Big Sky Lake reduces risk with collaborative fuels treatment

BIG SKY LAKE – For anyone that has spent time southeast of Seeley Lake around Big Sky Lake, the view is changing. More than half of the properties are being treated through the Big Sky Lake Fuels Reduction Project. Landowners are logging and thinning to not only reduce the risk of wildfire but also improve the health of the forest.

The Big Sky Lake Homeowners Association (HOA) conceived the project in May 2020. After months of outreach to the landowners around Big Sky Lake and collaboration with the Clearwater Resource Council (CRC), logging began in December 2021 on more than 40 properties around the lake. The thinning and burning will be completed this spring.

"To start from the concept and the idea to really where we are getting the work done really takes this collaborative effort with the homeowners, CRC and the association working together," said Suzanne Esber, 35-year Big Sky Lake resident, HOA board member and Fire Mitigation Committee member. "Without the backing of CRC and their funding management we never would have pulled this off. I think educating all of [the landowners] was a big step. People aren't going to have this done unless they understand why, the benefit and how it can happen."

Big Sky Lake land treatment snapshot

Mark Hollinger's family purchased 400-600 acres of property around Big Sky Lake in 1965. Within a few years, they built the first cabin on the lake. Big Sky Lake is surrounded by private property that is now fully developed with 75 cabins/homes on the lake.

Hollinger said when they purchased their property, the area had not been logged since the early 1920s.

"It was pretty well overgrown," he said.

In 1985, the Hollinger family did their first harvest based on the recommendation of the state forester. Hollinger remembered the forester pointed out mistletoe, spruce budworm attacks and explained the importance of tree spacing and how it affects not only the overstory trees but also the understory.

"The guy looked at it in a pretty holistic fashion," Hollinger said. "I love the land and really care about it. Out of that stemmed a fascination for ecology of the forest and different aspects in plants and animals and how to take care of it and be a good steward."

To improve the health of their stand, they left the big, healthy trees and removed the dead, diseased and dying. Because there were other landowners on the Lake that were anti-logging, Hollinger said they were sued to prevent them from doing the work on their private property.

"We prevailed but it was unfortunate that some landowners just wanted to put a stop to it. Their reason was basically that they didn't want logging period," Hollinger said. "Years later almost all of those people have apologized and have admitted their lack of understanding. Now they appreciate the proactive work we did."

The Hollingers continually treated the land every 10-15 years after the first harvest in 1985 to help maintain it.

"All our harvests have been driven to improve forest health, not to make money," Hollinger said. "We did make money because we have productive timberland. With that money we also did weed management and other things to help improve the property. I value it as a renewable resource."

In 2013 a big section of Big Sky Lake HOA property was thinned and fuels reduction work done.

"We have a history of seeing the results of the thinning and the health of the forest," Esber said. "However as time goes along, the forest was getting thick, our ground cover was very heavy and dense and we really began to see the ring, if you will, around the lake."

Esber said the wake-up call to action for many landowners was the Rice Ridge fire of 2017. It burned within a mile of Big Sky Lake. Had it crossed the Kozy Korner Road, it would have been a major threat.

"We homeowners are beginning to understand that we need to take care of the forest," Esber said. "We could see the risk for wildfire spread and we would benefit from fuels reduction on all of our properties."

In May 2020, the Big Sky Lake HOA formally reached out to landowners and encouraged them to participate in a fuels reduction project around the lake. They formed a Fuels Mitigation Committee of five board members and other landowners including Hollinger.

Hollinger is a self-proclaimed "forest ambassador." He has spent a lot of time on his land with foresters, forest ecologist and loggers who were all very knowledgeable.

"Education is a huge, important thing," Hollinger said. "What I've found is a lot of people don't want to cut any trees period. They don't understand by doing that, they are risking the big, beautiful trees that they want to save. By having a healthier forest, they are going to improve the healthy trees that you want to leave, they will be more resilient to fire and insects, thrive better and be more foliated because they are getting more sunlight, nutrients, water and things. You are just going to have a better, nicer stand."

To achieve a healthier stand, Hollinger said quality of work is important.

"The argument should not be if it should be done, it is how it should be done," Hollinger said. "By doing the work right and using all the tools in the toolbox, commercial logging allows things to be done on a greater scale at a lesser expense. If it is done right, it can have a very light footprint and really improve the forest."

"Taking on this effort took time," Esber said. "It is not a one and done being able to organize homeowners for such a project. It has taken us two years."

Big Sky Lake Fuels Reduction Project

The Fuels Mitigation Committee sent out information to all the landowners educating them about fuels reduction, what it entails and funding options. They also put out a survey asking them their interest level in a lake-wide project as well as asking permission for a forester to do a site assessment on their property.

More than 20 homeowners responded they were very interested in doing the work and 20-30 that said they had done work in the past but were interested in more.

"That gave the committee the charge to say I think we can organize our homeowners for a lake-wide effort," Esber said.

After they met with Natural Resources Conservation Service and CRC to learn more about their options, they chose to partner with CRC. Esber said they knew CRC's track record with fuels reduction work and they all understood that this was going to be a long-term partnership to coordinate the project.

