While the Ravalli County Collaborative, a group appointed by the Ravalli County Commissioners to provide recommendations on public land management issues, recently issued a statement in support of the Bitterroot National Forest’s plan to manage the Bitterroot Front from Darby to Lolo (Bitterroot Star 12/21), another group active in the county, the Bitterroot Forest Collaborative, has taken a more reserved stance and expressed hesitation in offering any public comment on the project until they obtain more specific information about the details of what is being proposed.
The Bitterroot Forest Collaborative is a group of local volunteer citizens with diverse interests and concerns about public land management, specifically on the Bitterroot National Forest, which covers close to 75% of the county. It was established in 2007 and is currently co-chaired by Kirk Thompson and Skip Kowalski.
Thompson is the only founding member to remain on the board. As volunteer members retire, the committee members themselves select the replacements. Thompson said as far as he can remember no one who has volunteered to be on the committee has ever been turned down. He said originally the committee was weighted heavily toward industry interests with lots of representatives on the board and just a few with more environmental concerns.
“That has shifted over the years to represent more of the environmental interests and concerns,” said Thompson. He said the key difference between their citizens’ group and the Ravalli County Collaborative was that the county government controls the committee by appointing all the members.
“Our committee on the other hand is sort of self-sustaining and independent,” said Thompson. He said the two groups operate the same when it comes to taking positions on public issues.
“We operate on consensus,” he said. “A single objection can stop any statement from being issued. Everyone must be in agreement or neutral. There can be no objection. It makes taking positions on public issues very hard.”
He said the committee had taken positions on six different issues over the years. He said the issues are difficult because forest management is not simple and it is not precise.
“It’s not like building a bridge where an engineer can calculate the stresses and loads and be sure the thing will hold up,” said Thompson. “In this case we have people with different opinions about how nature is to be managed and that is not an engineering problem.”
Thompson said the group’s aim was to review and support or recommend adjustments to the implementation of public forest management and restoration proposals and to improve the health and well-being of the forest and the local communities.
“We strive to maximize public understanding of forest management,” he said.
The committee’s public statements on several issues are available on line on the Montana Forest Collaboration Network website (www.montanaforeestcollaboration.org), where the group states its positions on issues such as fire and fuels, forest ecology and management, recreation, special habitats, habitat features and habitat conditions, transportation (roads & trails) wildlife and wildlife habitat. The group also wrote nine pages of comments in response to the Bitterroot National Forest’s recent scoping process for the planned Bitterroot Front project.
As for the latest Forest Service proposal on the Bitterroot Front, Thompson said, “Personally, my main concern was there were no specifics to deal with. If you don’t say what you are going to do, where you are going to do it, when you are going to do it, I don’t know how the public can respond.”
BFC Co-Chair Skip Kowalski echoed Thompson’s concerns, stating, “I could concur with that and I think the group as a whole does.” He said he didn’t think the Forest Service offered enough information in the scoping process.
“No particular places were identified for any particular treatments,” said Kowalski. “There were no prescriptions offered. No time frame was discussed.” He wondered when and how the public would be engaged in evaluating those crucial details.
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