USFS at Moran Meadows
Although a spot fire in the nearby Coal Creek drainage was suppressed yesterday, the U.S. Forest Service still has a fire incident team operating from Moran Meadows. Presumably, this is because it continues to offer a convenient helicopter landing zone.
The title pretty much covers it. Larry has a few bones to pick with the Forest Service’s river facilities . . .
Last week’s column mentioned concerns that at least some recreationists have regarding Forest Service management of the North Fork River. River launch sites at the international border and at Ford Ranger Station were rebuilt last summer, and both have some problems. In both cases, the boat slides are too narrow and too far apart, making launching very difficult for some inflatables.
Forest Service representatives admitted having multiple complaints, and they intend to make changes. Possible solution is to simply add a third slide between the two already in place to make it possible to slide a boat down lengthwise instead of sideways.
From a recent post to the Missoulian . . .
The white on the ground remains snow instead of trillium petals, but wildflower season approaches.
To plan for that, consider an expanded U.S. Forest Service website that features great bloom locations across the nation. Montana has a dozen options, including the Lolo, Bitterroot, Kootenai, Helena, Gallatin, Custer, Flathead, Beaverhead-Deerlodge and Lewis and Clark national forests.
For more information, see the U.S. Forest Service’s “Celebrating Wildflowers” website.
The pine beetle infestation may finally be tapering off . . .
Mountain pine beetle activity is declining in Montana, a U.S. Forest Service official says.
The finding is the result of aerial surveys last year and analyzed in the 2011 Montana Forest Insect and Disease Conditions report prepared by the Forest Service and state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
But the report also found emerging problems with western spruce budworm and pine butterfly.
The report covers about 20.5 million forested acres in Montana, including federal, state and private lands.
The U.S. Forest Service is spending money on several land acquisition projects, including two in Montana . . .
The Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the U.S. Forest Service will dedicate $40.6 million for land acquisition projects in 15 states including Montana in an effort to help safeguard clean water, recreational access and wildlife habitat and wilderness areas.
The money is made available through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, created by Congress in 1964 to provide funding to federal, state and local governments to purchase land, water and wetlands. The fund receives the majority of its money through royalty payments from offshore oil and gas revenues to mitigate the environmental impacts of those activities, the DOA said. Those funds also are augmented by additional money or in-kind services of a variety of partnerships.
The Missoulian takes on the thankless task of summarizing the new Forest Service planning rule . . .
The U.S. Forest Service’s recently released planning rule could turn the agency into a more efficient decisionmaker or create a department of perpetual planning, depending on who you listen to.
“We are ready to start a new era of planning that takes less time, costs less money and provides stronger protections for our lands and water,” Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said in an email announcing the final version of the rule. “This new rule will bring 21st century thinking to a process that is sorely needed to protect and preserve our 193 million acres of amazing forests and grasslands.”
Critics have been equally expansive. Andy Stahl of the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics predicted the process “would die of its own weight.”
“Anyone who thinks this rule will make forest plans quicker to develop is naive,” Stahl said . . .
From yesterday’s Missoulian . . .
Speeding up the pace of work on national forests should mean more wood for Montana sawmills – but it won’t mean more money for the agency, U.S. Forest Service officials said on Thursday.
That’s going to happen through a combination of more efficient project planning and better legal defenses, according to Agriculture Department Undersecretary for Natural Resources and the Environment Harris Sherman, who oversees the Forest Service. It won’t involve a lot more federal money.
From today’s Missoulian . . .
The U.S. Forest Service wants to speed up work on national forests, for both timber production and forest health.
“Collaboration is most effective in getting forests managed in a proper way,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said during a conference call on Thursday. “We want to move beyond the conflicts in the past that slowed progress down. We’re going to look to encourage environmentalists, folks in the forest industry, people who live in forest communities and other stakeholders to work for healthy forests.”
Vilsack pledged the Forest Service would boost its lumber production from 2.4 billion board feet in 2011 to 3 billion board feet by 2014. That would come through a 20 percent increase in forest acres treated over the next three years.
Those treatments also include fuels reduction, reforestation, stream restoration, road decommissioning, culvert work and prescribed fire, as well as timber harvesting.
Here’s a pretty useful write-up on the proposed new national forest planning rule. Or, for those of you who like to read source documents, the official U.S. Forest Service press release and a link to the (take a deep breath) “Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule” can be found online at the Forest Service web site . . .
A proposed planning rule for managing national forests puts new emphasis on watershed health and recreation, but also strives to keep loggers in the woods, U.S. Forest Service officials said Thursday.
The national rule will guide local forest supervisors when they make their more specific forest management plans. Those plans govern where trees can be cut, the kinds of wildlife to watch out for, activities allowed in campgrounds and the backcountry, and how people can challenge forest decisions.
More information: Press release and link to U.S. Forest Service’s draft planning rule
A shiny, new set of national forest management rules are due to take effect in early March . . .
The Obama administration says new rules to manage nearly 200 million acres of national forests will protect watersheds and wildlife while promoting uses ranging from recreation to logging.
The new rules, to replace guidelines thrown out by a federal court in 2009, are set to take effect in early March. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the rule change on Thursday.
Vilsack said in an interview that the rules reflect more than 300,000 comments received since a draft plan was released last year. The new rules strengthen a requirement that decisions be based on the best available science and recognize that forests are used for a variety of purposes, Vilsack said.