Tester unveils new-style wilderness bill

Collaboration the byword for effort

Backed by loggers, outfitters, conservationists, hunters and anglers, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., unveiled forest management legislation for the state, with wilderness designations, on Friday in Townsend.

The 80-page Forest Jobs and Recreation Act is largely based on the input of collaborative groups involving diverse interests over the last few years.

"This bill is the product of Montanans working together on Montana values - jobs, clean water, hunting and fishing," Tester said. "Introducing this bill is the beginning of the process. I invite all Montanans to join this effort as we work together to move this legislation forward."

For Northwest Montana, the bill includes provisions developed over several years through an effort called the Three Rivers Challenge, which included Lincoln County commissioners, a specialty mill in Troy, snowmobile groups, an all-terrain vehicle group, outfitters and business owners and the Yaak Valley Forest Council conservation group.

Similar efforts were pursued by other groups concerning lands on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, the Lolo National Forest and Bureau of Land Management areas near Dillon and Butte.

"I think the reason there was a big collaborative effort is because things haven't worked in the past," Tester said, alluding to multiple failed attempts by Montana's congressional delegation to pass wilderness legislation in the 1980s and '90s.

Tester's bill includes provisions designating 677,000 acres as wilderness on those federal lands. But it also releases seven BLM wilderness study areas from that special designation, allowing for multiple use management, including timber harvest, on about 76,000 acres, and it mandates minimum timber harvests on national forest lands.

Tester said the bill is largely aimed at addressing severe forest health problems after years of decline in the forest products industry.

"Our local sawmills are on the brink [and] families are out of work, while our forests turn red from an unprecedented outbreak of pine beetles, waiting for the next big wildfire," he said, referring to major infestations between Butte and Helena. "It's a crisis that demands action now."

The bill won immediate praise from several forest-products operations, along with groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, the Montana Wildlife Federation, the Montana Wilderness Association and Trout Unlimited.

"Sen. Tester's bill rewards Montanans for doing exactly what politicians always urge us to do: Work together to produce solutions," said Bruce Farling, executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited.

"Montanans believe we can both use and take care of our forests," said Sherm Anderson of Sun Mountain Timber in Deer Lodge. "This bill gives us … the tools we need to manage the forest, to restore healthy conditions and better protect communities from wildfire."

But the bill also has critics. Some environmental activists have expressed frustration that the bill has been developed in recent months only with the input of the participating collaborative groups.

Tester's office refused to share advance information on the bill "unless you are a selected mill owner or selected environmental group," said Matthew Koehler of the WildWest Institute in Missoula. "They are solving it by excluding anyone who disagrees with them."

Paul Richards, who challenged Tester in the 2006 Democratic primary race, charges that Tester is breaking a key promise to protect "all of Montana's remaining roadless wildlands' by releasing the BLM acreage for multiple-use management.

"Not only does the 'Tester Logging Bill' fail to honor that commitment; it does the exact opposite," Richards said in statement. "The 'Tester Logging Bill' is a well-orchestrated and well-funded assault upon Montana's roadless public wildlands."

Tester said there has been nothing secretive about the way the bill was developed.

"It was an open process when the collaborative groups started sitting down years ago," he said, adding that he and his staff have held numerous "listening sessions' across the state, including another that will be held today in Seeley Lake.

Tester said more meetings will be held if necessary, and the bill will likely have some changes.

He said the bill will be heard by the Senate Energy and Water Committee, but probably not until this fall.

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