Forest plan calls for reduced access

For 14 years the Forest Service and interested parties have painstakingly worked to revise the Kootenai National Forest Plan. The protracted process has reached completion, and a new master plan to guide all activities on the forest will take effect on Feb. 17.

Of particular interest for local residents is how the new plan will affect recreation on the 2.2-million acre forest. With a smorgasbord of outdoor activities possible on a forest covering 72 percent of Lincoln County, one focus of the plan is to provide a range of environmentally sustainable opportunities in natural settings in order to meet the needs and desires of visitors.  

“The plan did the best it could trying to address the variety of recreational activities on the forest, at the scale the plan was designed for,” said Kootenai Forest Supervisor Chris Savage.

The new forest plan, which will update the 1987 forest plan that is currently in effect, offers a framework to guide management decisions. It doesn’t commit to individual projects, but defers those decisions to the local level where stakeholders with keen interests can help inform the actions of the Forest Service.  

By breaking the forest into 11 unique management areas spread across six geographic regions, the Forest Service seeks to maintain particular attributes while adapting to the needs of the forest, communities and visitors. For each of those areas the plan lists goals, desired conditions, objectives, standards and guidelines.  

After such a lengthy planning process, several groups involved said they were glad it was finally over; one such group is the Yaak Valley Forest Council. Regarding the plan’s effect on land use, Executive Director Robyn King said, “We were pleased to see the addition of the Roderick inventoried roadless area as proposed wilderness and would have liked to see more inventoried roadless areas recommended as wilderness.”

There are 93,700 acres of designated wilderness and an additional 639,100 acres of inventoried roadless areas in Kootenai National Forest. The plan includes a recommendation to designate another 86,800 acres of land as wilderness.

Along with Roderick, the other areas recommended for wilderness designation were patches of land in the Cabinet Mountains, Scotchman Peaks and Ten Lakes regions. The areas earmarked for wilderness consideration range from about 25,000 acres to 35,000 acres.

It takes an act of Congress to designate an area as wilderness. However, some of the recommended wilderness areas are managed in a fashion that maintains the characteristics that would allow them to be classified as such at a later time. That means restricting activities, like motorized vehicle use, in those areas.

The Forest Service’s practice of regulating activities on proposed wilderness similarly to designated wilderness was viewed as a gray area in submitted objections of the plan made by some groups and individuals.

In the Ten Lakes area, even though it is in a recommended wilderness management area, motorized over-snow travel is still allowed. “Based on the objections from both those opposed and in favor, the regional forester felt that maybe we should just kind of clear the plate in that area and take a no-action approach,” Forest Service Planner Timory Peel said.   

Amy Robinson, northwest Montana field director for the Montana Wilderness Association, said her group applauds the additional recommended wilderness suggestions by the Forest Service. “We would, however, like to see the Forest Service make a firm, final and expedited decision on the Ten Lakes wilderness study area that has been in limbo for too long,” she said.

As far back as 1985, efforts to have a wilderness designation tagged to the Ten Lakes wilderness study area have cropped up. “Because Montana Wilderness Association and others litigated over management of that area, we have to finish that over-snow management plan,” Peel said. The Forest Service is stripping back the layers of all the relevant issues in the area and hopes to get all the players at the table so they can draft a management plan governing travel activities through the Ten Lakes area before the end of the year.

One reason preparing the forest plan dragged on was because of court challenges to the 2005 and 2008 Forest Service Planning Rules. “We had draft plans under two different rules,” Peel said. “I’m sure from the public’s point of view it was very frustrating. Unfortunately, we lost that initial really great momentum with those working groups.”

The plan calls for reduced public access in some areas, which caused frustration for some groups that use the forest for snowmobiling, driving all-terrain vehicles, hunting and other outdoor activities. Those groups all want the same thing: They want to be outside. Roads and trails are the passageways that allow for recreationalists to get to their favorite places.

Between 1987 and 2011, roads with some form of travel prohibitions have increased from 1,669 miles to 5,041. Reasons for prohibitions include securing additional wildlife habitat, decreasing potential sedimentation, and improving hydrologic condition.  

A minimal amount of road construction is expected in the forest plan because of forest-wide desired conditions and budgetary constraints. Additionally, the plan has an objective to decommission or occasionally limit the use of 150 to 350 miles of roads over the next 15 years. Over the last 15 to 20 years 980 miles of road have been decommissioned and 283 miles have been put into intermittent stored use.

Across the forest there are approximately 7,863 miles of roads under Forest Service jurisdiction. Maintaining those roads is based on what’s called the operational maintenance level.  

“Basically we prioritize roads that we can work on or the roads that have a priority system of set use or we have some road failures from the spring break up we’ve got to work on,” Savage said. “The plan sets the goals of what we strive for on an annual basis, but what it really comes down to is our appropriations.”

Road closures and designated roadless areas can be seen either as beneficial for enjoying primitive activities and maintaining natural forest settings for wildlife, or as restrictions to reaching parts of the forest difficult to access without a vehicle.

Kevin Fortner said he would like to see Libby become a recreation destination. His employer, Montana Power Products, sells all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles. Closed roads and over-snow restrictions means the area may be viewed as a less attractive harbor for such activities, which means less money spent in an economy that could use all the help it can get. “More access is better,” said Fortner. “People who come to recreate are going to buy food and gas and stay in hotels.”

