That's what Dave Atkins calls the area where environmental, economic and social concerns overlap, a spot on the landscape where the needs of nature and humans are balanced.
“As we demand more of our natural resources in the West, we have to adapt our management,” said Atkins, the acting Ninemile district ranger on the Lolo National Forest.
The $1 million project, which started in May after six years of planning, is designed to reduce the risk of severe wildfires and restore the forest's health, while producing jobs and revenue for the local economy.
It is one of the largest stewardship contracts in the Forest Service's Northern Region, and work will continue through 2014.
A farming community not so long ago, Frenchtown is quickly becoming a suburban bedroom community of Missoula.
Developers are building a growing number of homes alongside the national forest boundary, where wildfires in 2000 heightened public concern about the potential for even more intense fires. (One of those fires, called the Black Cat, came with a vengeance last summer.)
Following the 2000 fire season, a series of public meetings between the Forest Service and residents, environmentalists and others resulted in the Frenchtown Face restoration project.
The project includes commercial logging and thinning on 3,600 acres that border 1.5 miles of private land and homes. The goal is to reduce hazardous fuels, to restore Douglas fir and ponderosa pine forests, to restore fish and wildlife habitat and to reduce the risk of tree death from disease and insects.
Prescribed burning is planned on another 10,000 acres to reduce fuels and enhance wildlife forage.
About 4,600 acres will be sprayed for noxious weeds, and 19 major culverts will be replaced or removed to allow fish passage.
Also, nearly 115 miles of roads will be decommissioned, and improvements are slated for campgrounds, picnic areas, parking areas, trailheads, and off-highway vehicle, mountain bike and horse trails.
The Frenchtown Face was widely logged a century ago but today is overstocked with trees, creating a forest ripe for disease and bark beetles, officials said.
Officials with the Forest Service and Tricon Timber, the project's contractor, said stewardship contracts produce a variety of economic and environmental benefits compared to traditional timber sale contracts, which focused on logging revenues.
Under the current project, trees larger than 19 inches in diameter are being left alone, while smaller trees are being selectively cut and underbrush is being removed with chain saws and prescribed burns.
“We were making a killing, the Forest Service was losing and the money was going elsewhere under the old-style timber sale contracts, but this isn't like that,” said Scott Kuehn, a procurement forester with Tricon Timber. “It's much more complicated and it has different benefits for everyone involved. It's more about restoring the forest than regenerating” it for future logging.
At the project site Tuesday, heavy equipment operators were busy cutting down, stacking and transporting trees. Large piles of woody debris, called slash, that typically would be burned, are to be used for biomass fuel.
Private homeowners often stop to look at the work, peeking through the thick wall of trees that separates their land from the public's land. Many of the homeowners have praised the project, saying it will reduce their fire risk.
“These treatments won't stop fires from starting, but they will allow us to fight fires more effectively and to reduce their intensity,” Atkins said.
Reporter John Cramer can be reached at 523-5259 or at johncramer@missoulian.com.
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