Julie King won’t be riding off into the sunset when she takes leave of her current position as Supervisor of the Bitterroot National Forest, except of course, whenever she gets a chance. Those chances remain good since she is not having to re-locate in order to serve in her new position as Wilderness Character Monitoring Program Manager for the Washington. D.C. Office. Instead, she is being provided an office in Missoula to which she will commute, probably not on horseback.
King began her career with the Forest Service as a Range Conservationist in southeastern Idaho on the Caribou National Forest where she worked for five years. After that she worked for another five years covering two districts on the Payette National Forest. From there King moved on to serve as Deputy District Ranger on the Mount Taylor Ranger District in the Cibola National Forest in northwestern New Mexico. After that she worked a two-year stint in Heber City, Utah on the Uinta National Forest before finally arriving in the Bitterroot in 2008 where she served for two years as Deputy Forest Supervisor before taking on the top position as Forest Supervisor in 2010.
As part of her new position, King will be chairing an interagency committee that will work collaboratively with the other agencies such as the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management to develop a common set of wilderness protocols aimed at fulfilling the intent of the Wilderness Act. King said that wilderness character is defined in terms of five qualities: it is natural, it provides solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation, it is undeveloped, untrammeled, and may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.
These qualities can be used to improve wilderness stewardship and foster consistent stewardship across the National Wilderness Preservation System. She said the aim of the interagency committee is to ensure that all agencies involved in managing wild land areas are on the same page when it comes to interpreting the meaning of those characteristics.
Asked what stands out when she looks back on her years as Supervisor of the Bitterroot National Forest she answered without hesitation, “the people I worked with.” She said the team of professionals working on the forest and the relationships she built with them meant a lot to her as well as the chance to serve the public.
“I’ve seen more volunteerism here in the Bitterroot than I ever saw on any other national forest,” said King. “People here seem to really care about their national forests.
King praised the work that has been accomplished on the forest under her tenure, the Larry-Bass project, the West-side project and the Lake Como project. Since arriving, she said the forest has been able to harvest from 8 to 10 million board feet annually from the forest. She said this level of harvest has been sustainable and they are looking for ways to increase it, if possible. She said the forest hosts a Forest Industry Roundtable and confers with industry representatives in an effort to plan at least five years out.
King said that there are so many variables involved in forest management, from unpredictable forest fires, to drought, to volatile timber markets, that trying to guarantee a certain amount of timber annually was just not practicable.
“But we are looking at treating larger landscapes,” she said and mentioned the recent Gold Butterfly project on the eastside.
But timber harvest is just a part of the forest economy, she said. “Recreation on national forest land is a huge resource and provides a big boost to the local economy.” She said that these recreational values should not be lost sight of.
Kurt Steele, Deputy Forest Supervisor on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, will take over the helm as temporary Supervisor on the Bitterroot Forest on September 17. A permanent replacement will be made within 120 days.