exercise allows us to look at where we may have holes within our fuels treatment and where we may need to do more work.”
The Kozy by the Fire project area is a 3,000-acre strip on Forest Service land between private land and DNRC. The goal is to create a fuel break as well as enhancing larch and ponderosa pine and forage for big game winter range.
Westside Bypass will also create a fuel break with 4,700 acres of analysis area open for around 3,000 acres of treatment.
The two projects would produce between five and six million board feet of timber from small diameter to larger diameter timber. The low volume compared to the acreage is because the areas are both secondary growth. Baker-Dickinson said the need for a fuel break and resilient landscape superseded the need to chase a higher volume target.
“We are trying to manage for the risk but also acknowledging biologically what [the selected] tree species responds to. It has to be a balance,” said Baker-Dickinson. “It may not be as attractive as one would consider a fully forested stand to be but there is an inherent risk in not having a means of controlling the intensity of a fire based on the amount of vegetation in the stand.”
Carver explained that the project will reduce the current 100-200 tons of fuel on the ground to around 10-20 tons of fuel. While this doesn’t decrease the likelihood of fire, it just changes the fire behavior and intensity so firefighters can safely fight wildland fire in the area.
The statewide target is to treat 5,000 acres annually and harvest up to 15-30 million board feet from the acreage. These two projects will contribute 4,000 acres of treated ground offering work to keep the local mill operating.
“We are using every tool in the book that Congress has given us to use to make things happen,” said Carver.
Baker-Dickinson pointed out that they are not trying to favor any one mill infrastructure over another.
“There could be any number of mills that would be interested. It is really about promoting this statewide,” said Baker-Dickinson. “We are trying to drum up some excitement for the pace and scale that could increase here in our own community.”
Baker-Dickinson encouraged members of the community to let Carver or herself know about areas that need treatment, regardless of ownership.
“We are learning how to take Forest Service direction and fit it into a state contract and allow those lines to blur a little bit so it is not just about trying to manage one way. It is trying to take the best ways of management from both agencies,” said Baker-Dickinson.
She continued, “There has been a considerable effort taken by the Division of Forestry, DNRC to promote good stewardship across the landscape and this is one of the ways in which we intend to do it.”
Carver appreciates the support of the Crown of the Continent Collaborative and the Blackfoot Challenge because of their leadership with cross-boundary projects. His dream is to do a landscape project under one contract that spans the Blackfoot Clearwater Conservation Area managed by the Blackfoot Challenge, FWP, DNRC and Forest Service lands.
He said, “The community, the mill, the collaboratives and the Good Neighbor Authority between the DNRC and the Forest Service is what makes it all work.”
For more information about Forest in Focus 2.0 and the GNA visit http://dnrc.mt.gov/divisions/forestry/forestry-assistance
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