FOREST MANAGEMENT
The mission of the Forest Management Bureau is: "To sustainably manage Montana's forested trust lands to maximize long-term revenue while promoting healthy and diverse forests" on over 730,000 acres. Revenue from forested trust lands is mainly derived from the sale of forest products. This requires the teamwork of 72 bureau and field staff. The bureau also provides program direction and support to the area land offices. Several resource management sections provide technical expertise. Support and program direction are offered in several different ways: developing resource management standards, conducting site-specific reviews, and formulating recommendations as members of interdisciplinary teams that develop land management proposals.
The area land offices have primary responsibility for on-the-ground management activities. With assistance from the Forest Management Bureau, they conduct environmental reviews of proposed management activities, prepare contracts for those activities, and complete the necessary field work.
The State Forest Land Management Plan (SFLMP), approved by the State Land Board in June 1996 and associated rules (2003), guide the management of the forested trust lands. This guidance is provided in the form of general management philosophy and specific resource management standards. The strategic guidance provided by the SFLMP is summarized in this excerpt:
Our premise is that the best way to produce long-term income for the trust is to manage intensively for healthy and biologically diverse forests. Our understanding is that a diverse forest is a stable forest that will produce the most reliable and highest long-term revenue stream. Healthy and biologically diverse forests would provide for sustained income from both timber and a variety of other uses. They would also help maintain stable trust income in the face of uncertainty regarding future resource values. In the foreseeable future timber management will continue to be our primary source of revenue and primary tool for achieving biodiversity objectives.
Forest Product Sales
The forest product sales program incorporates all activities and expenditures required to grow, harvest, and sell forest products from state trust lands efficiently. All timber sales and permits are developed, analyzed, and reviewed in the field by foresters and resource specialists to ensure that sales comply with all applicable laws, policies, and management direction. Activities within this program include field layout of timber sales; development of sale prescriptions; MEPA documentation; preparation of sale contracts, prospectuses, and notices; both field and office administration of timber sales; and sale billing and accounting. These responsibilities are shared among field foresters, area staff, and bureau staff.
The Current annual sustained yield from forested trust lands is 53.2 million board feet as determined by the 2004 Sustained Yield Study. In FY 2007, 25 timber sales (50.4 million board feet) and 44 timber permits (2.9 million board feet) totaling 53.3 million board feet were sold. This sold volume has an estimated stumpage value of $12,606,424 and an additional $827,401 in Forest Improvement Fees.
A total of 32.1 million board feet of timber (sale and permit volume) and a minor amount of other miscellaneous forest products (post and poles, boughs, biomass, etc.) were harvested from state trust lands during FY 2007. The 32.1 million board feet that was harvested generated $7,405,276 in revenue will the other miscellaneous forest products generated $77,618 in revenue for a total of $7,482,894 in revenue for the year. An additional $1,316,404 in Forest Improvement fees was collected during FY 2007.
Total harvest volume and total value was down significantly from previous years. This was largely due to curtailed harvesting activity in response to soft market conditions. Overall, purchasers held off harvesting higher priced sales and focuses on harvesting lower priced sales. Timber sale purchasers have up to 3 years to harvest a timber contract. This curtailment in harvest activity has created a backlog of unharvested volume going into FY 2008.
The average price per thousand board feet for volume harvested in FY 2007 was $231 compared to $230 in FY 2006 and $234 in FY 2005, respectively. Due to soft market conditions, the average price received for volume sold in FY 2007 fell to $236 per thousand board feet compared to $292 in FY 2006 and $267 in FY 2005, respectively.
Forest Improvement
The forest improvement program uses fees from harvested timber to improve the health, productivity, and value of trust forested trust lands. Uses of these fees authorized by statute include disposal of logging slash, reforestation, acquiring access and maintaining roads necessary for timber harvest, other treatments necessary to improve the condition and income potential of state forests, and compliance with other legal requirements associated with timber harvest. Specific activities include piling of logging slash, prescribed burning, site preparation, seed collection, seedling production, tree planting, thinning, genetic tree improvement, erosion control, and culvert replacement. In FY 2007, the department collected $1,316,404 in Forest Improvement fees.
Habitat Conservation Plan
The Forest Management Bureau is currently developing a programmatic Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The series of conservation strategies designed to minimize the impacts of DNRC management activities on threatened or endangered fish and wildlife species, while providing DNRC with long-term management assurances and overall flexibility. The plan is required in the application for Incidental Take Permit authorized under Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act. The objective of this plan is to provide habitat protection for included species while providing for the continued Forest Management program on forested trust land.
The conservation strategies for grizzly bear, Canada lynx, and three fish species (Bull Trout, Westslope Cutthroat Trout, Red Band Trout) have been completed and have received technical and public review. The draft HCP/Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is being completed and is expected to be available for public review in the spring of 2008. Completion of the HCP project is anticipated in 2009. Additional information is available at: http://dnrc.mt.gov/HCP/
Forest Inventory
The Forest Inventory Program is responsible for collection and analysis of forest resource inventory data on 730,000 acres of state trust lands. Stand-level resource data and the development and maintenance of a geographic information system (GIS) are used to support planning for forest management activities, environmental analyses, and other activities. In FY 2007, the inventory program collected 42,083 acres of stand-level inventory data, collected tree data on 550 plots in 55 stands, and updated or added 4,800 miles of roads in the GIS. Each year the Technical Services Section processes and updates changes to the stand-level inventory data layer, road layer, and other GIS layers.
Resource Management
The Resource Management Section (RMS) provided technical assistance to field staff in the disciplines of hydrology, soils, geology, fisheries, wildlife, sensitive plants, road engineering, and riparian grazing. Technical assistance provided by the section staff includes field reviews, project analysis, Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) document preparation, recommendation and design of mitigation measures and other contract provision, and timber sale document review. The RMS also reviews, evaluates, and monitors activities on forested trust lands to ensure compliance with applicable laws, rules, and policies and maintains appropriate levels of resource protection.
In FY 2007, the RMS provided technical assistance on 19 DNRC timber sales and conducted 120 different wildlife, fisheries, soil, and watershed monitoring projects on forested state trust lands. Four stream restoration projects and three fire rehabilitation projects were also completed or initiated during the year.
