Hungry Horse timber sale first to utilize state-federal partnership

A timber sale near Hungry Horse is the first on the Flathead National Forest under the Good Neighbor Authority program.

The Liger Good Neighbor Authority timber Sale is the latest effort in a growing state-federal partnership to increase management activities and restoration outcomes on federal lands in Montana.

The sale is Montana’s third forest-management project to date utilizing Good Neighbor Authority, an initiative which allows the state to manage the harvest of timber on federal lands. St. Onge Logging, of Kalispell had the winning bid on the 386-acre sale, which will produce approximately 1.6 million board-feet of timber.

The state Department of Natural Resources administered the sale and bid process.

Forest managers with DNRC and Forest say the restoration project southeast of Hungry Horse and Martin City in Flathead County will decrease wildfire intensity and severity while increasing safety for adjacent landowners and firefighters and will produce a forest with more age diversity and resilience to future insect and disease outbreaks.

The Liger project will generate approximately $376,798; those funds will be reinvested into future projects such as hazardous fuels reduction, forest restoration, weed spraying, and stream improvement activities.

DNRC and the Northern Region of the Forest Service have more Good Neighbor projects scheduled for the future.

Liger is part of the larger Hungry Lion Forest Service project, which includes about 759 acres of prescribed burns and 12 miles of historic trail — the longest is a trail that runs through the Coram Experimental Forest on the flank of Desert Mountain.

Under 2018 Farm Bill authorities, the Flathead National Forest and DNRC identified areas around the communities of Hungry Horse, Martin City, Coram, and West Glacier to be included in Gov. Steve Bullock’s request for Priority Landscape designation, which was approved by the Chief of the Forest Service.