Missoulian
By Rob Chaney
May 8, 2009

A plan mixing timber, recreation and renewable energy projects in the Seeley Lake area got a warm reception from a Missoula audience Thursday evening.

About 150 people packed a Missoula Public Library meeting room to hear details of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project. A panel of sawmill workers, wilderness advocates, outfitters and land owners agreed it was better to work for goals they all agreed on than to continue old grudges.

“You've got to wonder why a cow guy gives a rat about wilderness guys,” project supporter and Ovando rancher Jim Stone said. “It's about people and community. The strong part of this project is it's homegrown. It's not grown by folks in New York or Washington, D.C., telling us how to manage our land.”

The Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project breaks into three main parts. One is forest stewardship, where timber industry workers would put their skills to reforestation, backcountry maintenance and related land improvement projects. The second is designated recreation lands, including 87,000 acres of roadless areas getting federal protection and other places OK'd for snowmobile and other motorized uses.

The third part is a renewable energy program that would build a biomass boiler at Pyramid Mountain Lumber and manage removal of slash and other unmarketable wood for fuel. While the first two elements received general support from the audience, the renewable energy plank raised several questions.

Smurfit-Stone employee Dean Skaja said investing public dollars at the Frenchtown pulp mill's existing biomass boiler system would preserve many more jobs than building a new one at Pyramid would create. He challenged the group's assertion that the timber industry was properly represented with just one lumber mill in its membership.

Other questioners wondered if removing downed timber and slash to feed a biomass boiler wouldn't cause long-term harm to the forest health. Wilderness Society ecologist Tom DeLuca responded that the planners had considered that problem, and set up the project so forest treatment would improve soil nutrients while removing fire hazards.

The plan got a new ray of hope with passage of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act last month, which included multimillion-dollar funding for 10 landscape restoration projects in the country. Brennan said the Blackfoot-Clearwater will apply for that money.

“To be frank, one of our questions was how do we pay for this, in this economic climate?” Brennan said. “This project was tailor-made for legislation like that.”