Helena Independent
May 20, 2007
By Eve Byron

Ambitious cooperative grassroots group project aims to add 87,000 acres to wilderness areas, open new land to snowmobilers, restore habitats and build a $7 million biomass electricity plant.

Clark Fork Chronicle
May 17, 2007
RICHARD WERST

The subject line of the email message read: “Want to go for an airplane ride tomorrow morning?”

The Blackfoot Cooperative Landscape Stewardship Pilot Project “is doing a flyover of the Seeley/Swan where they are planning for wilderness and stewardship projects,” the message said. “They have offered to let us go on the flight after the congressional staffers.”

Missoulian
May 10, 2007
By PERRY BACKUS

OVANDO - Flying high over the Blackfoot Valley, longtime outfitter Jack Rich is getting a bird's-eye view of countryside he knows like the back of his hand.

“There's the Horseshoe Hills over there,” Rich says into his microphone. “A lot of that land was just recently turned over to the Forest Service as part of the Blackfoot Challenge lands program. There's a lot of even-aged management of the forest there. It's going to need a lot of restoration work.”

Clark Fork Chronicle
March 21, 2007
By John Q. Murray

Missoula County commissioners endorsed in principle a wilderness bill that would include provisions for annual stewardship projects over the next 10 years on the Seeley Lake Ranger District.

The commissioners agreed Monday to write a letter supporting a proposal from the Blackfoot Cooperative Landscape Stewardship Project.

Helena Independent Record
January 25, 2007
By Eve Byron

An unusual coalition of environmental groups, a timber company, the U.S. Forest Service and ranchers unveiled a plan Wednesday that could lead to the first expansion of Montana wilderness areas in more than two decades.

The proposal would also open new lands for snowmobiling and create a new power generation plant in Seeley Lake.

The Missoulian
January 25, 2007
By Michael Jamison

KALISPELL - A wildly diverse group thinks it can change the way the woods work, and on Wednesday unveiled its private plan for public forests near Seeley Lake.

“This landscape-level proposal recognizes that the Blackfoot Valley is a unique ecosystem,” said Gordy Sanders of Pyramid Mountain Lumber Co. He noted the area's forests, wildlife, wilderness values and recreation opportunities, saying the proposal he and others have crafted offers a little something for everyone.

Clark Fork Chronicle
December 21, 2006
By John Q. Murray

Wilderness bills have changed since the Democrats last gained control of the U.S. Congress two decades ago. Where once statewide bills were all about locking up lands, there are now local, bipartisan bills that also include economic benefits for the local rural communities.

“What we’re looking for,” said Gordy Sanders of Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley Lake, “is the same level of certainty that the proponents of wilderness are looking for.”

Clark Fork Chronicle
December 07, 2006
By John Q Murray

Any Montana wilderness bill should be the product of a bottom-up, grassroots, collaborative effort, Rep. Denny Rehberg told the Chronicle Wednesday.

Previous attempts such as the 1988 Montana wilderness bill and the Lolo-Kootenai Accords failed because they were top-down efforts, he said.