DOINews: BLM Montana Green Mountain Forest Health Project: Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Just outside the town of Big Timber, Mont., sits the Green Mountain Forest Health Project Area. Through partnerships among the Bureau of Land Management and adjacent private landowners, the area is recovering from mountain pine beetle infestation and on the road to better health.

Overview of a log deck on the Green Mountain Timber Salvage. The timber is labeled, de-limbed and stacked according to ownership and then hauled to a local mill.

Now in the timber salvage phase, the project is the result of several years' worth of planning, hard work and coordination. The BLM, state of Montana, Stillwater Mine, Lion's Head Ranch, RY Timber and other cooperators are working together to harvest and salvage about 2 million board-feet of insect-infested and diseased timber on 335 acres of BLM, Stillwater Mine and Lion's Head lands.

Specific project objectives are ambitious: to develop a cooperative road system; reclaim unnecessary and duplicate roads; improve access; reduce hazardous fuel loading and fire danger; improve stand diversity and forest health; and decrease insect and disease damage. Achieving these objectives will ultimately result in a much healthier landscape.

“It's our responsibility to manage the land for long-term stewardship and public enjoyment,” said Bruce Reid, the BLM forester involved with the project. “Forest health is hazardous fuels reduction, wildlife habitat, and economic boost. It's not just logging.”

Reid has many years of experience working in areas infested with mountain pine beetle. “You can almost hear them chewing though the trees on quiet days out marking timber.”

In the Green Mountain unit, some sample plots hold up to 90 percent dead lodgepole pine due to beetle kill. The clear benefit of removing dead and dying trees is reducing hazardous fuels loading and thus the potential for catastrophic wildfire.

Craig Howells, Billings Field Office fuels specialist, with BLM-decked timber in December 2013.

Craig Howells, fuels specialist for the Billings Field Office and longtime Montana resident, highlighted the community aspects of the project.

“It's a project involving both federal and local land owners in the harvest,” he said. “The contractor harvesting the timber is based in Montana and the logs are being processed at a mill near here. It's a true collaboration benefiting the land but also benefiting the Montana economy.”

The entire Green Mountain project will result in about $100,000 profit for the BLM while boosting the local economy.

Contractor Seth Beck, owner of Iron Pine Logging, harvests trees in December 2013.

This timber salvage is the first large-scale sale for the Billings Field office in many years.

“This project is really a success for our office,” said Billings Field Manager Jim Sparks. “It has taken a lot of work to get to this point and the multiple resource benefits and collaboration is really a true success story.”

The Green Mountain Forest Health project is really seeing the forest for the trees.

March 13, 2014
Story by BLM Montana/Dakotas; Photos by Carmen Thomason