FWP Proposes Conserving Thompson River Timberland Bordering Cabinet Mountains
If approved, the two-phase project would permanently restrict development on 47,907 acres of working forest owned by Green Diamond Resource Company while protecting public access and wildlife habitat
By Tristan Scott
Five years ago, habitat conservation specialists with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) began laying the groundwork for a project to remove the development interests on 47,907 acres of private timberland in the Upper Thompson River drainage bordering the Cabinet Mountains. If completed, the project would build on adjacent conservation successes, filling in a patchwork of landscape connectivity while ensuring public access in perpetuity.
Last month, FWP moved another step closer to its objective when agency officials unveiled the first phase of the Upper Thompson Conservation Easement, which involves purchasing a 34,610-acre checker-boarded parcel in Flathead and Sanders counties from landowner Green Diamond Resource Company, a family owned timber firm that in January 2021 acquired 291,000 acres of working forestland in the region, becoming the third owner in less than a year to take over management of one of northwest Montana’s most valuable commodities.
The property has historically been owned by mining and timber companies. But in 2020, a fire sale touched off a succession of ownership changes that cast a cloud of uncertainty over the future of northwest Montana’s timberlands, as well as the recreation and access opportunities they’ve historically afforded to hunters, hikers, and anglers.
Despite the changes to 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.
“In FWP Region 1, private lands like these contribute significantly to hunting opportunities,” according to the agency’s draft environmental assessment (EA). For example, over the past five years, 42% of elk reported at game check stations were harvested on privately owned land, according to the EA, which estimates that the Upper Thompson Conservation Easement property provides 10,000 days per year of hunting and angling use.
But neither free public access nor precluding development interests were ever guaranteed.
And yet, the Seattle-based wood products company has demonstrated a strategic interest in completing several interlocking conservation projects across its checkerboard of land ownership that do just that.
Representatives of Green Diamond said it’s in the company’s best interests to remove the development interests on its land and allow the trees to regenerate in a region that’s still recovering from the effects of legacy logging. That’s why Green Diamond donated 34% of the land’s value to the state’s purchase of the conservation easement.
“At Green Diamond, we believe sustainably managed working forests are essential — not only for providing vital forest products, but also for delivering clean air, clean water, and valuable wildlife habitat,” said Douglas Reed, Green Diamond’s president and chair.
Under the proposed terms, Green Diamond would maintain ownership of the land while FWP would own the easement. 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.
According to a draft environmental assessment FWP released on March 13, and which is available for public comment until April 11, the agreement with Green Diamond Resource Company would permanently restrict residential and industrial development while preserving public access, protecting wildlife habitat and allowing sustainable timber harvests.
In an effort to preserve the land as an asset for recreation, wildlife habitat and timber production, FWP has been working with private and nonprofit interests to stave off development pressure and furnish the acreage with permanent protections.
The project is the culmination of a multi-year effort by FWP, the nonprofit Trust for Public Land and landowner Green Diamond.
The appraised value of the first phase of the Upper Thompson Conservation Easement, which covers about 75% of the two-part project’s total acreage, is $20.56 million. Secured funding amounts and sources include: $13 million from the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program, $225,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $200,000 from the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust, and $175,000 from private fundraising coordinated by the Trust for Public Land. Green Diamond will provide just under $7 million of in-kind contribution in the form of donated land value.
This proposed easement complements other large conservation efforts in the area including the 85,752-acre Montana Great Outdoors Conservation Easement (FWP), the 142,000-acre Thompson-Fisher Conservation Easement (FWP), and the 100,000-acre Lost Trail Conservation Area (USFWS). The proposed project was reviewed and approved by the Montana Forest Action Advisory Council in 2021.
FWP anticipates recommending a decision to approve the project to Fish and Wildlife Commission on April 16. The Fish and Wildlife Commission would then review the project and make a decision on June 11.
Members of the public can submit comments to FWP’s Leah Breidinger either by email to [email protected] or by mail to 490 N. Meridian Road, Kalispell, 59901.