Articles
Articles concerning Wilderness appear frequently in Montana news publications and other publications nationwide. Following are summaries of such recent articles.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary visits Deer Lodge
Nick Gevock
Published 3/7/2010
DEER LODGE — The Obama administration could support the mandate in Sen. Jon Tester’s forest bill to log a set number of acres every year as a pilot project, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said here Saturday.
Vilsack, in a change of position for the administration, said some changes to the measure, which mandates a set number of acres be logged every year, could be tried to see how well it works.
“We’re going to continue to work with Sen. Tester to accomplish what the bill is supposed to do,” Vilsack said before more than 70 people. “There’s a tremendous opportunity here.”
Vilsack came to Deer Lodge at the request of Tester to meet with members of a partnership of logging and conservation interests whose plan shaped his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. The controversial measure would designate more than 600,000 acres of wilderness in three national forests statewide, while mandating that 10,000 acres be logged every year for a decade.
Tester has touted the bill as a way to end decades of fighting over logging and wilderness protection and says it will help the Forest Service clean out forested areas that are dying from beetle infestations. He also says the bill will help struggling timber mills that need a supply of timber to survive.
But Madison and Beaverhead county commissioners, as well as multiple-use groups and some environmental groups, have strongly opposed the bill. Commissioners from those counties say they will get the majority of the wilderness, yet the bill does nothing to guarantee that any trees will be cut, because the logging is still subject to lawsuits. They say the bill represents two narrow interests while ignoring the concerns of ranchers, motorized users and counties.
Vilsack’s comments were a sharp contrast from the position of the Forest Service in December during a hearing on the bill. Agriculture Undersecretary Harris Sherman said at the time that the logging targets in the bill were “unworkable” for the agency and could set a precedent in which each national forest is managed differently by Congress.
Vilsack brought up that concern with members of the partnership in a separate meeting at Sun Mountain Lumber, whose owner Sherm Anderson is part of the partnership.
“We have 155 different forests across the country,” he said. “We don’t want a situation where we’re legislating the management of every forest.”
But Vilsack also said the plan’s stated goal of clearing overgrown areas near homes, protecting watersheds and restoring damaged landscapes matches the key goals of the Obama administration for the national forests. He added that keeping small-town timber mills in business is vital because rural parts of the country are suffering from unemployment, loss of young people and lower incomes.
“This is also about the future of rural America, not just rural Montana,” he said. “What’s at stake here is the area of the country that provides the food, the water, the clean air and now the fuel for the country.”
Vilsack said other national forests are seeing similar efforts to get work done on the ground. He said the agency would consider the bill as a test to see if it’s effective to improve forest health and help rural economies.
“It’s not necessarily a precedent,” he said. “It’s a recognition that we’re dealing with a unique set of circumstances.”
The environmental groups opposing the bill don’t want it to succeed because it would make it harder for them to shut down logging and restoration projects, Tester said in response to a question.
“They don’t like this bill because it’s going to hamper their ability to work the system,” he said.
Mark Petroni, a retired district ranger on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest, told Vilsack the logging goals could be reached because most of the studies are done. He said that work started more than 20 years ago.
“There’s a shelf in Dillon that has all these landscape analyses sitting there waiting to go through,” he said. “There are 280,000 acres available for mechanical treatment.”
Tester said he is still changing the bill to help garner more support. His latest proposals include making the bill a pilot project, as well as extending the time frame for the logging mandates in an effort to make it more palatable to county officials.
The public meeting drew more than 70 people, nearly all of whom voiced support for the bill. Commissioners from Missoula, Powell, Granite and Broadwater counties also said they’re behind the measure because it could help the struggling timber industry.
Among the opponents was Howie Wolke, a wilderness outfitter from Emigrant who said he fears the bill could open large swaths of roadless lands to timber companies. He asked Tester to write guarantees in the bill that the logging would take place near homes.
“Logging the backcountry doesn’t do any good to reduce the risk of wildfire to communities,” he said. “I feel very uncomfortable with a congressional mandate on logging, and this goes beyond that and mandates a level of logging that even the Forest Service doesn’t advise.”
Montana Wilderness Association winter walks program begins soon
HIR Staff - 1/14/2010
January marks the beginning of the seventh season for the Montana Wilderness Association’s popular Winter Snowshoe Walks program.
This year, 43 guided snowshoe journeys are planned.
This year, there are plenty of outings for families with children, moderate walks for the more experienced and strenuous trips for adventurous types. All outings are free and open to the public, but participants need to make reservations by contacting the hike leader. The Montana Wilderness Association will provide snowshoes for participants if necessary.
Trips will explore canyons on the Rocky Mountain Front, the dense forests of northwest Montana, the prairie foothills and forests of the Absaroka-Beartooth region, and the Island and Great Divide ranges in the central part of the state. Full Article
Badger-Two Med motorized travel ban upheld
By KARL PUCKETT - Great Falls Tribune Staff Writer - 1/14/2010
Supporters of traditional use of the forest won the first round in a legal battle over a ban on motorized travel in the Badger-Two Medicine area of the Rocky Mountain Front, which the U.S. Forest Service implemented last fall.
U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon on Wednesday in Great Falls refused to grant an injunction sought by motorized user interests, which oppose the ban.
Had the injunction been granted, the ban would have been lifted until a lawsuit to overturn it is settled.
