Page 18 - Flathead Beacon // 11.27.13

FLATHEADBEACON.COM
COVER
NOVEMBER 27, 2013 | 17

But when Brown walked into the oration and public engagement.
Whiteish Range Partnership
bar at Whiteish Mountain Resort on a Through the Whiteish Range Part-
recent brisk November evening, some- nership, its members hoped to take ad-
thing was diferent. Loggers were hob- A Summary of Agreements
vantage of the new standard.
nobbing with wilderness advocates. On Dec. 5, the Flathead Forest
Mountain bikers were raising keg cups launches its own collaborative sessions
of local microbrew alongside backcoun- on its forest plan — a document that
try horsemen. Rafters and snowmobil- guides all uses and activities on the na-
ers and trail builders were ladling chili tional forest — and Chip Weber, Flat-

out of the same crockpot.
head National Forest Supervisor, said
The longtime adversaries had just the Whiteish Range Partnership sets a
spent 13 months thrashing out the de- model example and provides critical in-
tails of a proposal that covers the vast put to inform the process.
chunk of the Whiteish Range that lies “This may be very close to, if not ex-
in the Flathead National Forest, and actly what we end up doing,” Weber told
they were gathered to celebrate an ac- the group at its Nov. 18 meeting, after the WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT
TIMBER MANAGEMENT

cord that represented the interests of members presented him with a lengthy
all stakeholders who came together on a draft plan, the product of more than a
proposed management plan for 300,000 year of bi-weekly meetings. “You were
acres of Flathead National Forest.
irst out of the gate, you’ve put in an in-
Even the two “mayors of the North credible amount of work and you’ve giv-
Fork,” Larry Wilson and John Freder- en us a lot to think about.”
ick, who are about as far apart on the “What the people did here was some FISHERIES AND BACKCOUNTRY
land-use spectrum as two people can be, yeomen’s work,” he added later. “This STREAMSIDE MANAGEMENT
TRAILS

managed to ind a middle ground.
group helped set a good example and a
“This is a great success,” Wilson, an model for others to look at.”
opponent of new wilderness whose ten- I
ure in the North Fork runs 66 years. n the past, litigation was the choice
“What our group discovered during this tool for many environmental groups
year-long process was that it did not end trying to force change on public lands,
up being a give-and-take process. In the MOUNTAIN BIKING WEED in Montana and across the West. But

end, everyone gained something without AND TRAIL USE
MANAGEMENT
the lawsuits often blocked restoration
losing anything of substance. We made projects and increased analysis require-
sure everyone got something.”
ments, leading to what former Forest
Frederick, a fervent wilderness ad- Service Chief Dale Bosworth disdain-
vocate, added, “What was special about fully termed “analysis paralysis.”
this particular collaboration is that, af- The Whiteish Range Partnership
ter a period of time, the people trusted is proof that the dynamic is chang-
each other. Without trust you’ll get no- ing. Many environmental and interest
SNOWMOBILING
WILDLIFE
where.”
groups have engaged the decision mak-
Ting process from a diferent angle: col-
he success and trust that Wilson laboration.
and Frederick refer to was built Michael Jamison of the National
by the Whiteish Range Partnership, Parks Conservation Association helped
a yearlong collaborative with the aim organize the planning eforts, and said
of reaching community consensus on the aim of the group was to see if its
future management of the Whiteish MOTORIZED RECREATION
WILDERNESS
members could hash out a blueprint for

Range — the mountains that rise above the future of the Flathead before the fed-
Whiteish and Columbia Falls. The vast eral agency launched its own planning
majority of the Whiteish Range is un- process.
“What the people did here was some
der the management of the Flathead Na- “We wanted to be the irst out of the
tional Forest, which is revising its forest chute and take management of our pub-
service plan for the irst time since 1986.
lic forests into our own hands,” he said.
The draft management plan covers “This was organic and totally locally yeomen’s work. This group helped

about one-seventh of the Flathead Na- driven. These are people who were tired
tional Forest’s 2.4 million acres, and in- of not getting along with their neighbors, set a good example and a model for
cludes Big Mountain, the Tuchuck and tired of shouting and suing, so they got
Thompson-Seton inventoried roadless together and talked.”
area, as well as a patchwork of timber- It wasn’t always easy.
others to look at.”
lands, forest roads, old bike trails, re- It took 13 months just to strike an ac-
mote campgrounds and ire lookouts.
cord on the Whiteish Range, and more
The western boundary of the White- than 2 million acres of additional forest
Chip Weber,
ish Range tracks along the Lincoln-Flat- fall under the Flathead National For-
head county line. The Canadian border est’s purview. Numerous other groups
and a transboundary wildlife corridor will weigh in before the Forest Service Flathead National
cross its northern edge. The North Fork announces its inal environmental im-
of the Flathead River, a federal Wild and pact statement and record of decision Forest Supervisor
Scenic River, and Glacier National Park in 2016, including those that lie on the
mark the eastern boundary.
radical fringe, and they won’t necessar-

In 2006 the Flathead Forest came ily reach the same consensus.
out with a draft management plan that Joe Krueger, team leader for the for-
included wilderness recommendations est plan revision, said the dynamics of
for the Thompson-Seton and Tuchuck the partnership were thorny at times,
roadless areas overlooking the north- and some members were fundamentally
ernmost portion of the North Fork, but opposed to others’ beliefs, particularly
the draft plan was withdrawn in 2008 as they pertained to proposed designat-
because of litigation. Now the forest

is operating under planning rules ap- Continued on next page
proved in 2012, which emphasize collab-
COURTESTY FLATHEAD NATIONAL FOREST