Under the plan, over-snow vehicle use is reduced from being available on 88 percent of the forest to 86 percent. In a forest plan objection letter from Scott Mattheis of Montanans for Multiple Use North Lincoln Chapter, he states the 2 percent decrease represents an actual reduction of 20 percent in the eyes of snowmobilers. He states only about 10 percent of the forest is considered “quality snowmobile habitat.”

Troy Snowmobile Club President Jerry Wandler said the areas of value for snowmobilers are open hillsides in high elevations with 6 to 12 feet of snow. He shares similar sentiments as Mattheis. “You can’t go through the general forest because there’s no snow and you can’t get through it because of the thick timber,” Wandler said. “The open roads are open to everyone anyway, so they don’t really afford quality recreation.”

Wandler said he is unsure of how the forest service reaches their conclusions regarding over-snow restrictions. “There are some areas around Spruce Lakes they changed from recommended wilderness to winter motorized-use and right over the next hill an area that was open - and we assumed would stay open - was closed. So they opened one door and closed another,” he said. “We’re trying to decide if litigation is our next step.”

Friends of Scotchman Peaks Executive Director Phil Hough said the revised forest plan is an improvement from the 1987 plan. “For Scotchman Peaks, the plan refines the geography of the borders in a way that’s going to be easier to manage as wilderness areas. The boundary lines that it draws contracts in some areas and expands in others along geographic features easier to define on the ground,” he said.

Hough said it’s everybody’s right to address or redress the government through the court system, but he doesn’t see anything in the revised plan that warrants litigation. He said snowmobilers have expressed interest in riding in areas off limits to them in the past. “They didn’t get everything they wanted, we didn’t get everything we wanted, but that’s the nature of compromise.”

When Gerry Mercer moved to Libby 25 years ago to set up his taxidermy shop he was drawn to the area because of the superb hunting and fishing. An avid outdoorsman, Mercer said he’s seen a decline in accessibility to the forest and fewer trophy animals. “I know what I used to take into my shop 20 to 25 years ago, and I see what’s coming in now. And it isn’t what it used to be, especially with moose and mule deer.” He said modern logging techniques create open habitat for animals and promotes ground coverage for them to browse on.  

One of Mercer’s favorite hunting roads used to be accessible by vehicle, but they put up a gate. “I thought ‘Well, alright, it’s still a good area to walk through, so I’d walk it.’ They’ve since taken the gate out and reclaimed the whole road.” Since his leg was broken, the road is no longer walkable for Mercer.

“Wilderness areas are wonderful, Montana needs them and we’ve got to protect them,” Mercer said. However, he said there are plenty of designated wilderness areas around Montana and with protection they will be here forever. “Every time they lock up more it pretty much eliminates a huge number of people who can go into those areas.”  

An area accounting for 1.8 percent of the forest is the management areas labeled eligible wild and scenic rivers, which received significantly fewer objections from the public. Designating a river or creek as wild and scenic is only accomplished by congressional action. The forest plan proposes for 150 miles of river be labeled wild or scenic, accompanied by 41,000 acres of adjacent land.

Rivers labeled as wild, scenic or recreational come with different desired conditions and guidelines for recreation and access. Wild rivers provide non-motorized recreational opportunities in areas where few other humans would likely be encountered. Bicycles and other mechanized wheeled vehicle use are allowed. Scenic rivers have similar regulations as wild rivers, but with more opportunities for motorized use along designated roads and for over-snow motorized travels.

Recreational river segments allow motorized and non-motorized activities. Within those eligible river corridors recreational use by visitors is retained, while protecting the environment and its resources.

Completing a recreation management plan for Lake Koocanusa has been a priority of the Forest Service for a long time, but other priorities have kept it on the back-burner. “Now that we have a desired condition in the forest plan, that is something to help us move that forward,” Peel said.

Developing a recreation plan may open up business opportunities in the Koocanusa area. Peel said “Now that we don’t have those rigid guidelines from the 1987 plan we need to do an outfitters and guides assessment, which is going to be a little bit more adaptable.”

Montana’s National Forest system includes nine forests encompassing about 17 million acres; it’s an area larger than West Virginia. Managing those areas for multiple-uses was acknowledged as an extremely difficult job by nearly everyone who contributed their thoughts on the Kootenai National Forest Plan.   

Forest Recreation Program Manager Mary Laws said desired conditions for some areas came directly from input shared by people at public meetings – areas like the Clark geographic area. “They said, ‘We want snowmobile use along the ridgeline corridor east of Taylor Saddle and south to Bloom Peak retained.’ That was very directly tied to the geographic area group,” Laws said.

Collaborations of groups and individuals who hold a stake in the future of the Kootenai Forest may offer the most effective avenue for securing future recreational opportunities. “We’ll be much more successful if we work diligently with folks to try and reflect those local and national interests of the national land-management agency,” Peel said.

“After so many years some people are just sick of hearing about it,” Peel said. “I really hope that after a few years of getting it on the ground there is somebody that comes up and says, ‘I’m glad I participated.’”