The ruling means motorized vehicles will be prohibited while the legal challenge proceeds. The Forest Service implemented the ban Oct. 1 as part of a new travel plan.
"This travel plan was a landmark decision to protect a really important area for people and wildlife," Timothy Preso, an attorney for Earth Justice, said Wednesday afternoon. "Today's decision turned back an effort by motorized interests to return to the day when you had heavy, heavy motorized use of the backcountry there." Full Article
Tester bill isn’t perfect, but protects
By GREG TOLLEFSON - Missoulian - 1/14/2010
My son Sander and I dawdled for a while on the summit of Swan Peak one scorching afternoon last August. From where we stood, we could have imagined ourselves to be in the center of a world made up of nothing but a sea of wild and untracked country.
Beginning at our feet, the Bob Marshall Wilderness sprawled away to the east, beyond the sparkling waters of Sunburst Lake at the foot of Swan Glacier, down Gorge Creek to the South Fork of the Flathead, and far away to the south. To the south and east, I could pick out the distant ramparts of Scapegoat Mountain, Observation Point, and the rest of the Scapegoat Wilderness to the south and east. To the northeast, I pointed out where the Great Bear Wilderness joined with the others to create one of the largest and most wonderful blocks of wild country around. Turning to the west, MacDonald Peak, Mount Harding, Grey Wolf towered over the rugged Mission Mountains Wilderness in the summer haze.
What we could not see, from where we stood, were the roads creeping up canyons and winding up slopes on both sides of the Swan Valley, in some places to the very edge of wilderness boundaries. Also blocked from view were the summer homes and trophy palaces that have been sprouting on the landscape far below amid habitat critical to grizzly bears, elk, lynx and the whole array of wildlife that depend upon on wild country. Full Article
Support Tester forest bill despite imperfections, Rehberg urged in Deer Lodge
Missoulian - Rob Chaney - Friday, January 8, 2010
DEER LODGE - Rep. Denny Rehberg said he's not trying to "fix" Sen. Jon Tester's Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, but he's certainly looking at what's under the hood.
"I'm not a logger, and I'm being asked to legislate a logging standard," Rehberg told about 125 people at a listening session in the Deer Lodge Community Center on Friday.
"If you get 670,000 acres of wilderness and no logging, you'd be mad at me. I need to know where's the assurance of the promise that that's going to occur." Full Article
Mount Jefferson access rises to forefront of forest bill controversy
Bozeman Daily Chronicle - Ben Pierce - Wednesday, December 30, 2009
MOUNT JEFFERSON -- Near the crest of the Centennial Mountains on the Continental Divide a small spring bubbles from a black rock.
There are no trails to this spring.
There are no signs that guide the way.
Known as Brower's Spring, it flows steadily from its humble beginnings through lodgepole pine and aspen forest to a place called Hell Roaring Canyon. There it joins other rivulets to form Hell Roaring Creek, which flows north into Alaska Basin and the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Full Article
Great Falls Tribune: Tester seeks administration's support for Montana forest bill
By LEDYARD KING - Tribune Washington Bureau - 12/18/2009
WASHINGTON — Citing precedent and cost, the Obama administration says it cannot yet endorse a bill by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., that seeks to reshape Western Montana's national forests by striking a balance among timber, recreation and environmental interests.
Agriculture Undersecretary Harris Sherman told members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Forests that he applauds the concepts laid out in the bill. But he cautioned that it would cost millions of dollars every year to implement, potentially draining resources from other forests in Montana and elsewhere. He also said the bill could undermine existing environmental review procedures and encourage other states to seek special designations as well, compromising the national scope of federal forest policy.
Administration support is often a key factor in determining whether a bill passes, and Tester said he needs the Forest Service's support.
He added that he is confident he will get the agency's backing. "This is the beginning of the process. ... We'll get 'em on board," he said after the hearing. "It's taking them out of their comfort zone, and when you take folks out of their comfort zone, they tend to get uncomfortable." Full Article
Helena Independent Record: Tester bill's hearing can be viewed online
12/16/2009
Montanans will have an opportunity to watch Thursday's Senate hearing on Sen. Jon Tester's Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.
Thursday's hearing, the first for the bill, is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. Montana time. Follow the link in this story online at helenair.com to see the hearing. If it begins late, Web viewers may see a blank screen until it begins.
Also on Wednesday, Gov. Brian Schweitzer sent the Senate subcommittee a letter in support of the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.
"I am grateful that Senator Tester is not willing to sit idly while Montana loses what remains of its critical forest industry infrastructure," Schweitzer wrote. "This legislation begins to move us beyond these tired fights of the past." Full Article
Montana Standard: Tester greets friends, foes of forest bill
By Tim Trainor - 11/12/2009
There were no fireworks Thursday as U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., spoke in support of the controversial Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. The open house, which lasted about two hours, drew roughly 75 people to Butte's Holiday Inn.
Tester opened with a 30-minute presentation on the meat of the legislation, which he introduced last summer, followed by remarks from Sun Mountain Lumber owner Sherm Anderson of Deer Lodge.
Tester said that the time is right to address the status of federal lands across the western half of the state. He said that if Montana's congressional delegation didn't rise to the challenge, someone from another state would.
