Tag Archives: Region 1

U.S. Forest Service strategy document paints bleak picture

The Forest Service has had a conflicting set of goals for the last few decades but, for Region 1 at least, things seem to be coming to a head . . .

A new strategy for managing public lands for recreation, heritage and wilderness paints a bleak picture of the U.S. Forest Service’s own ability to tackle the job.

“You could say this looks like a D-minus report card,” said George Bain, Forest Service Region 1 director of recreation, lands, minerals, heritage and wilderness. “To us, this is how it is. We wanted to take a good, hard look and develop a strategy for how to work in that world. We don’t have all the money we’d want. We don’t have all the workforce we’d want. We don’t have the ability to take care of everything the way we’d like. This is the landscape we’re working in. Let’s see how to address this.”

The 50-page document released last August got little notice outside the Region 1 Missoula headquarters. But it had been more than a year in the drafting, and it has been signed by Regional Forester Leanne Marten, her deputies and the supervisors of all 10 national forests that report to her.

Read more . . .

See also: The Northern Region Sustainable Recreation, Heritage, Wilderness (RHW) Strategy 2015-2020 (1.68MB, PDF)

New Region 1 wildlife manager announced

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Region 1 has a new wildlife manager . . .

A biologist who once specialized in grizzly bear diet, Neil Anderson recently took over as the new Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 1 wildlife manager.

Anderson officially began his new job at the Kalispell office on Feb. 9. His predecessor, Jim Williams, is now the regional director.

“I’ve worked with almost all the biologists here in one fashion or another,” Anderson said about his new position. “We’re not enforcing the laws, but we do work with game wardens a lot of the time to develop harvest strategies and season-setting. We have to make sure what we create is enforceable.”

Read more . . .

National Forest Northern Region 2013 Year in Review available

This year, the Northern Region’s annual report is even available in a number of ebook formats. Here’s the official announcement . . .

The Northern Region’s 2013 Year in Review highlights a wide range of feature articles, information and photos that showcase national programs and priorities at work on the ground here in the Northern Rockies. This overview features numerous partnership and collaborative projects and national emphasis programs that have taken hold and are growing in scope each year in the Region.

The review features write-ups and photos about individual projects at the district and forest level, as well as national initiatives and program accomplishments that cross management and state boundaries. The contents highlight how these efforts improve forest health, revitalize resilient landscapes and restore watershed functions in projects whose impacts literally span coast to coast.

The 2013 Year in Review also contains information submitted by partner and collaborative groups, further conveying the improved results the agency has seen through these multi-layer partner and collaborative efforts across the Region.

The publication is available as a .pdf document, and also available in limited traditional hard copy format from most national forests and grasslands, as well as major visitor center locations.

Incorporating new technology for today’s mobile audiences, the Forest Service’s Northern Region has released its 2013 Year in Review in electronic format on a variety of smart phones and other handheld and tablet devices.

Because there are a number of eReader formats, check the directions or software for the specific device in order to download and then read or convert the file.

Download the file for Kindle (.mobi).

Download the file for Apple iBooks, Nook and Android-based e-readers (.epub).

The Northern Region, also called Region 1 within the agency, is comprised of 13 forests and grasslands, and manages more than 25 million acres of public lands that include Wilderness areas, Wild & Scenic River corridors, plus many other scenic and recreational opportunities.