Bitterroot Forest Collaborative seeks your input

by Kirk Thompson and Skip Kowalski, Co-Chairs, Bitterroot Forest Collaborative

The Bitterroot Forest Collaborative (BFC) has been providing management recommendations to the Bitterroot National Forest for over 14 years. Our volunteer members have diverse backgrounds including energy and resiliency consulting, wildlife biology, education, fire science, healthcare, road and trail engineering, and geology. We believe in science-based natural resource management. We value the key role National Forests play in a healthy ecosystem, such as providing clean water. We appreciate the recreational opportunities that enrich our lives and the economic benefit our county derives from the Forest. However, we also recognize that the products, services, and amenities we take from the Forest are not limitless and that the Forest must be managed to maintain all these benefits for future generations. We would like to share some of our accomplishments and seek to, with your help, maximize public understanding of forest management issues.

Throughout our history we have provided input to the Forest Service on numerous forest management proposals. We have even initiated proposals on our own; for example, we recommended the non-commercial, restorative parts of the Westside Project. We often support Forest Service actions but are not shy in providing constructive criticism where we believe it is necessary. Most recently, we developed “Position Statements” that offer well-researched management suggestions on topics including fire and fuels, forest ecology and management, recreation, forest roads and trails, and wildlife habitat. These position statements are starting points that can be modified in response to specific Forest projects. Although our group has substantial expertise in natural resources, we rely heavily on the findings of scientists published in peer-reviewed literature. Much of our guidance and accompanying references, in addition to our position statements, can be found on the Montana Forest Collaborative Network’s website (https://montanaforestcollaboration.org/app/home/committees/bitterroot/).

Recent trends of large-scale project planning by the Forest Service, increasing concerns about potential impacts caused by wildfires, and the accelerating pace of private land development in the Bitterroot Valley have made public input, including from our collaborative, more important than ever. We need to improve our treatment of forest lands to help reduce the risk of severe wildfire to private property while protecting and improving the health of our watersheds, fisheries, wildlife and special corridors, and sensitive habitats like riparian and old growth. We need to keep local citizens informed and share information to help coordinate management actions across public and private land boundaries. We also need the help of local government to incentivize private landowners to do their part in wildland fire protection.

We would like to hear your ideas and share some of our perspectives with you. We’d be happy to have you join us at one of our monthly meetings. We are always looking for new members, especially those who can fill voids in our areas of expertise, such as watersheds and fisheries. An ideal outcome would be the creation of an environment where we could share information among concerned residents and groups who are interested in the actions planned and carried out by the Bitterroot Forest. If we could accomplish this, our valley, our resources, and our citizens would all be better off.