The Kootenai National Forest (KNF) has achieved some remarkable success in their recently completed fiscal year. The board members of the Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Collaborative (KFSC) want the public to know about these accomplishments, which were achieved in spite of many challenges, including reduced staffing and shifting regulations.
For a number of years, forestry experts and community leaders have recommended increasing the pace and scale of forest projects, to reduce fire risk, improve stand conditions, and provide jobs ensuring a healthy forest products industry.
In the past year the KNF has completed a large number of active management projects to reduce fire risk and improve forest health conditions. They have treated almost 20,000 acres for fuels mitigation, including thinning, slashing, piling, and burning, and they have completed over 60 miles of roadside fuel breaks. A large majority of this work was completed within the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) and was based on priority areas identified in the Montana Forest Action Plan and the national Wildfire Crisis Strategy.
The KNF also prepared and sold some 70 million board feet of commercial timber, more than any time in the past two decades. Members of the KFSC have reviewed many of these projects and we have found them to be carefully designed to improve wildlife habitat, protect water quality, and to improve the future health and condition of forest stands.
The KNF also has an active program to support many forms of recreation, including a number of appealing and (mostly) well maintained campgrounds and trailheads. This year they completed a major project to rebuild the extensive boardwalk at the popular Ross Creek Loop Trail, where visitors can experience stands of huge old growth cedar, hemlock, spruce, Douglas fir and other native species.
The KNF is also home to the magnificent Cabinet Mountain Wilderness, a 92,000-acre haven for hikers, campers and native wildlife.
The members of the Kootenai Forest Stakeholders appreciate that officials of the KNF are open and responsive to public input and strive to reflect the values of our community.
The KFSC was founded in 2006. Our group is comprised of a diverse community of forest users, hunters, hikers, loggers, timber industry representatives, conservationists, business owners, educators and local and state government representatives. Our mission is to help craft solutions for public lands management by representing diverse values and providing a venue for productive, inclusive conversations between the Forest Service and the community.
Tim Dougherty and Doug Ferrell are co-chairs of the Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Collaborative.