Forest Jobs and Recreation Act

The Montana Wilderness Association has been working for years to protect some of the wildest landscapes in Montana. Being a part of two local collaborative groups—the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project and the Beaverhead Deerlodge Partnership—over the last few years, MWA has had the opportunity to work with Montanans from all walks of life to form a new vision for forest management.

These two projects both focused on bringing a community together behind one common vision for dealing with our public lands. From loggers to conservationists and ATV users to horseback riders, the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project and the Beaverhead Deerlodge Partnership worked hard to make sure that many voices were heard in shaping these proposals.

Senator Jon Tester recognized the need for better management of our public lands. With some of our most pristine country going unprotected, pine beetles taking over our forests, shrinking fish and wildlife populations and habitat, and empty lumber yards and closing businesses, Senator Tester realized something must be done.

On July 17, 2009, Senator Tester introduced the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. This bill combines the efforts of the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project (BCSP), the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership (BDP), and the Three Rivers Challenge, a project in the Yaak Valley similar to the BCSP and the BDP.

The Montana Wilderness Association working alongside fellow conservationists, loggers, hunters, anglers, and recreationists as the Montana Forests Coalition (should be hotlink to About Coalition page), continues to inform and educate the public on innovative forest management.

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The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act: A New Day for Montana's Public Lands
Our experiences in the backcountry — whether camping with our families, hunting in prime wildlife habitat, fishing in our world-famous trout streams, or horseback riding at three miles per hour — have defined us as Montanans for generations.

For more than 50 years, the Montana Wilderness Association has fought to protect the wildlands that support Montana's way of life. Now, some 670,000 acres of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Lolo, and Kootenai National Forests are poised on the cusp to be forever protected as wilderness.

On June 17, 2009 Senator Jon Tester introduced a new bill: the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act or Senate Bill 1470. After years of hard work, Congress has a bill, championed by a member of the Montana delegation, that proposes new wilderness in Montana. This is the first such bill that Montana has seen in over a decade and, if it succeeds, the first new wilderness designation in Montana in over 25 years.

For many, this bill arises from the ashes of what has been a sordid past for Montana's wildlands and forest management. That past left some folks jaded and scarred, and often seemed to split Montanans along urban and rural lines. Read full article.