Rabbit Tracts partnership possibly in line for DNRC grant

Montana officials are reviewing a proposal for a local forest management project that promises to forge a partnership between private landowners and county, state and federal entities.

Rabbit Tracts Forest Partnership, which seeks to address forest health and wildfire risks north of Troy, could stand to receive a $490,823 award from the Montana Department of Natural Resources.

Jennifer Nelson, the county forester who spearheaded the proposal, said partners will have to match the funds with $121,345 in cash and in-kind payments if state officials green-light the project.

The Rabbit Tracts partnership is among over 40 proposals from across Montana vying for a total of $4.5 million in state funding. Former Gov. Steve Bullock set aside the funds to foster more collaborative forest management programs under the Montana Forest Action Plan.

DNRC will award between $50,000 and $500,000 to each successful project.

The Rabbit Tracts project, which would include partners from Lincoln County, U.S. Forest Service, DNRC, Stimson Lumber Company, Northern Lights and Vital Grounds covers 29,976 acres.

“It’s just a great example of cooperation between Stimpson and the [U.S.] Forest Service and the county,” said Ed Levert, retired forest ranger and board member of the Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Coalition.

To the south and west, the treatment area is bounded by the Kootenai River. The project will stretch a little past Yaak Mountain to the north and just shy of King Mountain to the east. The region includes the Alvord Lake Community Forest.

Nelson said officials settled on the region in part because the Forest Service had already produced an environmental impact statement for it. In 2017, foresters released the assessment as part of the Lower Yaak, O’Brien, Sheep Project.

Were officials to have chosen an area without an impact statement, Forest Service officials would have had to draw one up before work on the project could begin. That would stretch out the project timeline and possibly expose it to litigation.

Nelson said project partners had a constrained time frame to put their proposal together. State officials announced the funding in early December. The deadline to submit plans was Jan. 29.

“It was fast and furious,” she said.

Rabbit Tracts Partnership would aim to make the chosen section of the forest more resistant to wildfire, insects and disease, invasive species and climate change. According to the project summary, partners will treat the area with commercial harvesting, commercial thinning, pre-commercial thinning and mastication.

These methods will increase tree spacing and reduce competition and mortality while creating jobs and providing timber to local mills.

The project also will involve the planting of more fire and insect disease resistant species such as western white pine, western larch and ponderosa pine. Currently, the area is dominated by Douglas fir and grand fir.

To protect over 150 private properties in the area, partners will construct a 7.5-mile shaded fuel break and an 18-mile line-of-defense. These structures will help modify wildfire behavior and make evacuation and firefighting conditions safer.

Partnership with Northern Lights, the local electricity provider, will allow the project to address wildfire risks from power lines.

The project proposal includes plans for treating noxious weeds across ownerships, planting native plants, creating wildlife snags and retaining hardwood species to protect habitats and bolster biodiversity. The partnership will improve roads and post educational signage in the Alvord Lake Community Forest area.

Nelson said she expected to hear back from DNRC about the grant award in March.