Montana met its forest management goals for the third consecutive year. State officials say they increased the amount of thinning, timber harvests, prescribed burns and restoration projects on forests by 16% over 2022 levels.
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation last year placed over 36,000 acres under active forest management.
Gov. Greg Gianforte celebrated the work Tuesday in a tree nursery at DNRC regional headquarters in Missoula.
"This accomplishment would not have been possible without our strong partnerships with local communities, federal agencies and tribal nations," Gianforte says.
Gianforte says that work reduces wildfire risk, improves forest health and is good for business.
DNRC Director, Amanda Kaster, says the Good Neighbor Authority, which allows the state to conduct timber and conservation projects on federal lands, generated 10 commercial timber sales and 36 restoration projects last year.
"Which resulted in 21.7 million-board feet of timber, valued at approximately $2.8 million and supporting 294 Montana jobs,” Kaster says.
Gianforte and Kaster both expressed their commitment to increasing the pace and scale of forest management activities, while simultaneously increasing the state’s wildfire preparedness.
-
The Flathead National Forest has approved a plan to replace and modernize a wastewater treatment system for western Montana’s Holland Lake Lodge. -
The state is looking for public comment on a potential tungsten mine in the Flint Creek Range of southwest Montana. Comments will be accepted until Friday, Aug. 14. -
Northwest Montana has a below-average huckleberry crop this year. That means bears are now looking for alternative food sources and getting into trouble as a result. -
Bozeman and Missoula declared 100% clean electricity goals in 2019 and have been chipping away at this effort ever since. Now both cities have committed to a new renewable energy plan that gets them closer to carbon neutrality by 2030. -
Back in early spring Montana’s summer drought conditions were expected to be a lot worse than they currently are. June storms brought some relief, but the long-term outlook is less encouraging. -
A federal judge ruled in favor of conservation groups this month in a decision against allowing increased road building in the Bitterroot National Forest. The lawsuit, filed in 2024, argued federal agencies didn’t take a hard enough look at the impacts of roads on threatened species.
