Fostering partnerships in 2022

The New Year is a natural time for reflection and looking ahead. We hope you had a great holiday with your family and friends, and that you had time do just that.

As I reflect on 2021, I am encouraged by the growing partnerships of people who share a common desire to live, work and play in the forested lands in our part of the world. Given some of the challenges we face, such as the rising numbers of people recreating in the woods, the intensity of wildfires across the West and the complexity of ecologically sound and economically realistic forest management for all kinds of owners, we need these growing partnerships now more than ever.

These challenges don’t have easy answers and these aren’t easy times we live in. We are constantly reminded of how divided we are on many issues and it’s probably true that history will not remember this as a golden era of public discourse. Heck, it’s downright hard to even have public discourse given that it’s still difficult to get together in person safely and comfortably.

These challenges make me reflect on the “80/20 rule.” I first heard it attributed to a local rancher when I started working closely with the Blackfoot Challenge years ago and if you have attended many Challenge events, you’ve probably heard about it as well.

I understand the “rule” to suggest that people who may seem to hold very different points of view or motivations can often come to agreement on about 80% of a given issue or approach to a problem. That’s the “zone of agreement” a group might focus on to build trust, while setting aside that more contentious 20% for the time being.

The 80/20 split is not a mathematical absolute, nor is it meant to be taken that way. I see it as a philosophy that encourages people to work together as best they can. This rule does not suggest people give up their values or strongly held beliefs—it asks that they seek to find the areas where agreement exists and to build on those areas. If you spend much time adopting that way of thinking, you start to see that agreement is a little less elusive and that solutions to even complex problems are worth pursuing.

Our crew at The Nature Conservancy certainly isn’t in a position to solve all the world’s problems, but—leaning on the essence of the 80/20 rule—we can engage on a few challenges close to home. Here are a couple of the longer-term efforts we are involved in and resolved to continue working on.

In the coming year, we’re looking forward to continuing to partner on more intentional, ecologically productive approaches to fire on the landscape. From a certain perspective this is a simple concept—fire is an unavoidable and necessary part of forest ecosystems in the Northern Rockies and needs to be a well-used and trusted tool in the toolbox—yet fire can also bring out an emotional response from all of us. Plus, putting fire on the ground isn’t cheap and requires a whole lot of planning, cooperation, on-going skill-building and partnerships.

We have formal agreements in place now with the Blackfoot Challenge, Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, University of Montana and the United States Forest Service. We’re continuing to work closely with our partners at the Bureau of Land Management on fire-related issues, and working to formalize our productive working relationship in 2022. We also hope to continue to build our relationship with local fire departments. Eventually we’d like to see the same kind of successful, cooperative “all-hands-on-deck” effort to return ecologically beneficial fire to the land that we’ve seen in the hard-fought historic pursuit of putting out all fire.

We’re also looking forward to growing our land stewardship partnerships in the greater Seeley Lake and Placid Lake area. This kind of work lays a foundation for longer-term ownership, protection and sound management, informed by the public, for the forests moving forward.

We’ve collaborated with many people in recent years on both forest management projects and enhancing recreational opportunities. This year saw a new all-abilities trail connecting to Placid Lake State Park thanks to a partnership with Seeley Lake ROCKS, Summit Independent Living and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Montana Conservation Corps and University of Montana students helped us with educating folks about bear and fire safety while camping on TNC land—and cleaned up after the few who leave a mess.

And we’ve had a great partnership with Clearwater Resource Council, USFS and DNRC getting good, ecologically-sound forest management projects on the ground. We’re thankful for all of the local contractors, local mills and funding partners who help get this work done here and elsewhere on land we steward. This year I expect we will engage more deeply with many partners on understanding and managing recreational, cultural, social and ecological uses and values on the land.

Our staff is thankful for everyone we get to work with and meet out there in the forest. As always, you can reach me by email at cbryant@tnc.org or give me a call at 406-214-6437. I’ll see what I can do to answer your questions or connect you to someone who can. And, in the spirit of the New Year, please remember the ‘80/20 rule’ if you call me and I will resolve to do so as well.

Happy New Year everyone, recreate safely and enjoy being out in the forest.