County commissioners send letter to Sen. Daines

In response to a request from Montana’s junior senator, Steve Daines, the Lincoln County commissioners outlined several reforms they would like to see made at the federal level to improve economic conditions in Lincoln County.

The letter from Sen. Daines, which was sent to a number of stakeholders, stated, “The status quo is unacceptable and detrimental to forest health, wildfire conditions, habitat, recreational access and our once-vibrant timber economy alike.”

In response to the letter, the commissioners requested changes to the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Protection Act, as well as expressing support for the other legislation aimed at increasing timber production and active forest management.

The commissioners expressed their support for a number of bills introduced in the previous congressional session. Specifically, they called for passage of the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act and for a package of four bills that update the Endangered Species Act.

The Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act requires the forest service to produce a minimum of 50 percent of the sustainable yield of timber each year on lands specifically identified by the service for timber harvests. It also creates “Community Forest Demonstration Areas” that allow states and counties to actively participate in the management of forest service timber areas.

The four bills aimed at updating the Endangered Species Act focus on transparency and litigation. They require all data used by federal agencies for listing decisions to be publicly available and accessible via the Internet. They also require the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to track, report to Congress and make publicly available online the funds expended on lawsuits related to the Endangered Species Act, the number of employees dedicated to litigation related to the act and the amount of attorney fees awarded in suits and settlements. They also cap the amount of fees awarded to attorneys at $125 per hour.

Lincoln County’s economy has been in steady decline, a decline that directly corresponds to decreasing timber harvests in National Forest lands.

During the peak of timber production in Montana, 324 million board feet of timber was being harvested in the forests of Lincoln County. Federal law stipulates that 25 percent of the receipts for that timber, paid to the United States Forest Service, be paid to the county. That payment is essentially compensation for lost property tax revenue, as the county can’t assess taxes on property owned by the federal government.

The 1990s saw a marked decline in timber production, due to increasing federal regulations and private-party litigation over timber sales in the national forests. A report of timber harvesting for 2004 confirmed what many knew to be happening: timber harvesting had plummeted.

Lincoln County commissioner Greg Larson attributes a great deal of the decline to frivolous lawsuits. “Litigation has had a major negative impact on timber sales and Lincoln County’s economy over the last 30 years. Litigation many times comes at a low cost and low risk to the litigant with the potential of high financial rewards. I feel strongly that litigants should have to post a bond to litigate and that they should have to forfeit the bond if they lose. This would help eliminate the many frivolous lawsuits that continually delay timber sales and harvesting in Lincoln County.”

The United States Forest Service report of timber harvest stated Lincoln County’s timber harvest had dropped to 119 million board feet in 2004, barely half of what it had been just a decade and a half earlier. The same report, prepared in 2013 for the 2009 timber harvest, showed that number down by an even more significant margin at 43 million board feet, 13 percent of 1988 harvesting.

As timber harvesting falls, so does county revenue. In 1993 Lincoln County received $4.5 million from timber receipts. By 2013, that number had dropped to just $329,062.

To combat this declining revenue, Congress authorized the Secure Rural Schools program in 2000. Under that program, the federal government sent millions of dollars to rural counties impacted by high federal lands ownership. Even though the program expired in 2006, the government has reauthorized the payments every year since then, until 2014.

Without that program, Lincoln County’s budget will take a hit of just over $2 million, a hit that was anticipated by the previous county commissioners and built into the current budget.

The commissioners, however, don’t want to see more funding through the program. They want to see more active timber management to generate revenue. “Secure Rural Schools, as you know, has been a welfare band-aid that we know has not been funded at this time. We know it cannot last and will not last regardless of success or failure this year. We want jobs, forest health and dignity restored in our county and rural communities – a hand up rather than a hand-out!”

They assert that a more active forest management program will not only contribute to economic health, but also to forest health. According to a House Natural Resources Committee report, only 200,000 acres were harvested in 2013, compared to 9.3 million acres that were burned by wildfires.

Management of those acres would not only reduce the risk of loss through fire, but also contribute needed dollars to the economy of Lincoln County and other rural counties that are adversely impacted by high rates of federal land ownership.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Daines said the senator will be reviewing the input received from the commissioners, as well as other stakeholders, and will be formulating new legislation based upon that input.