I wanted to take an opportunity to thank everyone for another great year. The ebbing of Covid definitely helped things to feel a little more normal. We did still have high usage of our campgrounds and recreation opportunities, but not at the levels we had the last couple of years. All in all still a good year. I will throw out a quick recap of some highlights from 22 and then go into a couple of big things happening in 23.
Recreation – As I said, we had a good year this year but not as intense as the last two. Campgrounds were well used and dispersed sites saw use, but at a more sustainable level. We are still cleaning up many of the sites from the heavy usage in 2020 and 2021, but 2022 allowed us to catch up to some of the damage and start to clean it up. Places like Rainey Lake and Hidden Lake were able to see some hardening and damage repair. We also completed the renovation of Double Arrow Lookout through Great American Outdoors Act funding. Double Arrow Lookout will be available for rental next summer. Seeley Campground is next in line for a traffic revision and new boat ramp. We were also able to pick up some new stock for the pack string out at Monture. The string is getting stronger and younger which is a good thing. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we were able to hire two new permanent employees into the program. We have a new Developed Recreation Assistant and a new Wilderness and Special Uses Manager. The first new positions in Seeley Recreation for many years.
Fire - We had a great year in fire. We had an outstanding crew and a pretty mild fire year. We managed to catch all of our fires but we were also able to help lots of other folks. Our DNRC/Forest Service partnership is seamless at this point and we had great coordination with the BLM, CSKT, Ovando, Seeley and other Fire Departments. We also sent folks across the forest and off the forest to many incidents. One of the engines spent a month in New Mexico with several staffing rotations. Along with that, we utilized visiting engines here to accomplish a couple hundred acres of thinning. In prescribed fire, we got several hundred acres of burning done.
Timber – We did have a light year in timber. Westside Bypass GNA work continued with fantastic results. The harvested areas look awesome. All of the dead and dying timber removed and healthy Larch and pine left. It looks amazing. We probably only have one more year of inconvenience to winter and summer recreation left. It will be good to see that done. We did put up a small sale around the Ranger District compound to remove some blowdown and dead/dying trees here. That will log out this spring/summer. Work has been continuing on HWY 83 North Seeley WUI and we stated working on a small sale out in Monture Campground due to the amount of beetle kill out there.
Roads – Definitely a more historically normal year in 2022. Lots of good maintenance, blading etc. No major failures and no new bridges or structures. The only closures we had were associated with the Westside Bypass timber sale.
For 2023 we do have some pretty major things coming online that will be important for folks to know about.
Lots of opportunities to collaborate and I am looking forward to talking with folks.
Lolo Forest Plan Revision – Forest Planning will be fully in swing starting in January. The current Plan is from 1986. It is way past due to be revised. There are lots of changes in how we do these now as opposed to 1986. This will be my fourth time revising a Forest Plan in my career and it has been different each time. Lots to talk about here. There will be a Ranger Chat on January 20, here at the District, and in February there will be workshops and other events. I am working with the Seeley Community Council to host and will see if the Blackfoot Challenge has bandwidth for helping. I will also be pulling in the Southwest Crown of the Continent Collaborative at some point. This is a big deal with a very aggressive timeline. I look forward to our conversations.
HWY 83 North Seeley WUI Project – Due to couple of things, success of Westside Bypass and turnover of Lolo staff, we are going to contract the NEPA for this project through Good Neighbor Authority and the state of Montana DNRC. At present, there is a developed Proposed Action that proposes to treat about 10,000 acres along the highway and within the County defined Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). There is also transportation revision and clean up of old Plum Creek roads. Also a very big deal with an aggressive timeline. There will be some meetings and comment opportunities that go along with the process. This is a project that we have been fitting into the bits and pieces of time as I could get it from folks to this point. It will be a great project that will help to deal with the bark beetle out there killing Doug fir trees, but also should form a protective barrier to wildfire for Seeley, make HWY more safe for travel, and make the Nordic Ski area, Alva and Rainey CG’s more safe for visitors.
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