Now is your chance to get involved, make a difference and influence how a significant portion of your public lands are managed.
The Helena and Lewis and Clark National Forest is currently hosting public meetings and taking comments regarding their recently released draft Forest Plan revisions which will guide recreation, grazing, logging, vegetation treatment and other activities in the 2.8-million-acre forest for the next 15 years. The forest includes all of what was previously known as the Helena National Forest and Lewis and Clark National Forest, which were combined into one Forest in 2015. It includes all or portions of the Elkhorns, Rocky Mountain Front, Big Belts, Little Belts, Highwoods, Crazies, Castles and Snowies. The Divide landscape west of Helena along with the upper Blackfoot drainage are also included. The Forest contains about 500,000 acres of designated wilderness, including the eastern portions of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.
Unlike past plans, the new plan calls for managing the Forest based on natural geographic boundaries, rather than smaller man-made management areas based on forest activities. “It’s a holistic approach to forest management that’s rare in the nation,” says Bill Avey, the Forest’s supervisor. “We’re revising our forest plan because the last ones were written in 1986, and a whole lot’s changed both socially and ecologically . . . The public has asked us to look at the forest by geographic areas or by mountain range.”
The draft plan for the 2.8 million-acre forest, which is headquartered in Helena and Great Falls, seeks a reasonable balance in it’s multiple-use mandate by protecting and enhancing critical watersheds for threatened bull trout and west slope cutthroat trout; protecting critical habitat for grizzlies, lynx and other threatened and endangered species; maintaining and improving recreational opportunities, and considering related economic needs and benefits of local communities. The proposed plan provides specially designated management areas for important parts of the forest, such as recreation in the Smith River corridor and tribal significance of the Badger-Two Medicine area east of Browning. Helena’s South Hills would receive a special designation as a recreation area. The plans states that 667,079 acres of the Forest are suitable for timber production and recommends 281,235 acre be added to the wilderness system.
One of MWF’s concerns is that the plan does not incorporate traditional standards for habitat security, which is critical for maintaining healthy, balanced elk herds and hunting opportunities. We urge the Forest Service to maintain and include traditional, effective, science-based habitat security standards.
The Forest Service has scheduled nine public hearings on the plan that began Monday, Jan. 24, with a large turnout in Lincoln. Three other meetings will be held over the next three days in Helena, Townsend and White Sulphur Springs, respectively. Other workshops will be held through early next month. A complete list of dates and locations and more information is available at https://www.fs.usda.gov/helena/.
David Stalling is Montana Wildlife Federation’s Western Field Rep. You can reach him at dstalling@mtwf.org
