FWP Approves Next Phase of Project to Conserve Timber Forests in Northwest Montana

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) this week completed its review of a proposal to permanently protect 53,000 acres of private timberland in Flathead and Lincoln counties, recommending the state purchase a conservation easement that would keep the working forest in timber production while guaranteeing year-round public access and preserving wildlife habitat.

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal at its next meeting on Aug. 21 in Helena.

FWP on July 7 finalized its review of a sprawling project dubbed the Montana Great Outdoors Conservation Easement, which is now in its second phase. In total, the project would encompass 85,752 acres of private timberland owned by Green Diamond Resource Company. The first phase of the project, which protected 32,981 acres in the Salish and Cabinet mountains, received final approval from the Montana Land Board in December. The new easement would encompass forestlands in the Cabinet Mountains between Kalispell and Libby.

“This project provides critical access for hunters and anglers and preserves thousands of acres of habitat in northwest Montana,” FWP Region 1 Supervisor Amber Steed said. “We’ve worked hard with the landowners and local officials to find a solution that provides a win for everyone involved.” 

Proponents of the Montana Great Outdoors Act’s first phase included timber interests, hunting and angling advocates, conservation groups, business leaders, and neighbors to the proposed land deal. The project is the culmination of a years-long effort by FWP, the nonprofit Trust for Public Land (TPL) and landowner Green Diamond Resource Company, which in 2021 purchased 291,000 acres of private timberland from Southern Pine Plantations (SPP), the real estate and investment company that in 2019 bought 630,000 acres from Weyerhaeuser Co., which acquired the land in 2016 from Plum Creek.

The project has enjoyed wide support, including drawing endorsements from commissioners in Flathead, Lincoln and Sanders counties. For Steed, the backing from those civic leaders indicates the broad appeal of land conservation and public access initiatives.

“Preserving the public access legacy that we’ve all enjoyed while maintaining and promoting the value of working lands has been critical to earning support from these communities,” Steed said.

Despite the succession of private ownership, public access to the property is currently allowed through short-term block management agreements and voluntary open land policies, under which the land has been managed for de facto public access for more than a quarter century. But as demand for land intensifies in this corner of the state, so has a campaign to furnish permanent protections on northwest Montana’s working forests, which under a conservation easement can continue to produce lumber for local mills while allowing public access and preserving wildlife habitat, even as the state collects property taxes.

Without a conservation easement in place, however, FWP warns “the landowner (or a future landowner) could prohibit public access at any time.”

“The [conservation easement] would not lock up public lands,” according to the agency’s decision notice. “Rather, it would secure access both to private lands (currently owned by Green Diamond) and to public land parcels adjacent to private lands covered by the conservation easement.”

The land at the center of the Montana Great Outdoors Project’s second phase is located less than one hour from Kalispell, one of the fastest growing cities in the state, and an hour from Libby, where development of former timber company lands is occurring at a rapid pace in northwest Montana. Since 2019, 3,500 acres of former timber company lands within 5 miles of the proposed conservation easement were subdivided into 97 parcels, according to FWP’s decision notice.

“New homes have been built or are under construction on many of these parcels,” the decision notice states in response to public comment about the need for the project. “These parcels are no longer operating as working forests and do not provide public access.”

The property currently provides approximately 15,000 days per year of public hunting and angling use which would be secured in perpetuity under the easement, according to Jane Stoddard, bureau chief of the Montana Office of Tourism.

“This project has the potential to positively impact the tourism and recreation industry economy if properly maintained,” Stoddard wrote in a tourism report in support of the easement. “The opportunity to recreate in Montana is marketed to destination visitors from around the world. This includes emphasizing recreational opportunities in accessible locations.”

The proposed project also comes under review at a time when conservation easements on private timberland are becoming a critical lifeline for the beleaguered industry, which helps timber companies maintain financial viability while allowing the forests to regenerate.

Jason Callahan, Green Diamond’s policy and communications manager, said the Seattle-based company’s support for the project, as well as a suite of other conservation easements either proposed or completed on its checkerboard of Montana timberland, is rooted in its tradition as a family-owned forest management company.

“This conservation easement is attractive to us because we retain full ownership of the land and full management discretion. It’s called a conservation easement but that’s just the name we’re given. We consider it a working forest easement,” Callahan said.

Despite setbacks to the timber industry, it remains a critical sector of the economy in Flathead and Lincoln counties, which produced 37% of Montana’s timber volume in 2022, with Flathead County producing 69 million board feet and Lincoln County producing 48 million board feet, according to the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) at the University of Montana. In 2018, sales from Montana’s forest products industry totaled $553 million and forest industry employment was 7,981 workers.

If the project is approved, Green Diamond would maintain ownership of the land under an easement owned by FWP. The easement would allow Green Diamond to sustainably harvest wood products from these timberlands, preclude development, protect important wildlife habitat and associated key landscape connectivity, and provide permanent free public access to the easement lands.

The appraised value of the proposed second phase of the Montana Great Outdoors Conservation Easement is $57,544,144.20 and includes $35,805,000 of federal funding from the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program. The Forest Legacy Program has two funding mechanisms: traditional Land and Water Conservation Funds (LWCF) and Inflation Reduction Act Funds (IRA). The grant for this project is funded by IRA.

The conservation easement would be perpetual, meaning it would remain in effect unless extinguished as a matter of law. The Forest Legacy Program, which awarded the $35.8 million grant, requires all conservation easements purchased with these funds to be perpetual.

Secured funding amounts and sources include: $1,500,000 from Habitat Montana, $200,000 from the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust, and $35,805,000 from the U.S. Forest Service Forest Legacy Program. The Landowner, Green Diamond Resource Company, will provide $20,039,144.20 (which is approximately 35% of the value) of in-kind contribution in the form of donated land value arising from the sale of the easement.

Completion of this project would build on the success of the nearby 142,000-acre Thompson-Fisher Conservation Easement (FWP), the 100,000-acre U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lost Trail Conservation Area and other protected lands including the Kootenai and Lolo national forests, and the Thompson Chain of Lakes State Park.

FWP officials said they received “substantive public comment” on their draft environmental assessment, both in the form of 69 written comments and in-person feedback at a public hearing in March. The agency’s responses to those comments is available here.

The proposed conservation project remains open for public comment in the weeks leading up to the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s August meeting. To view all the proposals and information on each project, visit the commission website for the meeting. Comment will be taken until Aug. 4.  

[email protected]