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.”

Rich is serving as tour guide Wednesday morning aboard an EcoFlight airplane circling over the Lolo National Forest's Seeley Lake Ranger District.

“Right over there are the 56,000 acres that make up the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area,” Rich said as the airplane nears Ovando. “All of that will be managed for the good of the community.”

Rich's mission today is to provide some aerial perspective of a proposal years in the making.

Developed by a unique group of conservationists, loggers, snowmobilers, outfitters and local landowners, the Blackfoot Stewardship Pilot Program would designate new wilderness tracts in the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountains wilderness areas; expand stewardship funding to restore watersheds, trout and wildlife habitat; maintain recreational facilities and assist in developing a co-generation plant that would burn small fuels that need to be removed for forest restoration.

The proposal is complete. All that's needed now is for a congressman or three to carry the legislation.

On Wednesday, Rich gave congressional staffers a sky tour of the 400,000 acres included in the proposal.

Next week, a contingent of supporters will travel to Washington, D.C., in hopes of convincing the Montana delegation on the merits of their proposal.

They'll be seeking $750,000 in annual appropriations for a decade. The request includes a $400,000 annual budget for restoration projects, of which $250,000 would be matched dollar for dollar by private funds. The other $350,000 of the annual appropriation would be used to pay for planning and project monitoring.

The group will also be asking for a $4.5 million appropriation to help pay for a $7 million co-generation plant at Pyramid Mountain Lumber Co. The plant would burn excess forest fuels from federal, state and private lands. It would also create an estimated 20 to 30 jobs in Seeley Lake.

The idea of putting together a collaborative plan for landscape management began with a chance meeting of Gordy Sanders of Pyramid Lumber and John Gatchell of the Montana Wilderness Association.

“We were talk about planning efforts,” Sanders remembers. “We both agreed that planning is a great tool, but it doesn't accomplish anything unless you produce something on the ground. We also agreed it was important to do the right things on the ground for the right reason.”

Both agreed the Clearwater Stewardship Project on the Seeley Lake Ranger District was a good example of where everything clicked. The project benefited fisheries, reduced timber stand densities and obliterated miles of unnecessary roads. It became the model Congress used to authorize stewardship contracting nationwide.

“There's been a long history of cooperation in both the Blackfoot Valley and on the Seeley Ranger District,” Sanders said.

The hope is this newest proposal will build on those earlier successes.

A group was formed to develop the proposal. It included representatives of Pyramid Lumber, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Montana Wilderness Association, Montana Wilderness Society, Blackfoot Community Project, and the Rich Ranch Outfitting and Guest Ranch.

“We specifically wanted to find the biggest middle that we possibly could,” Sanders said. “We wanted to make sure that we had a broad base of support for this proposal. So far, this hasn't been a bit contentious. We haven't had any negative letters up to this point.”

Montana Wilderness Association members worked with the Montana Logging Association in 1994 to draft the first bill authorizing stewardship contracts.

“Montana mills, loggers and conservationists have been in the forefront of this new paradigm that holds great potential for management of Montana's national forest lands,” said Joseph Scalia, Montana Wilderness Association president in a letter of support for the project.

The plan calls for setting aside 87,000 acres of new wilderness, most of which would be in Monture Creek along the Bob Marshall Wilderness. It also opens up new areas for snowmobile use.

The plan also calls for providing about 4 million board feet of timber annually over the next 10 years.

“That's consistent with what the district is doing in the area,” Sanders said. “That does help provide the industry with some certainty that something will happen.”

All three county commissions with land inside the area support the proposal.

“We feel strongly that this landscapewide project involving many partners and addressing both the timber industry and natural resource conservation is a formula for success,” said a support letter from the Powell County commission. “Folks in the Blackfoot, through this pilot project, can lead the nation as they did with the very successful Clearwater stewardship contracting demonstration project.”

And local landowners have also weighed in.

“The traditional notion that we can be sustainable by ourselves is changing the West,” said Jim Stone, chairman of the Blackfoot Challenge. “We have to be willing to look across our own boundaries and help our neighbors. It is exciting to see this shift taking place.”

Rich said he's seen a change in the way the Forest Service manages its timberlands over the last few years.

“For years, the Forest Service only looked at what they took and not what was left behind,” Rich said. “For many years, everything was based on just how many board feet the forest could produce.”

“In my opinion, they've made a 180-degree turn,” he said. “The agency realizes it needs to be more outcome-based. This project isn't about selling big numbers of board feet. It's based on what the landscape will look like when it's done.”

There will be some wood products harvested, but that's not the end product, he said. The end product is a healthy forest, Rich said.

“If you want to boil it down to one word, it would be stewardship,” Rich said. “We want this to become a place where people will come to see how stewardship really works.”

Reporter Perry Backus can be reached at 523-5259 or at pbackus@missoulian.com