Guest Column: Bob Ekey

Balancing Conservation and Livelihoods in the Blackfoot

By Bob Ekey
The Wilderness Society
for Headwaters News
May 30, 2007

Managing our national forests is often so contentious in Montana that it is not just an issue – it is a battle or war. How many of us describe forest issues as the “timber wars”?

Even Jack Ward Thomas, the former chief of the U.S. Forest Service, once described the situation as the war being over, but the environmentalists are still going around the battlefield bayoneting the wounded, while the industry holdouts are doing a ghost dance hoping that the old days will return.

Timber harvest off of federal lands in Montana has dropped significantly – down to just 15 percent of the historic high from about two decades ago.

While no one is advocating that we return to the old days of harvest, many people are working together to try to stabilize the supply for the existing industry and shaping forest management projects that focus on restoring forests and the landscape.

Last week, the Montana Logging Association hosted a panel discussion on several collaborative efforts between conservationists and timber representatives on three landscapes in the state. I was honored to participate by describing The Wilderness Society’s role in helping shape a landscape-level proposal that would guide management on portions of the Blackfoot Valley.

This project has broad-based support and illustrates how it is possible to do the right things on the ground for the right reasons when you have buy-in from diverse interests who have worked together to find common interests. 

The Blackfoot-Clearwater Landscape Stewardship Project represents a new management vision for 400,000 acres of land in the Upper Blackfoot Watershed around Seeley Lake.  The goal is to make both rural communities and forest landscapes healthier in the long-run. Key components of the proposal include:

• Expanding existing wilderness boundaries by 87,000 acres with additions to the Bob Marshall, Mission Mountain and Scapegoat Wilderness areas;
  
• Appropriating $750,000 a year for 10 years for demonstration restoration and stewardship projects within the Seeley Lake Ranger District of the Lolo National Forest;
  
• Partially funding construction of a co-generation plant to utilize and reduce small-diameter forest fuels at the Pyramid Mountain Lumber plant in Seeley Lake. 

For two years, this proposal has been hammered out by a work group comprised of representatives from many different camps: Blackfoot Challenge, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Montana Wilderness Association, Pyramid Mountain Lumber, outfitters and snowmobile interests.

Working group members repeatedly sat down together, talked, listened, and batted back and forth how they would like to see the upper Blackfoot landscape managed. The process took time, compromise, and commitment, but eventually we unrolled our sleeves, wiped our brows, and produced a product everyone could support.

And now, those two years of negotiations have produced results. 

Since November, working group members have been presenting this proposal throughout northwest Montana to seek out local comments and suggestions.  Through this process we have gained support from county commissioners in the three affected counties. We also have secured support from local advisory councils and snowmobile clubs, from industry and conservation organizations, local landowners, sports groups, and a positive nod from the Governor’s office.

The proposal has received broad support because it recognizes how we can meet wilderness and wildlife needs alongside traditional uses of forest management and recreation. 

Montana needs a model of success that effectively manages public land for a variety of interests, that keeps the needs of future generations in mind, and that focuses on management from a large landscape-level.   We believe the Blackfoot-Clearwater Landscape Stewardship Project is garnering support both locally and from around the state because it represents this new model. As the proposal’s roots suggest, the ultimate goal is to foster cooperation and conserve wilderness and wildlife, while maintaining and enhancing a traditional way of life. 

Until recently, this kind of recipe has escaped the traditional contention and gridlock of natural resource decisions.

The working group is now asking Montana’s congressional delegation to collaboratively carry our proposal.  We hope that a Montana-made agreement, which balances conservation and livelihood, crafted by a diverse group, and supported by a local and diverse group, can earn bi-partisan cooperation in congress. 

With the help of Congress, perhaps we can change the language we use to describe forest issues away from war analogies to a language and culture of cooperation and conservation.

Bob Ekey is Northern Rockies regional director for The Wilderness Society. He can be reached at bob_ekey@tws.org.