Governor: golden opportunity exists to shape USFS policy

By STEVE KADEL Western News Reporter

Lincoln County residents have a golden opportunity to shape U.S. Forest Service policy in inventoried roadless areas on the Kootenai National Forest, Gov. Brian Schweitzer said during a Town Hall meeting here last week.

The Bush administration's repeal of President Clinton's Roadless Area Act gives citizens a chance to speak up about changes that should be made in roadless area management. Schweitzer wants to get input from citizens in the state's timber counties, funneled through county commissioners, before recommending whether any changes to the current system should be made.

That process got some momentum in Libby on Thursday, June 16, when Schweitzer appeared at a Town Hall meeting at the Memorial Center. The governor said it will take more than emotion to reach consensus.

"If we're going to truly decide how we want to change the management, that takes science. We want to hear good science and good economics on any changes you want us to recommend to the Forest Service."

During a recent meeting in Libby with former Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck, several people spoke about the need to include all perspectives and hear from all stakeholders.

"We're pro-roadless and pro-logging," said Robyn King, executive director of the Yaak Valley Forest Council.

Rick Bass, another council member and Yaak resident, said the group endorses sustainable timber harvesting on public and private lands.

Paul Rumelhart, executive director of the Kootenai River Development Council, said he hopes a mill to process small logs can be developed in Lincoln County. Even 20,000 board feet of timber a year would allow that kind of mill to succeed, he said.

Rumelhart added that stewardship contracts, which focus on watershed health as much as board footage, are good models for future harvests.

"Somehow that (timber) has to be set aside" for logs to sustain a mill, he said.

Schweitzer praised the concepts Rumelhart mentioned, saying the philosophy in Washington, D.C., also has turned toward good forest stewardship. And there are enough logs to make small local mills viable throughout Montana's timber country, he added.

"When you are dealing with small-diameter, low-value logs you can't haul it all to Columbia Falls," the governor said.

Preservation of roadless tracts got an endorsement from former logger Bill Martin of Troy.

"It's a shame we've seen our timber industry dwindle away," he told Schweitzer. "We hope you can help us keep some of this area in production.

"There is no big game east of the Mississippi because the roadless areas are gone. It's that sense of wildness that makes Montana what it is."

Cesar Hernandez of Heron, a representative of the Montana Wilderness Association, said he is a hunter who appreciates the water that comes from the national forest. He gave a succinct example of roadless land's contribution to watersheds by showing a map of the Kootenai's roadless areas and another of healthy and unhealthy watershed locations.

"The properly functioning watersheds coincide almost perfectly with the roadless areas," Hernandez said of the map overlays.

Schweitzer emphasized that it's unlikely massive road-building will occur on the nation's 6.5 million acres of roadless forest tracts, despite Bush's reversal of the Clinton plan.

"That's not what this is about," he said. "I don't know anybody in the Forest Service who is proposing that."

Instead, Schweitzer said the idea is to look at existing management plans to see if changes that have occurred over years, such as sale of timber lands or residential development, have significantly altered conditions in the roadless areas. If so, it's possible that new management strategies would make more sense, he said.

"Maybe it would make more sense to build a road from here to here, and close another one elsewhere," he said.

Lincoln County Commissioner Rita Windom said during an interview that some of the roadless areas still have timber value. However, she said much of it is available through selective logging that has relatively low impact on the forest.

J. Neils Park, Kootenai Falls and Pioneer Park are examples of such thinning projects, Windom said.

Schweitzer said most people can agree that a sustainable timber industry should be nurtured in Montana. At the same time, he said, "We can also agree that it is necessary to maintain some roadless areas."

Finding the right formula will require compromise, he emphasized.

"Polarization is not going to solve our problems," Schweitzer said. "We share more values than separate us, so let's act like it."