The senator emphasized that the bill is homegrown — "made in Montana." Mill owner Anderson said lumber companies had been opposed to the last bill, back in 1988, because of the way it addressed wilderness. But the decline in the lumber business in the last two decades has prompted industry leaders to rethink their opposition. Full Article
Associated Press: Baucus signs on to Tester's wilderness proposal
The Associated Press - 10/27/2009
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester says fellow Montana Sen. Max Baucus has co-signed a proposal to both add more wilderness and require more logging on federal land.
Tester made the announcement Monday during a public meeting in Missoula meant to answer questions about the "Forest Jobs and Recreation Act."
Baucus' support was the first thing Tester mentioned when he started discussing the draft bill. In the past, single-state wilderness bills have had the support of the state's congressional delegation, but Baucus had been silent on the proposal since it was introduced in July.
The measure would add more than 600,000 acres of wilderness, mostly in southwestern Montana's Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. But it also designates large swaths of land as open for logging.
Some environmentalists say it gives too much to logging and doesn't add enough wilderness.
Missoulian: Talking about trees-Tester discusses forest, jobs bill in Missoula
By ROB CHANEY - Missoulian - 10/26/09
Sen. Jon Tester started his day in Missoula with good news from fellow Sen. Max Baucus: The senior member of Montana's congressional delegation had co-signed the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.
He followed that with a packed open house, at the Doubletree Hotel, on the draft legislation. Rather than have the audience address the room at large, Tester's staff set up tables and people delivered their comments one-on-one. About 150 people attended.
"I just wanted to hear him talk about it," said Nate Conneran of Big Sky. "It sounds positive. It sounds like it's good for jobs and not shutting down the forests, either."
Missoulian Willis Curdy had suggestions for how the bill should be expanded. He was concerned that the Blackfoot-Clearwater portion of the bill needed to have more participation by federal, state and private timberland managers if that watershed was to see real improvement. Full Article
Great Falls Tribune: Badger-Two Medicine lawsuit spurs debate
By KARL PUCKETT - Tribune Staff Writer - 10/14/2009
Sides are lining up in court over a ban on motorized recreational vehicles in 130,000 acres of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, with separation of church and state sharing stage with disagreements over access and environmental impacts.
On Friday, the Montana Trail Vehicle Riders Association, Capital Trail Vehicle Riders Association and Montanans for Multiple Use, as well as several individuals, filed an injunction against the forest in U.S. District Court.
The injunction seeks to bar the U.S. Forest Service from implementing the motorized vehicle ban until a lawsuit challenging it, brought by those same groups, is resolved.
The ban, which went into effect Oct. 1, allows travel only by foot or horseback in the remote and mountainous Badger-Two Medicine area adjacent to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and south of Glacier National Park.
When he announced the decision in March, forest Supervisor Spike Thompson cited protecting the unspoiled landscape and its cultural importance to the Blackfeet as reasons for the plan.
"These are federal lands owned by all Americans — and they shouldn't be abused," said Lou Bruno, one of the founders of the Badger-Two Medicine Alliance. "The Forest Service has a mandate to preserve it for the most people for the longest period of time." Full Article
Missoulian: Tester meets with 200 in Troy to discuss wilderness, logging legislation
By MICHAEL JAMISON - Missoulian - 10/11/2009
TROY - Robyn King and Donna O'Neil can easily imagine the day when they'll be standing, shoulder to shoulder, in front of the judge.
"You'll be there," King told O'Neil, "and I'll be there, and that's never happened before. Personally, I think it will change the way the courts work." King is a conservationist, and O'Neil a snowmobiler, and for years they've labored together with loggers and mill owners and outfitters and many others to hammer out a
consensus plan for forest use in northwest Montana.
"This process really represented the fact that the polarization has dropped away in this town," said Doug Ferrill. "We're working together, finally." Full Article
Missoulian: Sen. Tester to tout forest bill in Troy
By MICHAEL JAMISON - Missoulian - 10/8/2009
TROY - Facing skepticism from both ends of the environmental spectrum, Sen. Jon Tester has taken his job - and his wilderness pitch - on the road, meeting with all comers at a series of open house-style gatherings.
The next, scheduled for Saturday in Troy, promises to generate considerable conversation regarding the future of forests near Yaak, which is central to Tester's large forest bill.
The regionwide proposal was borne of several local efforts, and includes provisions for both more logging and more designated wilderness. The collaborative process, as well as the compromise nature of the legislation, is necessary to generate sufficient political support for passage, the senator has said.
The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act mandates some logging on Forest Service lands, and also adds about 600,000 acres of new wilderness. Full Article
Helena Independent Record: Meeting on Front protection draws crowd of 100
By EVE BYRON - Independent Record - 10/2/2009
About 100 people gathered at the Great Northern Hotel in Helena Thursday night to learn more about a plan to put a new layer of protection to 307,000 acres along the Rocky Mountain Front, plus add 86,000 acres to the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat wilderness areas.
Most of the crowd seemed to generally support what's being called the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, which affects a 100-mile swath of public and private lands that is home not just to people but also to grizzly bears, gray wolves, bighorn sheep, elk, deer, antelope and dozens of smaller creatures.
The Act, which was put together mainly by people who live along the Front, has three main points: to focus efforts and federal money on noxious weed control; to add to the existing wilderness; and to institute a newly created designation of a "Conservation Management Area" along the Front.
