State drafts habitat plan for trust lands

The state of Montana is offering up a draft Habitat Conservation Plan to manage state school trust lands in compliance with the Endangered Species Act regarding three species: grizzly bears, Canada lynx and bull trout.

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will be holding a series of information meetings across the state in July to gather public input on the proposed plan. There is a 90-day public comment period on the draft Environmental Impact Statement and associated Habitat Conservation Plan.

For the last five years, the DNRC has been developing the draft plan with technical assistance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency charged with the recovery of threatened and endangered species.

The proposed Habitat Conservation Plan would endure for a 50-year period and apply to about 548,000 acres of trust lands in central and western Montana.

Three alternative approaches have been considered, mainly geared toward conservation of grizzly bears, lynx and bull trout, all listed as "threatened" species.

It would also apply conservation considerations for two non-listed species - westslope cutthroat trout and Columbia redband trout - that present 'regulatory uncertainty" for the state in the future.

The entire purpose of the conservation plan is to provide 'reasonable certainty" that trust lands will be managed in compliance with the ESA, said Tom Schultz, administrator of the state's Trust Land Management Division.

But the state, in turn, "is provided increased certainty that it can continue to conduct forest management on these lands over the long term."

A July 20 meeting is planned at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell from 2 to 8 p.m. in the Arts and Technology Building, room 139; a July 22 meeting will be held at the Best Western Great Northern Hotel in Helena from 2 to 8 p.m.; and a July 23 meeting will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Missoula from 2 to 8 p.m.

The draft EIS and conservation plan and instructions on providing comment are available online at: http://dnrc.mt.gov/HCP

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