Weber reflects on career at helm of Flathead National Forest

A few years back Flathead National Forest Supervisor Chip Weber humped it up the steep ridge overlooking the Bunker Creek drainage accompanied by a host of wilderness advocates.

The wilderness folks wanted to see the remote Bunker Creek area recommended as a wilderness addition to the Bob Marshall Wilderness in the new forest plan.

But as they surveyed the landscape, a group of mountain bikers came buzzing down a nearby trail.

“You couldn’t have staged it any better,” Weber recalled.

Whether it was staged or not, it was a defining moment for Weber in the Forest plan process, illustrating just how many different and varied uses the Flathead sees.

“The values were understood,” he said.

Today, most of Bunker Creek is, indeed recommended as wilderness in the new Forest Plan. But that ribbon of trail is outside the boundary, a nod to the mountain bikers and hunters who like to use game carts.

After 9-1/2 years at the helm of the Flathead, Weber recently announced his retirement. One might say his best accomplishment was getting the Forest Plan completed, a document that has been worked on in fits and starts for nearly two decades prior to his arrival.

But Weber seemed to have a greater gift, in the final analysis. He got along with a wide range of folks, and was able to build relationships with a lot of different groups over the years through collaboration and listening.

The Forest Plan was completed in about four years.

“It seemed like a long stretch,” he said in a recent interview. “I’m pretty proud of it ... the way we did it probably saved the government millions.”

The Forest had a host of meetings with stakeholders and the public in crafting the plan. It also had a team of talented planners and staff, Weber noted.

The plan includes 200,000 acres of recommended wilderness, a more robust timber program, and a host of new recreational opportunities, including a trail network just north of Columbia Falls and the expansion of Whitefish Mountain Resort.

He said the Forest plan is also good for wildlife. Weber is an avid hunter and fisherman himself. While critics have claimed otherwise, Weber said the plan’s road density provisions are good for grizzly bears and other wildlife.

“It’s a really good plan for bears,” he said.

He noted that grizzlies continue to expand their range and he wouldn’t be surprised if grizzly populations aren’t soon linked across the state.

“If they’re not linked, they soon will be,” he said.

During his tenure, Weber noted the Flathead has also doubled its timber and restoration program.

Weber said he’s always had a strong connection to the woods. Growing up he spent as much time as he could in the woods of New Jersey and upstate New York, where his family had a place in the Adirondacks.

Weber began his Forest Service career in 1987 with an ecology crew in Oregon. From there, he expanded his experience to include botany, forestry, silviculture, biology and fire. Those newly found skill sets and interests set him up for his next step into the natural resource specialist position in the Hoosier National Forest in Indiana.

He designed a woods treatment there, he said, that was designed to help bats that lived in the woods.

After Hoosier, Weber moved back West where he spent the next nine years in two district ranger assignments — one with the Wrangell Ranger District on the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and another in the Middle Fork District on the Willamette National Forest in Oregon.

In Oregon, he designed a forest treatment that was meant to benefit the endangered Spotted Owls, by promoting the old-growth forest. He said that the nesting owls near the treatment were some of the most productive in the Forest.

Weber also worked as director of forest management in Alaska, threatened and endangered species coordinator in the Eastern Region of the Forest Service and worked in the Washington, D.C., headquarters budget office.

But his work in the Flathead has been the most rewarding. He said he worked with a great staff.

“The workforce is phenomenal,” he said. “They were really smart and adaptive people.”

He noted that once a month, the leaders of various state and federal agencies in the Flathead get together for breakfast.

He grabs a picture from the wall that shows them all sitting a table — Park Service, state Department of Natural Resources, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and others.

Again, it’s about building and maintaining relationships.

“We like each other and we try to solve each others’ problems,” he said. “It’s pretty sweet.”

Weber officially retires Jan. 1.