The CMA designation was what caught most people's attention. It's meant to lessen opportunities for road building, logging and development on forest lands along the Front and act as a buffer zone between private lands and the federal wilderness area, by making permanent the current Lewis and Clark National Forest management and travel plans, according to members of the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front. Full Article
Great Falls Tribune: Critics of Front plan call for more wilderness
By KARL PUCKETT - Tribune Staff Writer - 10/1/2009
A plan to conserve almost 400,000 acres of public land on the Rocky Mountain Front was highly praised by some people at its public unveiling Wednesday in Great Falls, but sharply criticized by some conservationists who said it lacked enough wilderness designation for such a pristine landscape.
"We make a mistake in foregoing an opportunity for greater protection for these lands when nationally and I think, locally, the odds are on our side for support," said Tom Kotynski of Great Falls, who authored a book on hiking on the Front. He noted the Democratic control of the White House and Congress, and said the proposed wilderness acreage in the plan should be just a starting point, adding he could not imagine a bill that does not seek wilderness for such Front icons as Old Man of the Hills, Mt. Frazier, Choteau Mountain and Volcano Reef. Full Article
Great Falls Tribune: Collaboration key to Front plan
By KARL PUCKETT - Tribune Staff Writer - 9/30/2009
Congress created instant wilderness nationwide 45 years ago when it passed the Wilderness Act, but the recipe for conserving public land today is akin to slow cooking, with more ingredients needed to satisfy varying tastes.
That's what advocates of a new conservation plan that would protect Montana's famed Rocky Mountain Front say. "The name of the game now is collaboration," said Bill Cunningham of Choteau, a Bob Marshall Wilderness Area outfitter who has been involved in wilderness debates for decades.
Last week, the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front unveiled a conservation plan for 393,000 acres of public lands in the Lewis and Clark and Helena national forests.
New wilderness is part of the new plan — but so is a brand new designation with less teeth than a wilderness designation, but more protection for undeveloped roadless lands. Full Article
Helena Independent Record: Judge says Gallatin forest needs to revise wilderness travel plan
By Amy Beth Hanson - Associated Press - 9/30/2009
The Gallatin National Forest must rework its travel plan for a wilderness study area, but the agency's plan for the rest of the forest was upheld in a ruling issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. Molloy ruled the forest's motorized use plan for the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn wilderness study area didn't adequately protect the wilderness quality of the area as required by the Montana Wilderness Act of 1977.
Conservation groups claimed the travel plan allowed too much motorized use, while balanced use and snowmobile groups sought more access.
The plan expanded and reconfigured the area snowmobiles may use in the winter, and decreased and reconfigured the area motorcycles and mountain bikes may use in the summer. It also imposed seasonal restrictions and disallowed all-terrain vehicles within the wilderness study area. Full Article
Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Tester presents forest bill in Bozeman
Jodi Hausen - Chronicle Staff Writer - 9/29/2009
Ed Regan, resource manager for RY Timber, supports U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s forestry bill and he told a crowd at the Gallatin County Courthouse why during the senator’s visit to Bozeman Monday.
With mills in Townsend, Deer Lodge and Livingston, RY produces about 20 percent of all the timber shipped out of Montana, he said.
“We believe the bill has the ability to stop the gridlock that has” halted forest management, Regan said. Because of lawsuits and appeals regarding land use in the national forests, “we’ve been forced to go out of state” to Wyoming and Idaho for raw lumber, he said. “With all the dead timber around, it’s ridiculous for us to have to haul timber from 300 miles away,” Regan told the crowd.
Tester’s bill, created through the collaboration of Montana’s wilderness, recreation and logging concerns, aims to break the gridlock caused by litigation that has all but halted logging in most areas of the state, the senator said. Full Article
Montana Standard: Tester meeting on forest bill draws big crowd
Nick Gevock - MT Standard - 09/26/2009
DILLON — Montana's Sen. Jon Tester gave a presentation on a controversial forest bill here that packed in supporters and opponents of the wilderness-for- logging measure, and drew strong responses from both sides.
More than 350 people showed up at the Beier Auditorium on the University of Montana Western campus Saturday to hear directly from Tester about his bill.
The visit came after months of criticism from wilderness opponents that Tester was trying to ram the bill through without hearing from people who live in the county most affected by the bill.
The crowd included a diverse array of ranchers, loggers, conservationists and others with sharp opinions on the bill. Several carried signs, including one that read "multiple use, not double talk" and another, "Montana is not a monarchy."
But even more proponents of the measure showed up, many of whom wielded signs that read "Thank you, Sen. Tester." Tester told the crowd that Montana's forests are in crisis because of beetle kill, and that it would take the state's logging companies to help solve the problem. The bill was modeled on the "partnership"
coalition of timber companies and conservation groups that met and came up with the compromise. Full Article
Land Letter: Public Lands-Coalition unveils legislative proposal to balance use, protection on Rocky Mountain Front
April Reese - E&E reporter - 9/17/2009
A vast expanse of sparsely inhabited forest and grazing lands sloping across the western apron of Montana's share of the Rocky Mountains should be managed as a patchwork of wilderness and working forest, a coalition of local citizens and conservation groups proposed in draft legislation unveiled yesterday.
