Plains landowners improve Forest Health with USDA program

Bill and Frankie Burroughs moved to Western Montana in 1979. They purchased 40 forested acres at the end of a road along Deemer Creek near Plains. In 1992 they took advantage of an opportunity to harvest some of the timber on their property.

After the logging, they wanted to learn more about their forest so in 1995 they signed up for and completed a Forest Stewardship plan through the Montana State University Extension Forestry program.

Their plan addressed clean-up, thinning and weed control, but due to personal health issues they were unable to implement the plan. This year a new opportunity presented itself. A handful of Montana counties were found to exceed acceptable air quality standards. Sanders County, where the Burroughs property is located, was one of them. Wood smoke was the primary cause of the county’s air quality problem. As a result of the determination, the Burroughs property became eligible for the NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) air quality funding. The air quality funding was designed to help address privately owned forestland using techniques that would result in air quality improvements.

Bill and Frankie have wanted to thin their forestland for years. The conventional method would have required them to pile and burn the slash. There were very limited funds available for them to accomplish this through EQIP or any other cost share program.

However, addressing the air quality issue made it possible for them to get financial assistance with a stipulation they remove, chip or shred with slash material.

Bottom line: NRCS technical specialists worked with them to develop a conservation practice with their Forest Stewardship plan as a spring board. Forest Health addressed a resource concern created as the result of overstocking and the presence of Dwarf Mistletoe. The plan provided the blueprint for a contract which has been implemented and is now nearly complete.

The contractor doing the work is Matt Arno of Woodland Restoration http://www.woodlandrestoration.net/. The firm works to minimize tree damage and ground disturbance. This project is a great example of “Helping people help the land. ” Without EQIP the treatment wouldn’t have happened and the Dwarf Mistletoe would have continued to infest the young understory trees, overcrowding would continue to suppress health and vigor and the whole stand would be at higher risk for catastrophic fire.

For more information on EQIP or other conservation programs available through the NRCS please contact Don Feist, Troy Hidy, or Angela Zimmerman at 826-3701 ext. 3