Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., is calling for a measure that would phase in wilderness designations as forest stewardship projects are accomplished through legislation sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.

Rehberg has posted on his Web site comments gathered during 22 meetings held across the state in recent weeks, all focused on Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.

An “overriding concern” at the meetings, Rehberg said, is that the bill’s wilderness designations would be immediate, “while there is no assurance that stewardship components would not be infinitely delayed by litigation.”

So Rehberg is proposing a wilderness “phase-in” that would time wilderness designations with active management of other federal lands that the bill addresses.

“While I appreciate the buy-in from the partnerships that helped draft the bill, this legislation affects all Montanans who deserve the right to be heard,” Rehberg said in a press release. “In addition to some other fixes, an incremental phase-in would help ensure logging isn’t bogged down by lawsuits after new wilderness areas are designated.”

But Tester is not so receptive to what he calls a “trigger” provision for wilderness designations.

Responding to an inquiry on the senator’s position, spokesman Aaron Murphy provided this statement: “The loggers who support this bill know trigger language won’t fly in Congress. Jon wants a practical bill that can pass Congress and become law, so folks can back to work in the woods. He’s considered this idea and many other, and he looks forward to discussing them with Congressman Rehberg.”

When Tester’s bill was rolled out last summer, it proposed 25 Montana wilderness designations, many of them small, applying to a total of about 677,000 acres. The only designation in Northwest Montana would cover about 29,000 acres in the Roderick Mountain area above the Yaak Valley.

The bill also released 76,000 acres of wilderness study areas for multiple use management, including timber harvest. It also included provisions mandating minimum timber harvests on certain national forest lands.

Tester distributed an opinion article to Montana newspapers Monday, emphasizing the bill’s provisions for creating jobs in the forest products industry.

“Last year, 1,700 Montanans lost jobs in our timber industry,” he wrote. “Timber harvest across our state plummeted a staggering 40 percent.”

If the bill doesn’t pass, he said, “Montana will lose the loggers, the millers, the truckers and the infrastructure needed to keep our timber industry a strong part of Montana’s outdoor heritage. And if we lose our timber industry, we lose our ability to manage our forests and to protect our communities from catastrophic wildfire.

But many of the comments Rehberg gathered came from people aware of the long track record of lawsuits that have been filed in Montana to stop forest management projects.

Immediately after Tester’s bill was unveiled, some of the state’s most active environmentalists derided it as a “logging bill,” raising suspicions that its mandated timber harvest activities could face legal challenges.

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