The proposal, dubbed the "Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act," involves about 400,000 acres of federal land in Lewis and Clark and Helena national forests. About 86,000 acres would be designated as new wilderness, essentially expanding the neighboring Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, while the rest would be maintained as a "conservation management area," with grazing and some timber harvesting allowed. Full Article
Helena Independent Record: Coalition unveils plan for Front
By Eve Byron - Independent Record - 9/17/2009
A plan that proposes to add a new layer of protection to 307,000 acres along the Rocky Mountain Front, while adding 86,000 acres in six chunks to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, was unveiled Wednesday.
The Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act is an agreement hammered out during the past three years mainly by people who live along the Front, according to members of the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front. The plan, which will be presented to the public at four meetings beginning Sept. 30, uses a newly created "Conservation Management Area" designation that seeks to provide less opportunity for road building, logging and development on forest lands along the Front and acts as a buffer zone between private lands and the federal wilderness area.
It also includes provisions for additional money - at this time, about $200,000 per year - to fight the spread of noxious weeds along the Front. Full Article
Montana Standard: Tester defends forest bill, calls it precedent for West
By Nick Gevock - 08/27/2009 - Montana Standard
Sen. Jon Tester defended his wilderness bill from criticism Wednesday that it was drafted in secret at the behest of a couple special interests.
Rather, Tester said during a meeting with The Standard editorial board that parties that were willing to compromise were included in the talks that helped shape his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.
"The door was open to everyone who wanted to negotiate," he said. "Some people didn't want to negotiate." Tester last month introduced the bill. The measure would designate more than 600,000 acres of wilderness areas, which is the highest measure of protection for public land and bars logging, mining and road building. The vast majority of the wilderness — more than 500,000 acres — is in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in southwest Montana.
But the bill also includes provisions to increase logging. It would mandate 7,000 acres a year be cut on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge in "stewardship" areas, which are meant to clear out beetle-killed trees. Tester has said that work will be directed in lands near communities and homes that already have roads. Full Article
Helena Independent Record: Tester says forest bill a model for West
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record - 08/22/09
Sen. Jon Tester looked out the window of a downtown office building Friday and noted the red, dead trees coloring the slopes of Mount Helena.The phenomenon isn’t specific to Montana, he said. Beetle-killed trees pepper the Rocky Mountains, demonstrating just how the environment has transformed the West’s forests. We’ve got a choice with trees,” Tester, D-Mont., told members of the IR editorial board Friday. “We can either cut them and store that carbon in two-by-fours and plywood and such, or let them burn and allow that carbon to go up in the atmosphere. I know that burning is a natural phenomenon, but I think that through restorative work, we can do better.” Tester broached a variety of issues ranging from northern border security to VA health care during Friday’s meeting. But it was his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act that dominated much of the discussion. The new piece of legislation is now awaiting action in the Senate Committee on Energy. Full Article
Bozeman Daily Chronicle: An Early Lead
By DANIEL PERSON Chronicle Staff Writer8/17/2009
Some internal polling done on Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Bill has supporters of the bill excited that the bill is off to a good start in the state. A poll commissioned by lumber companies and conservation groups that helped craft the bill suggests that seven of every 10 Montanans support the bill. The bill would designate hundreds of thousands of acres of new wilderness, mandate thousands of acres be logged in western Montana and create special recreation areas for motorized users. According to the poll, 65 percent of Montanans who work in mining, ranching and farming support the bill. Also, 69 percent of voters from households that “go off-road” on ATVs support the bill, the poll showed. Full Article
Montana Standard: Wilderness for logging?
By Nick Gevock of The Montana Standard - 08/16/2009
To some, Sen. Jon Tester's wilderness bill is a way to circumvent environmental laws and give away trees to timber companies at taxpayer's expense. To others, it's a massive land grab by environmentalists that is meant to keep people out of public land in vehicles and ATVs, while limiting development of natural resources that provide good jobs. But Aaron Murphy, Tester spokesman, said the bill is neither. Rather, it's a good compromise between those views: a measure that aims to get loggers back in the woods, restore degraded landscapes and protect high alpine areas that are important wildlife habitat. He said with good planning, the logging mandated by the bill would provide jobs while improving the landscape by clearing out overgrown, bug killed trees. Full Article
Helena Independent Record: Continental collaboration
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record - 08/13/2009
BASIN — They gathered at the end of Joe Bowers Road and entered the woods as strangers dragging heavy tools — Pulaskis and McLeods — while making conversation with people they had never met. Seven hours later they emerged as friends, having cut new trail atop the Continental Divide. When the work was finished Saturday evening and camp cookie Bill Maloit tossed steaks on the grill and dished up his famous brand of whistler beans, it was not the completion of new trail that drew the praise of volunteers. Rather, it was the cooperation demonstrated by around 30 members of nine once-polarized groups who may now and forever refer to themselves as friends. “It’s not so much about the work and accomplishment, it’s about the groups with different interests getting together for a common goal,” said Roy Barkley, the trails project coordinator for the Helena National Forest. “If you were to take a bigger picture of every one of these groups, not everyone is going to feel the same way. But I see this — this collaborative effort and the benefits of it — as being as much, if not more important, than the actual work we’ve done.” Full Article
Helena Independent Record: Tester forest bill product of efforts of many
By MICHAEL JAMISON, Missoulian - 08/02/09
KALISPELL- There was a time, not so very long ago, when environmentalists living in the shadow of big timber, in the logging lands of the Yaak, didn’t sleep in the same bed two nights in a row. Cabins burned mysteriously in the dark. Cars were vandalized. People were attacked, literally beaten for beliefs. Out in the forests, logging equipment was sabotaged. Woods work was monkey-wrenched. In town, the Forest Service was crushed between opposing forces, retreating always. “The Timber Wars,” said Robyn King, “were absolutely fierce. We’ve had a long history of extreme polarization and violence up here.” And for a quarter-century, she said, “the fighting got us nowhere.” Full Article
Daily Interlake: Williams recalls past wilderness proposal battles
By JIM MANN/Daily Inter Lake - 7/17/09
Former Montana Rep. Pat Williams unsuccessfully tried to pass wilderness legislation 16 times during his 18 years in Congress, but he says things have changed since then and Sen. Jon Tester's proposal stands a better chance. "It's a different day, that's for sure," Williams said in an interview from his Missoula home. "Senator Tester is operating in a very different economic and political environment. It's great that he's moving forward with this, and we should be grateful that he is." Williams, a Democrat, said his wilderness proposals triggered polarized responses within the state, with environmental activists facing off against timber-industry and multiple-use advocates. Full Article
Great Falls Tribune: Tester plan tackles forest, logging issues
By JOHN S. ADAMS Tribune Capitol Bureau - 7/18/09
HELENA — Flanked by representatives from the state's timber industry, wilderness groups, backcountry enthusiasts and motorized off-road-vehicle groups, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Friday unveiled a broad piece of legislation aimed at saving timber jobs and increasing wilderness acreage in the state.
