Page 52 - Flathead Beacon // 4.13.16

OUT OF BOUNDS 53 EXPLORE 54 Outdoors
Daines, Tester Criticize Forest Service Over Wild re Funding,
Trail Maintenance
Agency proposing 30 percent reduction in trail funding in Region One over next three years
ABY DILLON TABISH OF THE BEACON
S THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE prepares for the looming wild re season, Montana’s senators are
calling for reforms to the agency’s forest and trail management.
U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines questioned Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell last week during a Senate Inte- rior Appropriations Subcommittee hear- ing focused on the agency’s $4.8 billion budget request for the next scal year.
Tester and Daines criticized Tidwell for failing to prioritize trail maintenance in Montana. The agency has revised its formula for funding trail maintenance across the U.S. with an added emphasis on higher population centers. In Region One, which encompasses all of Montana and has 28,000 miles of federally man- aged trails, the agency plans to reduce appropriations by 30 percent over the next three years. There is an estimated $25 million in deferred trail mainte- nance in Region One, according to a For- est Service report.
“If we are going to continue to grow our outdoor economy, those trails are pretty damn important,” Tester said to Tidwell.
How the cutbacks will speci cally impact local forests such as Flathead National Forest remains to be seen, although current shortages are already emerging. Spotted Bear District Ranger Deb Mucklow told the Missoulian last week that the district needs $250,000 to restore 122 miles of burned-over trails following last year’s massive re season, but she only has about $80,000 to spend.
The Forest Service is faced with a bud- getary conundrum as wild re costs crip- ple the agency on an annual basis. Last year the agency depleted its re ghting budget by August amid the costliest re season in U.S. history. The agency bud- geted for $1 billion and the actual costs reached $1.7 billion. It marked the rst time the agency spent more than half of its total budget on wild re suppression. Only 20 years earlier, the agency’s bud- get devoted only 16 percent on re ght- ing. This year Congress is giving $1.6 bil- lion to ght wild res.
Both Tester and Daines have called for reforming the way the nation pays to ght wild res, treating them like natu- ral disasters that are funded separately
Logging operations near Echo Lake. BEACON FILE PHOTO instead of leaving the nancial burden
solely on the Forest Service. Both Tester and Daines have supported a bipartisan bill that surfaced last summer, the Wild- re Disaster Funding Act, that they say would free up money to help the agency better manage the nation’s forests.
“The increased cost of ghting wild- res is having a major impact to outdoor enthusiasts in Montana,” Tester, a spon- sor of the bill, said. “If this trend contin- ues it will have permanent consequences to Montana’s outdoor economy, and our western way of life.”
Daines also criticized the agency for failing to address the backlog of forest restoration and management projects under the 2014 Farm Bill, which prior- itized nearly 5 million acres of national forest land for treatment due to threats from insects, disease and wild res. The Farm Bill allowed the Forest Service to identify forest projects that could move forward with timber harvesting and other
treatment without the full environmen- tal review process, something that drew blowback from groups that said the agency would be skirting its responsibilities to properly protect resources and wildlife.
To date, roughly 6,200 acres in Mon- tana are in the process of moving forward under the Farm Bill provision.
“Here’s the challenge – we’ve identi- ed in Montana about ve million acres with dead or dying trees that increase re danger – the current implementation schedule is simply not adequate,” Daines said last week.
In an interview with reporters after- ward, Daines said the agency is setting aside $10 million to address Farm Bill forestry projects in Montana, which is “a step in the right direction.”
But Daines emphasized his concern that forest projects are still regularly being hampered by “excessive litigation.”
Daines said there are 21 timber proj- ects under active litigation in Region
One. Of those projects, 13 were formed through a collaborative process, he said. “We need to reward and incentivize
collaborative developed projects. There are a lot of good examples of collabora- tion in Montana and we need to encour- age that,” he said.
Calling for reforms to the nation’s forest management system, Daines said, “We need to discourage obstructionist litigation.”
Daines also said he remains opposed to transferring federal lands to the state but he later hedged his stance by saying, “I do support a greater voice of Montan- ans and greater levels of leadership in the management of our public lands from a state level.”
“With the way our national forests are managed, I think Montanans could do a better job,” he added. “Give our governors and states more say and more power in managing our national forests.”
dtabish@ atheadbeacon.com
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APRIL 13, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM