Editorial: Rushed salvage plan sidesteps public input

Seven days.

That’s all the Forest Service has allowed for public comment on a proposal to open about 5.6 million acres in western Montana and northern Idaho to commercial salvage operations.

The federal agency quietly posted a notice to its website June 22 — no formal notification was sent to media or stakeholders. The plan likely would have flown under the radar had it not been for Daily Inter Lake reporter Hailey Smalley’s diligence. Smalley’s June 25 article detailed the 2026 Blowdown Emergency Project, which is in response to severe windstorms in December and March that raked forests across the region.

For anyone interested in weighing in, the comment period closes tomorrow — not that it would have mattered. 

It’s obvious the Forest Service hoped to push through this massive project on public lands without having to deal with the public it serves. With such a tight comment window and work potentially starting within weeks, the decision appears to be all but signed, sealed and delivered.

None of this is to say the work isn’t needed. Local trail crews can attest to the catastrophic aftermath of the windstorms that left trees scattered like pickup sticks. The downed timber not only block trails, but it can act as ladder fuels for wildfires and serve as feeding grounds for wood-boring insects. Getting into the forests to salvage the blowdown will promote forest health and boost local mills.

But on this project, the federal government is shelving public input in the name of urgency cloaked as an “emergency.”

The Forest Service’s own report indicates it may take up to five years to complete operations. That timeline doesn’t square with claims of such immediacy that meaningful public involvement must be tossed aside.

The short comment period stands in contrast to smaller “emergency” projects that allowed more public input. A two-week comment period was offered for this summer’s 200-acre thinning project around the chair lifts on Big Mountain, while three weeks was given for comment on the 512-acre Rad Reid Blowdown project around Tally Lake.

The Forest Service is shoving this project forward regardless of public input. That should concern anyone who believes public lands belong in public hands.