I was surprised to learn that unlike drier areas of the West and Southwest that have very diminished sawmill infrastructure, the Shared Stewardship treatments on the Flathead National Forest are paying their way out of the woods. The timber sale funds are used to sustain and grow the small and efficient team at the MT DNRC that are doing regulatory planning and compliance, sale management and procurement, and generating enough additional funds to repair roads, address invasive species, and fund follow-up pile burns. Having state employees conducting planning, compliance, procurement, and forest management on federally managed public lands is still very much a new model in much of the West and elsewhere.
Flathead NF staff relayed how they can have increased capacity via their partnership with the MT DNRC and accomplish more forest management than they could without the partnership.
Is it scalable? We found out that yes, it is, but expansion will have to account for proximity to mill infrastructure, timber quality, and where partnerships exist or can be fostered.
What type of forest management is being implemented? We saw stands treated to remove fir and lodgepole pine trees (ladder fuels) and highlight the fire and drought resistant western larch and ponderosa pine. We saw powerlines being treated to protect infrastructure, forests, and watersheds since powerlines are a common wildfire ignition point. We saw treatments around communities for protection from high intensity wildfires.
You can read more in this PDF summary
and key takeaways from Kalispell.