The measure, dubbed the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act of 2009, designates more than 660,000 acres of new wilderness in Montana, while mandating the logging of 100,000 acres on public forests over a 10-year period.
Proponents of the 84-page bill hailed the measure as the product of years of collaboration between often disparate groups of stakeholders. They say the bill will save jobs in timber communities while permanently protecting wilderness and increasing recreational opportunities. Full Article
Missoulian: Tester says he wants D.C. hearings on Montana wilderness and jobs this fall
By KIM BRIGGEMAN of the Missoulian 7/18/09
SEELEY LAKE - Flanked by two wilderness areas, miles of mountain trails and millions of trees that could be cut, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester made his pitch Saturday for the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act he introduced in the Senate on Thursday. It was a hot sell but not a hard one. The thermometer rose steadily toward 90 degrees in the parking lot of the Seeley Lake Historical Museum and Chamber of Commerce barn south of town. Some of the 125 in attendance fanned themselves with “Thank You Sen. Tester” signs. The pages of the bill that directly concern this neck of the woods were all but copied from the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project, the result of a collaboration between an array of often-competing groups that Tester and others heaped praise on. “This bill is their zone of agreement,” said Gordy Sanders, resource manager at Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley. Full Article
More to Badger than meets the eye
By JACK GLADSTONE (Ma-tak-soo-woo) - Helena Independent Record Your Turn - 03/26/09
Looking southward from Red Crow Mountain in today’s Glacier National Park, one is blessed with a view of the pristine landscape of the Badger-Two Medicine, which is nestled between the Continental Divide and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. All Montanans can agree that the wild character of this area is inviting.
But the eye does not capture the depth of its cultural significance.
I am Ma-tak-soo-woo, a grandson of Chief Red Crow, (1830-1900). I feel a solemn duty to share with Montanans the traditional cultural regard that unifies our Blackfeet people with this landscape. This regard stems from the ancient parables that articulate that this area is Blackfeet Holy Ground. This regard is also reaffirmed in the reference and practice of today’s traditional Blackfeet.
We refer to the Rockies as the “Backbone of the World,” and embrace this “backbone” as both a source and a channel for the varied expressions of the “Great Mystery,” including the characters Thunder, Coldmaker, Windmaker and Medicine Elk. The land between the Badger and Two Medicine Rivers is also where Old Man Napi, in the long ago time, organized the first men to go northward to look for wives.
The quintessential religious ceremony for our Blackfeet is the O-kan (Medicine Lodge or Sun Dance). The Badger-Two Medicine cradles four peaks honoring the central figures in the O-kan’s origin story. Those mountains are Morning Star, Feather Woman, Scarface and Poia. In the traditional naming of something, a name imparts the essence of its meaning upon that which is named. This is Holy Ground.
The Badger-Two Medicine is also home to both wolf and grizzly who, in the long ago time, aided both a Blackfeet man and a woman in their respective odysseys to escape misfortune and return home. The epilogue of both parables (Medicine Grizzly and Medicine Wolf) have our morally considerate brothers traveling westward into the sunset of the Badger-Two Medicine watershed.
Finally this landscape, in an undesecrated state, insures an accessible sanctuary for the continued practice of the vision quest, which is at the heart of traditional American Indian spirituality. My late father, Wally (Kut-o-yis), mentored and impressed upon me that, while the vision quest is rooted in identity, it ultimately becomes a path for establishing conscious contact with a power greater than self. This Power is that which both weaves and binds the universe.
Recently, over 90 percent of commenting Montanans supported a nonmotorized conservation-based management alternative for the Rocky Mountain Front, the majestic northern third of which is the Badger-Two Medicine. Formerly “alternative 5,” the newly released Badger-Two Medicine Travel Plan is the option most respectful of and harmonious with the reverence developed and held by my Blackfeet People. Two tribal councils and the Blackfeet Tribal Historic Preservation Office have concurred. The Forest Travel Plan also strengthens the environment for local- and state-based outfitters by its emphasis on horse and foot travel.
