Schultz calls for more timber harvest

Full suppression of wildfires. Significantly more timber harvest. And more motorized public access to Forest Service lands.

Those were the themes touched on by U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz during a talk at the Western Republican Caucus in Whitefish Aug. 21.

“We’re focused on multiple use development,” Schultz told the crowd. “Back to the basics.”

The basics include full suppression of wildfires and “aggressive initial attack.”

He said there’s a role for prescribed burns, but it isn’t in July, August and September.

“We need to put fires out and that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

He said the Forest Service will repeal the roadless rule, which largely protects millions of acres of national forest lands from any future road development He claimed about 24 million acres of those roadless lands are adjacent to what’s known as the wildland urban interface, a zone where private homes abut the national forest.

He said he will look to increase timber harvest by 25%. In Montana, the Forest Service is working with the state on a 20-year agreement where the state will manage with the federal government about 200,000 acres of timber in Northwest Montana.

That’s already being done to a degree through the Good Neighbor Authority. The idea is to expand that system.

He noted the states across the West can bring resources to the program.

He claimed communities are responding to active forest management plans. He spoke of a fire in California that hadn’t seen much management due to concerns about spotted owl, an endangered species.

A wildfire burned about half the owl’s habitat anyway.

“We’re turning the ship,” he said. “It’s a big ship to turn, but we’re doing it.”

He claimed the staffing shortages at the Forest Service were overstated. He said there’s about 11,400 firefighters nationwide and most of the 2,200 probationary Forest Service employees who lost their jobs during the Department of Government Efficiency cuts earlier this year returned after a court order reinstated their jobs. All told, about 80 to 85%, he said.

But that doesn’t seem to align with what local managers have said previously. Glacier View/Hungry Horse District Ranger Rob Davie told the crowd at the North Fork Interlocal earlier this summer that staffing was down about 25%.

Schultz said having the grizzly bear on the Endangered Species List has been “a tremendous burden,” and 300 million board feet of timber that could be harvested are enjoined by litigation.

He said locals need an input on timber management. 

But even if more lands are open to harvest, there’s a decided lack of mills in many valleys.

Pyramid Lumber went out of business in Seeley Lake and Lincoln County, even its surrounded by millions of acres of federal timberlands, also does not have a major mill.

Schultz said the private sector will invest if there’s certainty in supply. He also suggested the use of federal Wood Innovation Grants to support businesses and mills.

Dozens held a national parks rally in West Glacier last week as the Western GOP caucus met at Lake McDonald Lodge. (Seth Anderson photo)
SETH ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY