A borrowed bit from an otherwise dead-on-arrival discussion
draft could make Montana Sen. Jon Tester's Forest Jobs and
Recreation Act work better, the senator said on Thursday.
"This is more like the sports car avenue, to identify projects
and get those done that are not controversial," Tester said in a
conference call with reporters. "It's going to streamline the
process to make it more work better, faster and more flexible."
In May, members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee redrafted Tester's bill, removing his mandated logging
requirements and replacing them with a "rapid watershed assessment"
process for smaller fuels-reduction and forest health projects.
Tester said that proposal would kill the bill's compromise between
supporting Montana's logging industry and creation of new
wilderness and recreation areas.
But the U.S. Forest Service is developing the watershed
assessment as its new forest management tool. Tester said he could
use it to approve logging projects with environmental assessments
for particular watersheds, instead of the more time-consuming
environmental impact statements needed for larger landscape-scale
efforts.
That would also allow the bill's language to work on other
national forests, using Montana's as a model. It kept the
Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Kootenai and Lolo national forests as the
pilot projects.
"With this bill, in end it's still up to the Forest Service to
do these projects after they make the call," Tester said. "The
Forest Service is fully aware of this language. I think they're
just fine with it."
The new version would extend the 100,000-acre logging mandate
from 10 years to 15. It would also put priority on projects that
clear fire hazards around homes and communities.
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A second part of the bill regarding wilderness
and recreation areas was not addressed in Thursday's revision.
Tester said he was sticking to his original proposal, which creates
670,000 acres of new federal wilderness and another 336,000 acres
of mixed-use recreation areas.
Bill critic Matthew Koehler of the Wild West Institute said the
committee's draft discussion version was better for Montana.
"Based on the (Energy and Natural Resources) Committee's draft,
it seems pretty clear that the committee and chairman (Jeff)
Bingaman will not allow this bill out of committee if it includes
logging mandates," Koehler said. "So it seems as if right now
wilderness designation for 660,000 acres of Montana's wildlands is
being held captive by the timber industry and Senator Tester's
insistence on the U.S. Congress mandating logging, which would be
an unprecedented and unwise step."
In his conference call, Tester said he was working to convince
Bingaman (who represents New Mexico) of the needs of Northwest
forests. He expected support from colleagues such as Oregon
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, who is drafting a similar forest
management bill.
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Another challenge the bill faces is time.
Tester said there are fewer than 60 working days for this session
of Congress to act on his legislation.
"We'd like to see it done this year," said Tony Colter of Sun
Mountain Lumber, one of the original collaborators on Tester's
bill. "We'd definitely need to see it happen within the next couple
years."
Colter said lumber prices have been slowly moving upward, but
that housing market forecasts don't predict healthy conditions
until 2012 or 2013. A major objective of the bill has been
guaranteeing a steady supply of timber for Montana mills. That
mandate was the part removed in the committee's discussion
draft.
"It looks like everything we wanted back in there is back in,"
Colter said. "Tester has been true to his word in making sure this
has all the parts."
Tester said he expected to have more give-and-take on the bill's
final form.
"The committee called their draft a skeleton, and as we
negotiate back we're trying to put some meat on that skeleton," he
said. "The forests are in crisis. We're losing our infrastructure.
We haven't had a wilderness declaration in decades. Everybody can
win on this deal. It's about putting folks to work and managing our
forests for future generations."
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at
rchaney@missoulian.com.