Rabbit Tracts partnership receives approval

State officials have approved a local forest management project, which aims to build a partnership between private landowners and county, state and federal officials.

Gov. Greg Gianforte announced that the Rabbit Tracts Forest Partnership, located north of Troy, will receive funding — along with 13 other management projects statewide — as part of the 2020 revision of the Montana Forest Action Plan.

Jennifer Nelson, the Lincoln County forester who coordinated the grant application process for Rabbit Tracts, said March 30 she remained unsure if the local program was fully funded. Considering that the partnership was not listed among the partially funded projects, though, she deemed it likely that the program would receive the full award she requested.

To institute the partnership, which will address forest health and wildfire risks outside of Troy, Nelson asked for $490,823. Partners would have to match the award with $121,345 in cash and in-kind payments.

Nelson was waiting to hear back from Wyatt Frampton, Forest Action Plan manager at Montana Department of Natural Resources, before taking next steps.

Rabbit Tracts partners, which include officials with Lincoln County, U.S. Forest Service, DNRC, Stimson Lumber Company, Northern Lights and Vital Grounds, are eager to break ground.

“Everyone is chopping at the bit because it’s an early spring,” said Nelson.

The Rabbit Tracts partnership was among 40 proposals seeking a total of $4.5 million under the revised Forest Action Plan. Amanda Kaster, director of DNRC, said in a March 26 press release that the state agency received an additional $500,000 in grant funds from the Forest Service to back action plan projects.

Leaders of local forestry organizations have endorsed the Rabbit Tracts program, saying the partnership will promote good forest management.

“This project is another example of great coordination by diverse landowners and managers, resulting in well-designed projects that benefit our communities,” said Doug Ferrell of Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Coalition.

The Rabbit Tracts partnership will cover 29,976 acres. The project area is bounded by the Kootenai River to the south and west. Management will extend just past Yaak Mountain to the north and just shy of King Mountain to the east.

Officials selected the region in part because the Forest Service had already conducted an environmental impact statement in the area as part of the Lower Yaak, O’Brien Sheep Project.

The partnership aims to make the selected forest region more resistant to wildfire, invasive species, climate change, insects and disease.

Partners will treat the area with commercial harvesting, commercial thinning, pre-commercial thinning and mastication. The project summary notes that these methods will create jobs and provide timber to local mills while increasing tree spacing and reducing competition and mortality.

Northern Lights, the electricity provider in the area, will address wildfire risk from power lines through the project area. The program will work to improve roads and post education signage in the Alvord Lake Community Forest area.

Management under the partnership will also include the planting of more fire- and insect-resistant trees; the construction of a shaded fuel break and line of defense to protect private properties; the treatment of noxious weeds; and the creation of wildlife snags.