Future uncertain for forest projects

On Monday Sept. 30, Northern Regional Forester Faye Krueger announced that the Cedar Thom Project had been placed at the top of the priority list for working with Fish and Wildlife Service and getting to the boots on the ground phase.

After the announcement, the crowded county commissioners room discussed USFS projects in the county on a more general level and members of the community were able to voice their concerns and give questions to the gathered leaders from both the USFS and FWS – beginning with Ken Verley, owner of Tricon Timber.

“We are the largest employer in the county and also the largest sawmill in the state,” Verley said. “We have approximately 200 families that are dependent on these forests. I look around this room and I see a number of faces that have sat around these rooms for the last 25-years that I know of. It seems to me that as we have one of these we get action but until we have one of these we don’t get action. I think we lack the leadership from the top once it (USFS projects) get there to keep the momentum going.”

Verley added the “people on the local level” are doing their best to “keep the forest management going” but that there is a lack of support from the top.

“I think what we need in our corner is a champion,” Verley said. “We need somebody that recognizes we are the largest employer in the county and the largest sawmill in the state. We need someone to recognize that these families are dependent on what you guys do and help us push forward. Unfortunately it takes this sort of forum to get things moving and with this (Cedar Thom Project) we already see movement and we thank you for that, but it’s unfortunate we have to do that – we think it’s your jobs to make sure we don’t have to do that every day.”

Krueger responded by saying that she “appreciates” Verley as an owner and what he said about Tricon employees and their families and the importance of the sawmill to Mineral County.

“We need you in order to do our restoration work so I don’t see us as a ‘we/they’ I see us as a ‘we’ in order to keep the forest restoration work going as well as the economic drivers and jobs in these small counties and communities,” Krueger said. “I understand what you’re saying and it’s important to me.”

According to Krueger, since she has been in the region she has made sure to make sure projects are being moved along efficiently and that “we aren’t dragging anything out.”

“In fact, since I’ve been here I am looking for efficiencies all the time and ways to get things done,” Krueger said. “We are always looking at those efficiencies and how we can produce at the highest level that we can.”

Forest Supervisor Debbie Austin added that the agency is working with less and less resources and said in “a bigger context” priorities shift.

“We are trying to become more efficient so we can increase that capacity,” Austin said. “We are doing everything we can to get these projects out. We are trying to have a continuous flow of these restoration projects.”

Litigation on USFS projects has been a huge hurdle towards getting passed the consultation phase and Krueger said her team has developed a litigation strategy that enables them to “not rework our work.”

“We want to do it right the first time and have the judge say ‘right on’ and that’s a huge thing for us,” Krueger said. “We are looking at that and we are working on what that looks like.”

Krueger added two other focal points for her staff’s work as they develop projects in the region – working with a larger geographic area as well as working in collaboration with other groups as much as possible.

Jim DeBree, a resident of Mineral County who retired from the Extension Office, said that in the 1960’s sawmills were harvesting approximately 110 million board feet a year in what was then considered a “sustained yield.”

“I come to now and there has been a tremendous change in the forest service,” DeBress said. “It’s a cultural change. I had a boss who told me ‘Jim if you go over there and start chasing the mice the elephants will start stomping the hell out of you.’ The Cedar Thom is a mouse – we talk about efficiencies, we talk about protocol and what it indicates to me is a lack of aggressive leadership and sensitivity to the community. It’s a community of residents that need to address the natural resource and manage it accordingly to scientific basis – it’s simply not being done.”

Krueger responded to DeBrees’ comment by stating that since the 1960’s “a lot” of laws have been implemented causing change.

“It’s not just growth and yield management,” Krueger said.

“I realize that,” DeBress said. “But at the same time, I moved back here in 1995, and I don’t know how many meetings I’ve been to when the forest service says ‘we can’t do that’ because they don’t have the money or resources and that to me is lack of confidence. The public is losing its confidence in your ability to perform those functions. Even though you have all of those laws you must find a way to satisfy the needs of the communities and manage the natural resource in the right kind of environment – I don’t think you’re doing it.”

Conversation on the current state of the forest service and the litigation process continued between those in attendance and Jim Schultz, a Mineral County resident, then asked USFS officials why Lolo National Forest seems to have less timber yield than all of the other forests in the state.

“You have the same pages and the same books and yet other places can operate and do more timber sales,” Schultz said.

“We have the same laws, the same rules and regulations but we have different habitat, different endangered species in some cases and we have different public interest,” Austin replied.

“I’m not buying that,” Schultz said. “The bull trout is the spotted owl of the Rockies. They are a predator fish, they are boney and they are oily and all of a sudden they became the spotted owl.”

Austin responded that the “process to move forward on these things has gotten a lot more complex” and they are moving forward on a lot of projects.

“I consider Debbie a real leader when it comes to restoration efforts,” Krueger said. “Her employees are awesome and they are dedicated to getting this work done. It’s not one thing, in my mind - it’s a dozen things she has to get done. She and her employees are working constantly to get this done and I think it’s a very hard working forest.”

Jim Arney, a St. Regis resident and forest scientist for 40-years, then spoke to the attendees about both community and forest health using his expertise in the area – stating that “we are no longer doing a forest management plan” and in the meantime the Lolo forest continues to do what a forest does and grow.

“The 1986 forest plan identified it’s growing at the rate of 130 million feet every year,” Arney said. “If we don’t cut it, it will grow so that mortality exceeds growth. It declines and it is – we are already there. Especially in the Superior Ranger District. If we want to maintain a healthy forest we have to remove enough of that mortality to keep it healthy.”

Arney continued by saying that due to the need for removing mortality in order to keep the forest health 130 million board feet of wood must be removed every year to keep up with growth.

“We have to, otherwise we are managing into decline,” Arney said. “We are managing into decline and we know we are doing that. We have to get to a health forest and a healthy forest means we have to remove at least that much in volume of trees and biomass every year. That requires infrastructure – a mill, loggers, and roads, all of that stuff. You have to keep that infrastructure in place or you aren’t going to be able to achieve those goals. So how do we between a healthy forest and a healthy community arrive at an action plan? That’s what the frustration is here – we don’t see an action plan that is running at that level.”

Conversation on big picture management of the Lolo National Forest in the Superior Ranger District continued and it was concluded with all parties agreeing that more “working meetings” should be had between USFS officials and county experts and residents on those issues in order to work towards an understanding and make progress.