Zinke calls for timber work

The day after a fast-growing fire forced the evacuation of Essex residents from their homes, Montana’s lone congressman on Friday visited the fire team’s camp at the West Glacier koa.

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who is from Whitefish, connected Northwest Montana’s multiple wildfires to his bill that would aim to increase harvest and fuel treatment on federal forests.

“This is completely avoidable,” said Zinke, gesturing to the thick haze that has enveloped the region for the past week.

The Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015, of which he is a cosponsor, passed the House last month and Zinke said he has been pressuring the Senate to bring it up for consideration.

The bill would provide more flexibility to the U.S. Forest Service to thin vegetation as a means of reducing the risk of fast-spreading intense wildfires. The bill also would free up some federal emergency funds for firefighting efforts, which take up a large proportion of the agency’s annual budget.

One of the more controversial measures in the bill also requires any group or individual suing the Forest Service over a project to post a bond equal to the amount that it would cost the agency to defend it, unless that group participated in a collaborative group to develop the project.

“While Montana is the leading state in collaborative efforts, we’re also the leading state in lawsuits,” he said. He pointed to the 2003 Robert Fire as an example of an areas where the Forest Service avoided salvage harvest for fear of litigation from conservation groups. A portion of the Robert Fire burned again in the 100-acre Glacier Rim Fire earlier this summer.

He noted that a number of conservation groups have pushed back, arguing that the bill should be balanced out with new wilderness designations.

Zinke also said he would be open to amendments that include wilderness designations as long as they don’t strip out the legislation’s intent.

“This is not a wilderness bill. A wilderness bill won’t solve this,” he said. “But I’ll work with anybody as long as we can fix this.”

However, he also suggested that future wilderness designations should allow limited treatment of timber to manage for what he called “catastrophic wildfires.”

“I think they need to evaluate whether it’s in the best interest of the wilderness, whether we can take a more active role or just let it burn to the ground.”

He added that low-impact mechanical tools for trail clearing could be allowed, along with leaving the areas open to bicycle use. Per the 1964 Wilderness Act, mechanical equipment such as bicycles and chain saws are prohibited in Congressionally designated wilderness areas.

At the fire team’s 1:30 p.m. briefing, Zinke spoke up to suggest that unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, could be used to conduct infrared surveys of the fire perimeter, arguing that the equipment would be cheaper and wouldn’t require putting a pilot in jeopardy when visibility is low on the fire.

He also repeatedly hammered on what he characterized as Washington’s mismanagement of firefighting resources, saying that the National Guard should be filling in for the stretched personnel fighting the Thompson-Divide Complex fires, which include the Sheep, Granite and Thompson fires.

After an initial two weeks, firefighters at the camp are required to take two days off in a rotating schedule, meaning that the already limited firefighters assigned to the  complex are experiencing additional losses.

“It’s a standstill of bureaucracy. Certainly we can do better,” he said. “The status quo doesn’t seem to be working.”

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.