CRC Executive Director Caryn Miske said they did some educational presentations and the HOA sent out an email to encourage the community effort.

Miske explained that when CRC treats a single property it helps but without their neighbors also mitigating their forest, "it still leaves you at risk. If you all mitigate at the same time, working collaboratively, you have reduced the risk in a much bigger, more meaningful way."

Because of COVID the HOA did not have their regular annual meeting in July 2020. Instead they did all their communication by email, phone and newsletter.

The summer of 2020, the Committee and CRC did a lot of outreach. Hollinger met with landowners on their property to provide some perspective, look at the goals and help them understand terminology.

"It was both rewarding and frustrating talking to some landowners because you could talk yourself until you were blue in the face and explain all these things but they were like 'I don't want to cut any trees,' 'It is too expensive,' 'I like it the way it is,'" Hollinger said. "But a lot of those people came around after hearing it another time and then they see a whole town in Colorado get smoked... it was a process."

CRC's President Jon Haufler acted as the chief forester and assessed each property individually due to the varying range of fuels buildup and to address landowner concerns on a tree-by-tree basis. CRC flagged all the trees larger than two inches in diameter at breast height that would be removed, something that is not usually done. CRC Community Forester Ryan Bell said this gave landowners the vision for what the work would look like and the ability to pick and choose which trees to leave or take so long as they met grant funding tree spacing requirements.

By the fall of 2020, more than 40 landowners signed up for the project and 10-15 landowners are doing their own work or have already done work in addition to the larger project.

"I feel like we have protected the lake because now we have 80% of the lake that has had fuels reduction work done," Esber said.

"What they are doing at Big Sky Lake, they are getting such a big bang for their buck doing it all together and all at once," Miske said. "At the end of the day, probably only 2/3 of the properties will be mitigated but that is still really significant and meaningful."

After the landowners agreed to have work done on their property, CRC acted as the technical consultant. They put out a Request for Proposal and contracted with the landowners for reimbursement through their cost-share grant program.

Miske said more than half of the grant funding available through CRC comes from Coalitions & Collaboratives, Inc. (COCO) through their Action, Implementation & Mitigation (AIM) grant. The rest of the grant is provided through the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Western States and Hazardous Fuels grants.

Esber said cost per acre ranged from $500 - $3,000 with most lots between one and two acres. CRC covered up to a certain dollar amount per acre or a percentage of total costs while the landowner covered the rest. The merchantable timber and grant reimbursement through CRC helped off-set the homeowner's cost by half to two-thirds.

"There will be out-of-pocket costs for people," Esber said. "The landowners felt like it was a good investment, like insurance, to protect their property."

With one exception, the HOA and landowners chose Westslope Forest Management to do the logging. Miske said the initial cost of $5,000 just to get the heavy equipment to the project was shared between all the landowners benefiting them all since there was an economy of scale.

Due to safety concerns in the summer and to mitigate the impacts to the land, Operator Josiah Denham did not start logging until December 2021. This will be followed up with hand thinning, stacking and burning piles. While the treatment is expected to be completed this spring, Miske said it may be fall before all the piles can be burned. Once the project is completed to specifications, CRC will reimburse the landowners for the work completed.

For Hollinger, the Big Sky Lake Fuels Reduction Project will reduce the wildfire risk, allow safer access for firefighters and improve the forest health by allowing more light to reach the understory and create more habitat for wildlife.

"It is very nice to see," Hollinger said. "There are a few people that don't do anything on their property and it is kind of sad. Like spraying the weeds on your property, it affects those around you."

"We learned from our foresters that once you have a dense forest, those ponderosa pine and larch and fir trees don't thrive," Esber said. "They are also ripe for other disease and pine beetle infestation. Once you open up the forest, the large trees thrive, the underbrush grows back wonderfully and we do have a healthier forest."

Esber said the collaboration between CRC and the homeowners was critical and the HOA served "as the glue" for the project. Even though communication was challenging due to COVID, it was essential to bring the project through implementation.

"Working with Big Sky Lake HOA has been a huge benefit to us," Bell said. "The HOA was helpful due to their familiarity with landowners, access to contact information, ability to answer questions for landowners, preparing landowners for start dates and their individual responsibilities, such as marking obstacles and invoicing. The HOA served as a great communication link between landowners and CRC."

Bell added his appreciation for the landowners and the contractors on the project.

"A lot of planning and organizing went into the implementation of a project this size and we are proud to see it all come together," Bell said.

Miske encouraged other communities to consider a large-scale project. She feels this is the most effective way and biggest "bang for their buck" but people have to be ready to put in the long-haul.

"What we just saw in Colorado was pretty concerning to see fires at Christmas time," Miske said. "The climate is changing and we still, in some areas, have really high fuel loads. Doing what we can to reduce those is going to be very helpful."

"I'm very happy that we can share this with others and hopefully inspire other communities," Esber said. "They too can come together and put together a project such as this that could benefit their whole community rather than one property at a time."

For more information about a forest fuels assessment for your property or CRC's Community Fire Protection grant cost-share program visit http://crcmt.org/fuels.