BOZEMAN-Ed Regan, resource manager for RY Timber, supports U.S. Sen. Jon Tester's forestry bill and he told a crowd at the Gallatin County Courthouse why during the senator's visit to Bozeman Monday.
With mills in Townsend, Deer Lodge and Livingston, RY produces about 20 percent of all the timber shipped out of Montana, he said.
"We believe the bill has the ability to stop the gridlock that has" halted forest management, Regan said. Because of lawsuits and appeals regarding land use in the national forests, "we've been forced to go out of state" to Wyoming and Idaho for raw lumber, he said.
"With all the dead timber around, it's ridiculous for us to have to haul timber from 300 miles away," Regan told the crowd.
Tester's bill, created through the collaboration of Montana's wilderness, recreation and logging concerns, aims to break the gridlock caused by litigation that has all but halted logging in most areas of the state, the senator said.
"Forest plans go on the shelf and collect dust" because the National Forest Service isn't willing to fight the lawsuits, Regan said later Monday. This bill "is holding their feet to the fire by making them accountable to Congress."
People will still be able to sue if the bill becomes law, but Regan and Tester are confident that, because all affected parties were "invited to the dance," Regan said, a judge would deny them.
About 150 people came to hear Tester speak about his forest jobs and recreation bill.
If approved, the act will create distinct usage areas in three of Montana's national forests -- Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Kootenai and Lolo. The bill specifically designates wilderness, recreation and timber harvest and restoration areas in each of the forests.
The bill mandates 70,000 acres of timber to be harvested over 10 years from areas in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge forest, 3,000 acres in the Kootenai and provides stewardship contracts on 50,000-acre parcels in Lolo, according to Tester.
In exchange for the timber harvests, lumber companies conceded to designating more than 550,000 acres of forest service and Bureau of Land Management lands to wilderness in the Beaverhead region while 76,000 acres of former wilderness was released to multiple uses.
"The forests of Montana are turning the wrong color," Tester said, indicating an aerial photo of thousands of beetle-killed trees. The bill aims to address issues of wildfire danger, clean water, loss of forest jobs, wildlife habitat, outdoor recreational opportunities and Montana's hunting and fishing traditions, he said.
"For decades, forest policy and lawsuits have stopped forest management cold," Tester said. "It's clear Montana's forests need a new plan."
Bringing diverse groups of timber companies, conservation groups, motorized recreationalists, hunters and fishermen together to hash out his plan was key to its gaining widespread support, he said.
"Just a few short years ago, you wouldn't have gotten these people in the same room together," Tester said.
But Tester's bill hasn't won universal support.
"I am an endangered species," said Tim Ravndal, a logger from Townsend while waiting to speak with the senator.
Despite its intent to create jobs that would put him to work, Ravndal, of Montana Multiple Use Association, said he's opposed to the bill, saying it doesn't take motorized recreationalists' concerns into account.
But motorized use was not the crux of his opposition.
"It's too narrow-focused," Ravndal said. "Recreation is not a right but logging, mining and grazing are inherent rights guaranteed by Montana's Constitution." Others, who support the bill, disagreed.
"Roads were the big sticking point in this bill," said Scott Bosse of the conservation group, American Rivers. "What's really bad for hunting is keeping all these (logging) roads open and changing the backcountry nature of the landscape. There's nothing worse for hunting than punching in these new roads" and making the areas accessible to motorized use.
After the room had cleared Tester said his biggest barrier to getting the bill through Congress would be educating legislators. "We have to educate people back in Washington, which can be difficult," he said. They need to "know that the forest is in crisis and we've got a Montana-made solution for the federal forests of Montana."
- Jodi Hausen, jhausen@dailychronicle.com