Page 17 - Flathead Beacon // 11.27.13

16 | NOVEMBER 27, 2013 COVER FLATHEADBEACON.COM

After the

TIMBER WARS

Diverse stakeholders band together

to propose Whiteish Range forest

plan, relecting new trend of

collaboration in conservation,

land management

By Tristan Scott

W

HITEFISH — Bob Brown, a former sec-
retary of state and longtime Whiteish
legislator, pulled into the snow-caked
parking lot outside Ed and Mully’s Res-
taurant at the base of Big Mountain, his
car bearing a bumper sticker that read, “Compromise

is not a Four Letter Word.”
Ever the diplomat, Brown was there to broker a
meeting organized by a coalition of longtime adver-
saries turned unlikely bedfellows — tree huggers and
tree cutters, eco-warriors and timber sawyers, hik-
ers, horsemen, mountain bikers, cabin owners and
nearly everyone else with a stake in the management

of public lands on the Flathead National Forest.
They represented three-dozen interest groups
who historically clashed over public land use on
Montana’s forests; who for decades pitted wilderness
against timber production, non-motorized against
motorized recreation, commercial interests against
wildlife. They were advocates accustomed to digging
in their heels, entrenched in their ideologies and not

given to making concessions.
Words like “compromise” did not igure promi-
nently into their lexicon and, crushed between op-
posing forces, they didn’t accomplish much. No new
wilderness, no new logs for the mills.

Sunrise along the North
Fork of the Flathead River
on Thursday, Nov. 21.

GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON