County-wide effort looks at stewardship tool

A series of meetings on stewardship will kick-off next week with goals of replacing lost timber jobs, building economic development, re-training workers for a different type of work in the woods and bringing diverse groups to the table to work on forest restoration and reducing the fire hazard in the urban interface.

"It's not going to be our savior," said Tracy McIntyre, program administrator of the Eureka Rural Development Partners who received a grant for a county-wide program. "It's not going to replace all our jobs but it is a tool we can use."

McIntyre said there have been two successful stewardship projects in Kootenai National Forest but not many people know that or understand how such projects work.

Through meetings next week in Eureka, Libby and Troy, McIntyre wants to educate people as to what is possible and what is not through stewardship contracting. She wants to get logging contractors and others interested in the forestry issues to help develop a stewardship plan for the county.

Meetings are scheduled in Eureka on Feb. 28, in Troy at the city hall annex at 12 noon on March 1, and in Libby on March 2 at 6 p.m. at the Lincoln County Campus of Flathead Valley Community College.

Libby-Troy area economic development director Paul Rumelhart said the proposal works well with what the existing county coalition is working on regarding community forestry and economic development. That group, consisting of representatives from all three levels of government, local businesses, recreationists and environmentalists is putting together a diverse economic package that includes a proposal to the Forest Service for designation of national forestlands for motorized and non-motorized recreation as well as wilderness along with the establishment of a small-diameter log mill in Libby.

"It really ties in with getting all the people who sue us to the table," Rumelhart said of McIntyre's program proposal. "Focusing on the county-wide fire protection plan, urban interface and forest health restoration, the best way to accomplish that is through stewardship contracting."

He noted, too, that revenues from stewardship projects stay locally rather going back to the federal budget in Washington, D.C.

McIntyre said a lot of training of the available workforce is needed for restoration projects.

"We're looking at this as a sub-program under the stewardship project," she said. "That work is being taken by people from outside our communities."

A lot of the forestry that would be eligible as a stewardship project falls in the middle ground environmentally, McIntyre said.

"That's the point of the coalition — to work countywide," she continued. "We have a lot of different groups sharing their concerns, which helps us define a more successful effort."

Rumelhart sees an added benefit.

"If we can push these project, if all those with concerns can work together then faith and trust in one another develops," he said.

For more information, contact Tracy McIntyre at 297-7374.