At the September meeting of the Mineral County Resource Coalition, co-directors Carol Young and Willie Peck gave an overview of the mission as there were several new people at the table and on zoom.

“Our purpose over the last 12 plus years has been to mainly work with the Forest Service to try to maximize the benefits of our forest for Mineral County. Whether it’s forest restoration work for the land itself or for the economy, which most people know has suffered because of our lack of taxable land,” Young said “The county only has 7% of land that pays property taxes so we have a huge challenge to try to manage all of the services that a county must provide so we rely heavily on the national forest. And in years past the amount of help we receive from the forest for economic assistance has been ratcheting down. So, our group (MCRC) tries to make a balance between taking the very best care of the land and taking the very best care of the people who live on the land. We try to get as many voices around this table as possible so when we try to push for something it isn’t going to help one side and then hurt another.” 

Peck added, “We work on the national forests in western Montana and eastern Idaho by working with them (USFS) by providing comments on nearly every project that comes up, program changes, planning and all of those things. But even collaborating with all of those other national forests, our primary focus, as Carol said, is on the economic part of Mineral County. Having lost our last (lumber) mill a few years ago took the wind out of our sails, but hopefully we’ll get that wind back,” he said. 

Table discussion went to the recent increase in PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) where Mineral County now receives 99 cents per acre of national forest land that equated to about $35,000 extra for the general fund the county commissioners oversee. 

“That’s not enough,” someone said at the table after Peck said that Missoula and Ravalli counties were each receiving over $3 per acre. The formula has much to do with the population of the county. 

Peck said, “We need to figure out how to use the GNA (Good Neighbor Authority) agreement better.” 

The formula needs to remove the population of the counties as that skews numbers and doesn’t tell the full story on how badly rural areas with small populations rely on their PILT payment.

Abby Lane, Superior National Forest district ranger, shared that their department had received a complaint from Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance of the Wild Rockies, on the Red Bull II Project timber sale. Young said that she thought the project was beyond the complaint time frame. 

“This is entering the litigation phase, after post signed decision, anyone can file a complaint against the Forest Service,” Lane explained. “This is new for us, for the Superior Ranger District. We haven’t seen an active litigation since the early 2000s. Even though this is hard and it’s hard not to get emotional about it, due to the decade or more of collaboration work and the work that the (Forest Service) staff put into this project, this is a part of the process. We just haven’t been hit with it in the same way some of the other districts have on the Lolo (National Forest).” 

She then explained a Forest Service policy where employees cannot comment on active litigation so if questions develop that people are to contact her and she will try to answer them in the best way that she can. 

“This will be my first litigation on a project as a district ranger so it’s a learning experience for me too. It’s going to be a process and take time to work through all of this,” she said.

On Friday, Wally Congdon, Mineral County Deputy District Attorney, explained that Mineral County has become involved with the complaint.

“We’re going to file an amicus brief with the court on behalf of the county to defend the Forest Service action in the sale because the sale and the project are for fire protection, habitat improvement, timber harvest, etc. This needs to be done because it’s a huge piece of land that hasn’t been managed for a long time. It affects a lot of people including the road over the (Little) Joe that goes over to Idaho.” 

Congdon explained the reason, he believes, for the action that is being taken by the Alliance of the Wild Rockies. 

“The rational is because there is not enough care and protection provided for the bull trout because their population has decreased so much in the Clark Fork River. And because of that there are several important streams in the Red (Bull II) project that are going to be affected by sediment during the logging. Well, we’ve done an awful lot over the years on this project with roads, grading, culverts and bridges already.” 

Congdon then expressed that there are many other factors of the bull trout decline that Garrity is not taking into consideration. 

“Everything from Stone Container (in Frenchtown), removal of the Milltown Dam, to the illegal introduction of fish species like northern pike, walleyes’ and so on, so there are all of these other features. It is not just the Red Bull sale. But no, there’s no discussion of the other stuff. Just the Red Bull.”

The Mineral County Resource Coalition meets the second Tuesday of each month in the Mineral County Commissioners Conference Room from 10 to noon. For information, contact Emily Park at (406) 822-3545 [email protected].