National Forest Restoration

In January 2007, the National Forest Foundation and Artemis Common Ground convened thirty-four conservationists, off-roaders, outfitters, loggers, mill operators, and state and Forest Service officials to discuss the possibility of writing a set of principles to guide the restoration process on national forests in Montana. The principles would represent a “zone of agreement” where controversy, delays, appeals, and litigation are significantly reduced. While we had some strong differences of opinion, everyone agreed that the effort was worth pursuing — we all want to see restoration that would provide both ecological as well as community benefits.

At that first meeting the group brainstormed a list of 60 restoration vision categories and restoration attributes. We formed three subcommittees, one to work on a set of restoration principles, one to come up with a plan to implement those principles and one to plan a field trip in order to talk about restoration outside of a meeting room. We named ourselves the Montana Forest Restoration Working Group and set a deadline of August 1, 2007 to complete the principles and an implementation plan.

On August 1, the Montana Forest Restoration Working Group unanimously approved thirteen principles and the implementation plan. Next, the group agreed to change its name to the Montana Forest Restoration Committee (MFRC)—reflecting its new mission to see that the Principles and Plan are put into practice. Finally, every member of the group agreed to serve on the new MFRC and we added three new people to the Steering Committee.

On November 1, we had the first meeting of the Lolo Forest Restoration Committee, a collaborative group whose purpose will be to work in partnership with the Lolo National Forest to design restoration projects consistent with our Restoration Principles. The group is currently reviewing several potential projects and is enthusiastic about getting restoration work going on the ground. Wildlands CPR will continue its involvement in this process and continue to push for road removal to be a key component of restoration projects on Montana’s national forests.

For more information check out www.montanarestoration.org

In March, the Northern Region (Montana, Northern Idaho, far western North and South Dakota) of the Forest Service finalized their allocations for their share of the national Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Initiative funding.  The Northern Region received $4.7 million in funding, and will be dispersing that funding as described in the two attached spreadsheets below.  The general projects attachment lists the road reclamation and critical maintenance projects that are being funded.  The fish passage attachment lists the major projects being undertaken to restore fish passage and aquatic connectivity with this funding.

Road reclamation and remediation activities are designed to bring significant benefits to water quality in national forests by reducing sediment, restoring fish habitat connectivity and protecting and restoring clean drinking water.  Specific treatments include upgrading culverts that are acting as barriers to fish passage; conducting critical, overdue maintenance; and reclaiming unneeded, ecologically damaging roads.  Reclaiming roads reconnects fragmented habitat, benefitting threatened species like lynx, bear and wolves.