Group ask forest not to add more wilderness

A longtime wilderness advocate is asking the Flathead National Forest to not add any more wilderness to its inventory.

“We do not support additional wilderness at this time,” the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association wrote in its comments on draft alternatives to the Flathead National Forest plan. “We believe the agency is struggling to effectively manage what they have and that adding to the wilderness management program will place a financial hardship on the agency at the expense of other programs. Historically, outfitters and their advocacy can be traced back to the efforts to originally create wilderness, a history we are proud of. However, given the challenges and difficulties the agency is having managing the current allocation of wilderness, we question the wisdom of expansion at this time.”

The plan, through its alternatives, has several wilderness recommendations, including one alternative that would create about 500,000 acres of recommended wilderness across the Forest.

The outfitters association represents more than 200 of the 700 outfitters in the state. Executive Director Mac Minard said the organization’s main concern stems around Forest budgets and trail conditions in the wilderness.

“We’ve got incredible problems with trails,” he said.

A bill recently passed by congress and signed by the president will help, he noted.

The National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act encourages the Forest Service to promote more volunteer efforts in maintaining its network of trails. It also creates a pilot program that allows outfitters to maintain trails in lieu of paying some of their fees to the Forest Service.

But that section of the law has drawn some quiet criticism from trail crews, who note that those fees are what pay for their services and expertise.

The Bob Marshall Wilderness alone has about 1,100 miles of trails and yet the Flathead National Forest’s trail budget is less than half of Glacier National Park’s. The Park has a little more than 700 miles of trails and spends about $1 million a year to maintain them. The Forest in contrast, has an annual trails budget about half of that.

That means some trails might not see any work over the course of a summer, and in less traveled trails, over the course of several years.

Firefighting has been blamed in recent years for depleting the Forest Service’s overall budget. The Forest Service spends more than half its budget on fighting fires. There have been calls by Montana’s congressional delegation to pay for large wildfires through the nation’s disaster funds, but that bill has yet to clear Congress.

Minard made it clear the organization is not opposed to wilderness. In fact, it supported and played a role in passing the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, which added about 70,000 acres to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

But he also noted that trails are the lifeblood to his industry. About 60 members of the outfitters association guide in the wilderness.

Minard said he took a trip into Youngs Creek in the headwaters of the South Fork last summer. He said without the trails, there simply was no way to get around — fires over the years have jack-strawed the timber.

Wilderness has been the hottest topic of this Forest plan. Of the more than 650 unique comments to the plan’s alternatives, about 72 percent have some mention of wilderness, either pro or con.

If one adds in the form letters, that number zooms up to over 90 percent. The Forest received 23,000 form letters on the plan alternatives said Flathead National Forest plan writer and editor Stacy Allen.

About 19,000 of them came from the Sierra Club members advocating more wilderness in Flathead, she noted.

In the coming weeks, Allen said the Forest will start writing responses to the comments, which will be an appendix to the final plan. The final plan is expected to be out for public comment in the late spring or early summer.