sustained yield study

By JIM MANN

The Daily Inter Lake

A study that recommends boosting the annual timber harvest from state trust lands by 26 percent will be considered by the state land board next week, amid criticism that it has received scant public attention.

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation released a draft of its "Sustained Yield" study to land board members on Aug. 25, and to about 14 people on Sept. 1, according to Brian Long, supervisor of the department's forest inventory section.

Public comments on the study were due by Sept. 13.

On Sept. 20, the land board will consider adopting the study and its recommendation to boost the annual timber harvest from state trust lands from 42 million board feet - a volume established by a similar study in 1996 - to 53.2 million board feet.

"We believe the process for commenting on this extremely important document was far too short and did not involve the public," wrote Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan, an environmental group that has sued to stop several timbers sales in the Swan Valley. "DNRC did not distribute the document to persons and organizations who have an on-going interest in state lands issues… DNRC did not publicly announce the availability of the document, did not issue a press release, did not hold public meetings and did not post the availability of the document" on its Internet Web site.

Montgomery has requested an extension on the comment period. That decision will rest with the land board, said Tom Schultz, chief of the department's forest management bureau.

Schultz contends that the department has kept those most interested in the study fully updated on its status. Department officials have met several times with representatives from the timber industry and the conservation community since January to discuss the study, he added.

But even so, Schultz anticipates that the land board will hear complaints about the short comment period. The State Board of Land Commissioners consists of the top five elected officials in Montana: the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state auditor and superintendent of public instruction.

The board could also raise questions about the study and call for additional information, Schultz said, or it could approve the study and implement 53 million board feet as an annual target, of sorts, for state land managers.

Montgomery has many questions regarding the 50-page study,

She points to large variances between the 1996 sustained yield study and the new study, which were developed by different consultants using different methods.

The 1996 study concluded that the "biological potential," or the maximum annual sustainable harvest, on 616,825 acres would be 58.6 million board feet. The new study finds that biological potential would be 94.6 million board feet off 726,662 forested acres.

The study cites a "more complete" forest inventory that added 109,837 acres for evaluation. About 60,000 of those acres were identified in Eastern Montana, where forests are generally less productive.

Montgomery contends the increased acreage and sustained yield increases need to be more thoroughly explained.

"We do not understand how the biological potential can increase by approximately 61 percent when the acreage increase was only 18 percent, and most of [that increase] is in Eastern Montana where sites are not as productive," she wrote.

Schultz said the added acreage made a difference, but the use of a completely different method of modeling state forest inventories also played a part.

The computer-generated inventory model projects how state forest lands will change over a 175-year period, with some benefits.

Schultz said the model demonstrates how the projected sustained yield harvests will eventually convert lands dominated by Douglas fir and other shade tolerant tree species to Ponderosa pine and species that are not shade tolerant. That is a "desired future condition" outlined in the state forest management plan.

Schultz said the model also projects how sustained yield harvests will affect old-growth timber, a forest management issue that has been controversial in recent years.

"There's been a lot of debate and discussion about old growth," Schultz said. "We've adjusted the model so that it manages old growth in a fashion where there will be 55,000 acres of old growth on the landscape in 100 years, and that will increase over time."

That will happen with logging in old-growth stands, and through "recruitment" of younger stands that will eventually meet old-growth standards.

"Those stands will retain enough large-diameter trees and other biological features [to] meet the old-growth definition," Schultz said.

The land board is scheduled to meet Monday at 9 a.m. in the State Capitol in Helena.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com