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LETTER: Tester’s Forest Bill is Both Courageous and Timely

By Beacon Staff

We spent a good bit of time studying Montana Sen. Jon Tester’s bill. While not perfect, this bill will provide support and direction to the wood products industry and the Forest Service while protecting critical wildlands in three nationals forests of Montana.

Tester’s bill would affect national forest lands on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Lolo, and Kootenai national forests, by designating lands for timber production and resource reclamation as well as recreation and wilderness.

We support Sen. Tester’s bill because it accomplishes three important things. It honors the hard work of Montana’s to resolve forest management issues; it protects Montana’s wilderness legacy on the effected forests; and it moves us forward in a positive way to resolving forest management issues across Montana.

The legislation has already garnered the support of 73 percent of Montana residents, according to the parties who were instrumental in working with Sen. Tester to draft the bill.

We expect this Sen. Tester’s bill to pass Congress handily. And we expect Montana to move forward soon thereafter to address similar land management decisions across the state.

Headwaters Montana works for and supports wilderness designation for the following areas: Glacier National Park, the Whitefish Range, the Swan Crest and Swan Front, the Mission Wilderness Additions, the Rocky Mountain Front, Cube Iron Silcox, and Ten Lakes WSA.

Many other Montana wildands deserve wilderness protection. We look forward to working with the Montana congressional delegation in the near future on these citizen-based conservation proposals.
Dave Hadden
Director, Headwaters Montana