From the Tuesday, May 2, 2006 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
The Flathead National Forest on Monday rolled out a proposed forest-plan revision that closely follows last year’s draft recommendations for wilderness, timber harvest and other strategic management goals.
The Flathead plan proposes 141,243 acres of wilderness, 328,328 acres for timber production and an additional 568,559 acres where timber harvest could occur on the 2.3 million-acre forest.
The Flathead, Bitterroot and Lolo national forests jointly issued their forest plan proposals, triggering a 90-day public comment period that will involve two open houses in the Flathead Valley . . .
The Flathead proposal of 141,243 acres of recommended wilderness is a substantial increase over the current plan’s recommendation for 98,080 acres. Most of the additional acreage is from about 60,000 acres in the North Fork Flathead drainage, in the Thompson-Seton and Tuchuck Mountain areas.
The Flathead proposal maps out 328,328 acres that are considered “suitable for timber production.” These are areas that would be actively managed to produce commercial timber products. That’s a substantial reduction from the 670,000 acres defined as the suitable timber base in the current forest plan.
But the new definition does not reflect all areas where timber harvest could occur. An additional 568,559 acres would be “suitable for timber harvest for other purposes.”
Those areas would be managed so trees could be harvested to achieve multiple-use objectives, such as supporting wildlife habitat, reducing fire hazards or improving scenic vistas . . .
Read the entire article . . .