| Yaak Valley Forest Council |
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–Tim Linehan, Board member,YVFC Location: Yaak Valley, Kootenai National Forest, Lincoln County, Montana. Objective: To protect the last remaining roadless cores in the Yaak Valley, support the development of a sustainable local economy, and encourage dialogue among polarized groups. History: The Yaak Valley in Montana's far northwestern corner is a Noah's Ark of diversity that harbors wolves and grizzly bears, redband and Westslope cutthroat trout, Coeur D'Alene salamanders, water howellia, and wood toads. Montana's only rainforest, it includes 1,400 miles of streams and 180,000 roadless acres managed by the Kootenai National Forest. Remote and rugged, the Yaak is also home to around 150 residents who share the county - which is twice as big as Rhode Island - with 19,000 other people. In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Forest Service used the 1995 salvage rider as a basis to propose logging the Kootenai's 464,000 acres of inventoried roadless lands. The alarm that sounded around the West over the rider galvanized a group of Yaak residents, who decided to dispel the commonly held illusion that only outsiders were interested in protecting the remaining roadless areas. They drafted a letter stating their commitment to keeping roadless areas roadless and to sustainable logging. The 25 people who supported these goals formed the Yaak Valley Forest Council in 1997. As diverse as the local flora and fauna, the Council includes outdoor guides and bartenders, massage therapists and road builders, loggers and teachers, writers, seamstresses, and electricians. The membership is informal. Most who have accepted the Council's commitments are economically tied to the local landscape, 98 percent of which is owned and managed by the Kootenai Forest. All have a spiritual commitment to the Yaak Valley. In addition to these members, who now total 75, the Council has an active mailing list of over 650 people.
In 1998, the Council helped launch a 10-year pilot project on approximately 400 acres of the Kootenai Forest, which pioneered a stewardship approach to forest management. Woods workers are allowed to keep the logs and other material they harvest to improve forest health. They are responsible for making improvements, such as road restoration, trail maintenance, and stream rehabilitation. The Yaak Community Stewardship Forestry Project has brought over $1 million into the Lincoln County economy. The work is ongoing. None of these stewardship activities has been appealed. The Headwaters Restoration Partnership Project, initiated by the Council in 1999, has surveyed more than 300 miles of stream in the upper Yaak drainage, collecting data on fish distribution, barriers and sediment sources. The project emphasizes the sensitive inland redband trout and the upper Yaak River, the last remaining ecosystem supporting Montana's only genetically pure native rainbow trout. Working in partnership with the Forest Service, as well as other agencies and groups, the Council has helped restore native trout habitat around decommissioned roads, one of them in a core area for grizzly bears. The Headwaters project has stimulated interest in expanding the partnership to include international groups gathering data on the Canada portions of the Yaak River. To encourage a sustainable local economy, the Council is working to establish a micro enterprise system based on stewardship principles. It is designed to connect small-diameter logging operators with independent local mills, which process the materials for manufacturing such products as furniture and yurts. Its commitment to the local community as well as the environment has stimulated dialogue within the Yaak community, including Kootenai Forest officials, Lincoln County commissioners, and the last local small-mill owner. To further encourage dialogue among polarized groups, the Council has served as a liaison between the Forest Service and environmental organizations. Some efforts have deflected appeals and litigation; others have generated data that strengthens public understanding of forest ecosystems. Challenges/constraints: Since its inception, the Yaak Valley Forest Council has attracted hostility and harassment beyond the normal antagonism sparked by collaborative groups formed around natural resource conflicts. Much of it has been extremely personal. The stewardship pilot project demonstrated the Council's commitment to sustainable logging and helped convince the resource-dependent community that it had an ally in developing new ways of practicing traditional industries. But when Council members began publicly organizing around a 15-year management plan for the Kootenai Forest, hostility again erupted. The Council wants federally designated wilderness in the million-acre Yaak land base, which to date has none. This has generated fresh animosity. Whether it is proposals for wilderness or collaboration itself, the Council has touched a nerve that jeopardizes the traditional power structure. In the Yaak, it is change itself that seems most threatening. The Yaak community is as polarized today as it has ever been. Some blame the Forest Service for a lack of leadership. Both council members and district ranger staff report good working relationships in the stewardship and Headwaters projects. The Council's frustrations focus on the larger, faceless bureaucracy. The Forest Service held 18 public meetings to discuss forest planning, but it did not provide the outside facilitation necessary for productive discussion in such a polarized atmosphere. Agency officials considered the planning sessions community meetings and only organized them when no one from the community stepped forward. The chances of reaching collaborative resolution seem to dim the longer the process drags on under these circumstances. For more information see: Yaak Valley Forest Council http://www.yaakvalley.org/
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 April 2008 ) | |||||
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