From Judeo-Christian tradition, I was raised with an important story involving the Sinai wilderness, a vision quest and the revelation of Commandments. In that story, Moses is instructed by God to remove his sandals because he is standing upon sacred ground. The principle here is timeless: respect sanctity by minimizing impact.
Please join our Blackfeet People in support of the Forest Service travel plan restricting motorized travel inside the Badger-Two Medicine. This too is sacred ground.
Jack Gladstone is a citizen of the Blackfeet Indian Nation.
Motor travel banned in Front area
By KARL PUCKETT • Tribune Staff Writer • March 17, 2009
Citing the need to protect unspoiled wildlife habitat and lands with cultural significance to the Blackfeet Tribe, the U.S. Forest has banned motorized travel on almost 200 miles of trails in northcentral Montana's Badger-Two Medicine area.
The decision, announced Monday, is part of a travel plan for that section of Lewis and Clark National Forest.
Few places in the United States rival the solitude, wildlife viewing and hunting afforded by the 130,000-acre Badger-Two Medicine, which tipped the scale in favor of travel by foot, horse and bicycle, Forest Supervisor Spike Thompson said.
"When you talk about the Last Best Place," said Thompson, referring to the state's nickname, "the Rocky Mountain Front is it as far as I'm concerned."
Badger-Two Medicine is located along the Rocky Mountains, beginning at Birch Creek west of Dupuyer and stretching north to U.S. Highway 2.
The collision of mountain and prairie landscapes produces a diverse array of wildlife and stunning views.
"It'll take your breath away," said Kendall Flint, a physician from East Glacier and president of the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance. read more...
Wilderness that makes sense for Montana
By Independent Record - IR view - 03/15/2009
With the national headlines of late focusing on the economy, stimulus plans and sordid swindlers, it’s understandable that news about wilderness and protecting public lands has received little attention.
But Congress is indeed acting on measures related to wilderness, the topic of long-simmering debate in Montana. Just last week, a measure called the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, legislation that among many other things would add two million acres of public land to the rolls of officially proclaimed U.S. wilderness, fell two votes shy of advancing in the U.S. House of Representatives. Backers say the proposal, despite its clumsy name, has broad support and could be resurrected down the road.
Also bouncing around Congress is the latest incarnation of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, which has been around in one form or another since 1993. Unlike the measure that stalled last week, which proposed no new Montana wilderness, the Northern Rockies measure would add 7 million acres of wilderness in our state, bringing the total to more than 10 million acres.
The odd thing about the Northern Rockies proposal is that it has garnered virtually no support among the congressional delegations in the affected states, including Montana. It’s also worth noting that the principal sponsor of this seemingly perennial proposal is Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat.
The last Montana wilderness proposal backed by at least two members of the state’s congressional delegation was introduced way back in 1987. In fact, Congress in 1988 passed legislation stemming from those proposals that would have added 1.4 million acres of wilderness in our state. But that measure died unsigned on the desk of President Ronald Reagan. A 1994 Montana wilderness bill passed the House but found no support with the state’s two senators.
Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester and Rep. Denny Rehberg have expressed a vague willingness to address the issue of wilderness. But the three have said that Montana residents need to play a big role in shaping any wilderness additions and other public-land decisions. “It is imperative that local voices decide the future of these critical areas in Montana,” Baucus said in the March-April issue of Montana Magazine, “and the results must reflect a desire for a variety of responsible uses.”
Well, that’s exactly what’s been happening in recent years in Montana. Wilderness backers, mill managers and other resource development advocates have been sitting down to address the future of public lands. And they are are coming up with workable, innovative solutions.
Near Seeley Lake, diverse groups have a proposal that would allow for additions to existing wilderness areas and at the same time open once-closed areas to snowmobilers. The deal also includes a plan to build a cogeneration facility fired by forest biomass that would provide electricity to help run a lumber mill in Seeley Lake.
Up in the damp, densely treed Yaak, environmentalists and loggers have worked cooperatively in recent years on forest stewardship projects while also identifying public land worthy of wilderness protection. A new management plan in the Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National Forest that includes a provision for more than 300,000 additional acres of wilderness has elicited more than 30,000 letters and e-mails from interested residents. It’s a fair bet that many of those folks favor preserving some invaluable pieces of southwest Montana.
Is wilderness still controversial in Montana? Certainly. Not even pro-wilderness groups agree on the best way to move ahead. Some favor a no-compromise approach and advocate converting virtually all of the federal roadless lands in Montana to wilderness. Others back smaller, piecemeal wilderness additions based on local consensus building. Among some traditional opponents, complaints persist about lost timber jobs and “locking up” natural resources for the benefit of the tofu-and-Subaru crowd.
There will never be complete agreement in the wilderness debate. But Montana residents are demonstrating a strong willingness to work together to end a quarter-century- old stalemate over the future of large swaths of public land.
It is clear that there are significant chunks of Montana that merit new wilderness protection. The Montana Wilderness Association, which has worked hard to find common ground on this contentious issue, has developed an informal priority list of potential additions that could be a good starting point for Montana-based legislation.
