Page 19 - Flathead Beacon // 11.27.13

18 | NOVEMBER 27, 2013
COVER
FLATHEADBEACON.COM

ed wilderness. In the end, nobody left lots of threats. It was the timber wars.”
There is til time!
the table, and everybody gained some- By the turn of the century, the strat-
thing.
egy still wasn’t working and King real-
“I’ve seen attempts at this, but in ized it would be more efective to stitch
26 years this is the irst time I’ve seen a together a collaborative.
Many insurance beneits expire group like this stick it out,” Krueger said.
“It became clear that all of the ight-
on December 31. Call today to In order to stick it out, the group es- ing was getting us nowhere. No new wil-
tablished parameters. The members derness, the timber production just kept
make sure you’re making the agreed that nothing would move for- going down, the access issues were heat-
most of your beneits!
ward without consensus and that no ing up instead of cooling down. We real-
We’re a drop-off location for agreement on a single issue was inal ized we had been yelling at each other
donations for Bigfork Food Bank without unanimous approval of the en- for years about what we don’t want. Let’s
PARTICIPANT
and Toys for Tots too!
tire package.
talk about what we do want,” she said.
“Nothing was inal until everything King brought forest management
was inal because everything is inter- in the Yaak to the neighborhood level
connected,” Jamison said. “They lock and created coalitions around common 406.837.5611
Bigfork Dental Center

together like a puzzle.”
ground. Their eforts wound up rolled www.bigforkdental.com
8289 Montana Highway 35
Maybe Brown and his tenets on com- into a timber-and-wilderness bill pro- Bigfork, MT 59911
promise weren’t so far of base.
posed by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.,
Iwhich designates some lands wilder-
n the last decade, trends in forest ness, opens some for logging, sets some
management have tended more to- aside for motorized recreation and des-
ward stakeholder engagement and com- ignates others non-motorized.
It all began with
munity-based collaboration to provide The bill, which also cobbles together
one
input on the management of national eforts in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge and mouse.
forests nationwide. The 2012 National the Seeley Lake area, is called the Forest little
Forest Management Planning Rule cod- Jobs and Recreation Act and was irst in-
iies the trend with a requirement that troduced in 2009. The product of nego-
national forests provide an opportunity tiations by Montana’s timber-industry It ended with CLEAN KARS.
for citizens to collaborate both with oth- and conservation groups, it is making its
er stakeholders and forest managers on way through the U.S. Senate, awaiting
“After our brand new car became
future management of national forests.
action in the Senate Energy and Natural GIFT TES
The Flathead National Forest is one Resources Committee four years after CLEAN KARSat
i n f e s t e d w i t h m i c e , w e w e r e l e f t w i t h CERTIFICAGREAT
of the irst forests to implement the its introduction.
a large repair bill...and a lingering MAKE IFTS!
new rules, and Brown, who chaired the Repeated polling shows that more smell. After the detail at Clean Kars, G
Whiteish Range Partnership, said the than 70 percent of Montanans support the smell is gone, the car is spotless
stakeholders wanted to lead at the van- the forest jobs bill, which was construct- and my wife is happy.” - Dean Wilson
guard.
ed by former adversaries staking out
To accomplish that, they looked at common ground. Still, it is unlikely to be 601 E. Idaho, across from Taco Bell • 752-5511 • www.montanaautocenter.com

past collaborations and their bylaws.
passed into law any time soon.
Gordy Sanders, of Pyramid Moun- The success of the local, bottom-up
tain Lumber, attended the partnership’s collaborations underscores the grid-
irst meeting. Sanders helped establish lock at the federal level, where parti-
the Blackfoot Challenge, which mended san politics have kept public lands bills
rifts between ranchers, rafters, hunters from moving forward, but it does not cut
and loggers in the Blackfoot River drain- through the snarl-up.
age northeast of Missoula. He was also a “Some of these local collaborations

critical force in the Southwest Crown of have taken a hit because of the gridlock
the Continent collaborative, which es- in Washington,” Robert Saldin, associ-
tablished a large Forest Service land-use ate professor of political science at the
project in western Montana.
University of Montana, said. “These
“I learned a long time ago that it’s things have broad supports and have
better to talk to each other rather than now for years, and still they have no trac-
about each other,” Sanders said. “When tion at the federal level. Tester’s forest

you assemble a collaborative of difer- jobs bill is not the new kid on the block
ent interests and perspectives, what that it was in 2009. It has a lot of sup-
happens is that folks learn that what- port but it hasn’t gone anywhere. How
ever they thought in terms of a stereo- much more organizing and rallying and
type about a group, that goes away. Once getting people to write letters can you
they actually talk to each other there is do? It seems the work at the grassroots
a lot more common ground than anyone level has paid of in all these instances,
would ever have believed.”
and yet it is hard to get any momentum

Iin Washington for these big, large-scale
n Montana, some of the best exam- things. It’s got to be demoralizing to
ples of local collaborations were born these local groups.”
of intense inighting among polarized U.S. Sen. Max Baucus’ Rocky Moun-
factions. In the Yaak Valley, the timber tain Front Heritage Act, which also rep-
wars persisted for decades – environ- resents a diverse mix of interest groups,
mental absolutists monkey wrenched recently made headlines and prompted

and out-of-work loggers retaliated.
much handshaking when the Senate
In some cases, the feuding came to Energy and Natural Resources Com-
blows. There were threats and violence, mittee unanimously approved the bill.
while other arguments were laid out in The legislation would create a conserva-
court papers and mired in plodding legal tion management area for 208,000 acres
battles.
while preserving existing motorized use
“We were still getting in ist ights in and recreation, and allowing access for
the local bars over these issues,” Robyn hunting, biking and grazing. It also adds

King, executive director of the Yaak Val- 67,000 acres to the Bob Marshall Wil-
ley Forest Council, said. “There were
derness Complex.