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.
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Tracy Stone-Manning was the Director of the Bureau of Land Management under President Biden, where she oversaw the agency’s 248 million acres. Her career began in Montana, running the Clark Fork Coalition in Missoula for almost a decade and heading up the state’s environmental quality agency under Gov. Steve Bullock. She is now the president of the Wilderness Society. She sat down with Montana Public Radio’s Ellis Juhlin to discuss what's happening and how land management has changed from her time directing the BLM, to now. -
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A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service to reexamine how a cattle grazing plan for areas north of Yellowstone National Park could impact grizzly bears.