At the same time, action on wilderness could clear up uncertainty hovering over large parcels of land that have been in limbo for decades. It’s reasonable to assume that a fair piece of that acreage is suitable for prudent timber harvest and management, motorized recreation and other uses.
Why are we letting politicians from other states frame this debate and offer up wilderness proposals that could have a huge impact on life in our state, now and in the future? It’s time for our congressional delegation to follow the lead of many state residents and introduce a wilderness proposal that makes sense for Montana.
Retired Forest Service brass press for wilderness
By The Montana Standard News Services - 03/06/2009
HELENA (AP) — Three former U.S. Forest Service officials, one of whom was the agency's chief, are asking the state's congressional delegation to press for Montana wilderness legislation during this session of Congress.
The three are among 14 signers of a letter to Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg and to Democratic Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester.
The Forest Service retirees are Dale Bosworth, chief of the agency for six years ending in 2007; John Mumma, who was a regional forester; and Orville Daniels, who was a forest supervisor. All live in Missoula.
"Whether we find our elk, our fish and even our views in the backcountry or along the road, we know we have them in large part thanks to our designated wilderness areas," says the letter sent Thursday.
It goes on to say that since Montana's last wilderness designation in 1983, the nation has seen 439 new wilderness areas created, none of them in the state.
Federally designated wilderness areas in Montana total about 3.5 million acres.
New wilderness designations would occur in nine other states, under a bill pending in Congress.
Rehberg said that "any legislation that affects public lands must be consensus-driven and incorporate input from local communities. Montana cannot afford a topdown approach that doesn't account for the impacts on the local economy or adequately protect access for hunting, fishing and other forms of recreation."
Baucus said he was pleased to get the letter and that "wilderness discussions need to start on the streets in Montana, not on the streets in Washington, D.C."
Tester said he is focused on economic revitalization by "investing in jobs and long-term infrastructure. That includes God’s infrastructure — clean places to hunt, fish and camp that will be there for our kids and grandkids."
He said he appreciates Montana efforts that have had timber workers and conservationists collaborating on land-use plans that would "both put people to work making our forests healthy and protect our outdoor heritage, water and wildlife."
Responses from the congressional delegates were in prepared statements.
The Wilderness Society circulated the letter. Also signing were authors Doug Chadwick of Whitefish and David James Duncan of Lolo; outfitter and guide Smoke Elser of Missoula; former Great Falls Mayor Randy Gray; Missoula businessman Dale Harris; Butte sportsman Al Luebeck; Helenan Jim Posewitz, a leading voice in the field of hunter ethics; Pam Sheldon of the Montana Association of Churches; Coffee Creek rancher Hugo Turek; former Montana Congressman Pat Williams of Missoula; and Rick Graetz, a former magazine publisher who teaches geography at the University of Montana.
Donna Hoover Metcalf, 95, environmentalist and preservationist died Jan. 22. Among her great accomplishments was founding the Forever Wild Endowment of the Montana Wilderness Association. read more in the Washingtron Post.
Coalition seeks more protection for Front
Choteau Acantha January 21, 2009The Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front is working on a new proposal to impose permanent travel rules on public lands along the Front, to improve weed control on the national forest and to add more wilderness to the national lands system.
The coalition is a loose organization of individuals, hunters, outfitters, ranchers, business owners and conservation organizations and others who are united by their common goal to preserve the wild places of the Rocky Mountain Front, Burk said. learn more about the Rocky Mountain Front...
Snowshoe Programs Offer Exercize and Education
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record - 12/18/08
The snowshoe season has arrived and the Montana Discovery Foundation and the Montana Wilderness Association have both released their annual winter walks programs. view the full article at www.helenair.com
Go Walking In A Winter Wonderland
Want to get out of the house, grab a day of exercise and see magnificent Montana backcountry in its winter finery? Sign up for a snowshoe hike with the Montana Wilderness Association as part of its sixth annual Winter Walks Program. view the full article at www.greatfallstribune.com
Wilderness Association backs U.S. Forest Service in lawsuit
The Montana Wilderness Association has come out in defense of the U.S. Forest Service in a travel plan lawsuit brought by motorized user groups. full article at www.greatfallstribune.com
GUEST COMMENTARY - New West
A Hunter’s Thanks - Montana's wilderness movement was born in a hunter's campfire. Be thankful and pass it on.
By John Gatchell, Guest Writer, 11-25-08
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Crossing icy streams before dawn, I took my pack and rifle and headed up the mountain. By first light, it was snowing heavily. It was very quiet, for the elk we sought were deep in Montana’s untrammeled backcountry—beyond the reach of roads and traffic. read more...
Seeley Lake: Diverse group gets behind forest vision
View the whole article here.
Building trail, partnerships on Continental Divide
By Turn on JavaScript! - Independent Record - 09/18/08
Trout Unlimited buys 4,900 acres on the Rocky Mountain Front
2007-04-13 - Trout Unlimited has purchased 4,900 acres of natural gas drilling leases on the Rocky Mountain Front and will seek to have them permanently retired. This is the second time in a year that the organization has accepted leases. In June 2006, Questar Corp. donated several oil and gas leases on the Front, which will be returned to the Bureau of Land Management and retired. Trout Unlimited officials are hoping that its new acquisitions from Donald Epperson, a private energy investor from Helena, will also be retired. (Great Falls Tribune)