Plan set for a series of forest management meetings

Angelo Ververis, of Tricon Timber LLC and the Mineral County Resource Committee, was on hand at the Aug. 9 meeting of the Mineral County Commissioners to discuss recent developments with the commissioner’s request for Regional Forester Faye Krueger’s presence at an upcoming meeting.

Krueger was requested due to concern at the “apparent suspension” of the forest management program in Mineral County. However, she responded to the letter saying she would not be able to attend until September and recommended Debbie Austin attend the Aug. 30 meeting in her place.

“We wanted to go with Faye to start with since we thought there would be more action taken,” Ververis said. “But since we’ve received a response from Faye to have Debbie come and bring us to speed, we think it’d be a good idea for her to come in and she can tell us where we are at now (with forest management and the Cedar Thom project).”

Ververis then presented the thoughts of the resource committee on how to proceed with the issue of forest management in the county – beginning with coming back to the commission on Aug. 16 to “bring them up to speed” on what they have heard regarding the project.

‘Then for the Debbie Austin meeting (on Aug. 30), you will have the information so you can ask some pointed questions on the project,” Ververis said.

“The big ending question with Deb is ‘what are you going to do about it,’” Dennis Hildebrand added. “Then get the ball rolling and give them two weeks or whatever it is. Then when Faye comes in September, we will know if anything has happened with Debbie.”

Ververis then continued by going into who he would like to be invited to the meeting with Austin – including congressional representative and stakeholders who have been involved with the Cedar Thom project from the beginning.

“Because they are going to be able to remember a lot of that information from the past and how they remember it,” Ververis said. “Then when Debbie is presenting, at least they are hearing the same thing and can ask questions or be able to say ‘that’s not right’ and stuff like that.”

It was also recommended that Superior District Ranger Tawnya Brummett and a representative from the Montana Wood Product Association at the meeting as well.

“Then the second part of that would be sometime in September keep moving forward with Faye coming in,” Ververis said. “We really feel like the commissioner here has the power to get things going here. Since we started this process, they (representatives from the US Forest Service and FWP) scheduled a meeting to have a field trip to this project site. It’s already getting things going.”

Ververis added that he feels if the Cedar Thom project gets “pushed through” other local projects “could gain a lot of momentum.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, the commissioners approved and scheduled both the Aug. 16 and Aug. 30 meetings.