An inventory of lands and rivers on Forest Service ground that may be suitable for recommendation as Wilderness or Wild and Scenic River status in the Lolo National Forest Plan Revision is underway.
“The initial Wilderness inventory looks at all the lands on the Lolo that might meet some of the basic criteria for consideration,” said Amanda Milburn, of the Lolo National Forest Revision Team. “The inventory doesn’t speculate whether any of this would be good, bad or indifferent as a wilderness. Starting inventory criteria are a parcel size of minimum 5,000 acres and a lack of substantial improvements, like a lot of roads or timber harvests.”
Current inventoried potential wilderness areas are the “Bob Marshall Addition” a 70,995 acre portion extending roughly from Huckleberry Pass northeast of Ovando, behind Ovando Mountain and through Monture Creek basin to Morrell Lookout along the wilderness boundary, plus Grizzly Basin upstream of Morrell Falls, see blue area on the map.
In addition the “Bear-Marshall-Scapegoat-Swan” is inventoried as potential wilderness in a 78,512 acre portion that correlates to the Rice Ridge burn area, see green area on the map. Wild and Scenic River locations were introduced in the April 3, 2023 edition of the Pathfinder and are available online.
“Think of the Forest Plan as a zoning document for the forest,” said Quinn Craver, Seeley Lake District Ranger. “The beginning steps of determining a new forest plan take a very broad view, upcoming steps will narrow it down.”
Upcoming steps are evaluation of the draft plan, then an analysis including Environmental Impact Statements and finally the recommendation of the completed plan. Each stage will include public comment periods, webinars and updates, according to Milburn.
“The Bob Marshall Addition was originally proposed for wilderness in the 1986 Lolo Forest Revision Plan but the recommendation never made it through Congress,” said Jack Rich, Outfitter. “In 1994, the Bob Marshall addition was added to the Lolo-Kootenai Accord. Although Congress approved it, the bill sat on President Nixon’s desk and was never signed.”
In the early 2000’s a handful of loggers, outfitters, business men and others got together to discuss the unimplemented wilderness portion of the 1986 Lolo Forest Revision Plan. They formed the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Committee with the goal of designating wilderness, recreation and timber grounds from the 1986 Plan.
“Working with representatives from timber, recreation and conservation, we looked for a sweet spot that would suit people’s interests for forest management in the Seeley Lake Ranger District,” said Rich. “The goal was to see the 1986 Forest Plan Revision implemented.”
The Wilderness designation was left hanging until 2007 when Congressman Jon Tester developed the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) with the local committee and presented it to Congress.
Presented to Congress in 2017, 2019, and 2021, the Bob Marshall Addition was never finalized into Wilderness.
“Proposed Wilderness from the 1986 Forest Plan does not automatically roll over into the new forest plan revision,” said Milburn. “It’s very important to have public input to hear if people are interested in bringing these public lands forward again.”
“A hiker may comment that an area they know of is remote and pristine and maybe it was missed in the evaluation,” said Milburn.
“Or conversely somebody might suggest that an included area is full of rows of trees and evident timber harvest, and looks like something was included that shouldn’t be in the inventory. Public comments are an integral component during the evaluation portion of the Forest Plan Revision.”
May 26 1:30-3:00 pm there will be a Ranger chat at Seeley Lake Ranger Station with Quinn Carver to discuss the Forest Revision Plan and the public is invited to attend.
To view maps of preliminary Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers, calendar of other upcoming engagements, additional information and to comment visit
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/lolo/landmanagementplanning/?cid=fseprd993646
Reader Comments(0)