Tester pushes Forest Service to create Montana jobs by launching forest projects

Senator says Montanans ‘should not have to wait’ for jobs that would be required by his forest bill

(FAIRFIELD, Mont.) – Senator Jon Tester is urging the U.S. Forest Service not to wait for passage of his bipartisan Forest Jobs and Recreation Act to begin creating jobs in Montana’s forests.

In a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, Tester urged the agency to “begin to accomplish the goals of the forest and restoration portion of the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act by implementing big, landscape scale projects on these forests with stewardship contracts.”

Tester reintroduced his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act last month.  The bipartisan legislation would require 100,000 acres of forest restoration and logging over 15 years in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge and Kootenai National Forests.

Tester told Vilsack and Tidwell that he will continue to push the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act “to provide long-term certainty to our mills, ensure watershed restoration, end the 30-year limbo surrounding proposed wilderness areas, and create more than 330,000 acres of recreation areas.”

“But the loggers, sportsmen, conservationists, recreation enthusiasts and other partners in this effort should not have to wait for partisan politics and congressional delays to create jobs and improve the health of our forests,” Tester said.  “These men and women of different political views did what Congress has all too often failed to do—set aside historic differences.  We must capitalize on their good work by beginning to address the backlog of work in the Wildland Urban Interface, the millions of acres of pine bark beetle-infested timber, and the duplicative roads and their impacts on water quality.”

Vilsack, who expressed support for the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act during a visit to Deer Lodge last March, recently told Tester that the goals within the legislation are “sustainable and achievable.”

Tester’s letter to Vilsack and Tidwell appears below.

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The Honorable Thomas Vilsack                       Tom Tidwell
Secretary                                                  Chief
Department of Agriculture                             United States Forest Service
1400 Independence Avenue, SW                    201 14th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250                               Washington, D.C. 20250

Dear Secretary Vilsack and Chief Tidwell:

I write today to urge your continued focus and action in expanding sustainable forestry in the State of Montana to maintain and create jobs. Specifically, I urge you to launch large landscape forest restoration projects on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge and Kootenai National Forests and continue to support the Southwestern Crown of the Continent project on the Lolo National Forest.  I ask that you use the Forest Service’s existing authority to begin to accomplish the goals of the forest and restoration portion of the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act by implementing big, landscape scale projects on these forests with stewardship contracts.

As you know after touring these national forests, forest restoration is just one key component of my Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. The full vision of the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act—combining jobs-creating, mandated forest restoration with designation of recreation and wilderness areas—cannot be realized without passage of the Act. I will continue to advocate for enactment of the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act to provide long-term certainty to our mills, ensure watershed restoration, end the 30-year limbo surrounding proposed wilderness areas, and create more than 330,000 acres of recreation areas.

But the loggers, sportsmen, conservationists, recreation enthusiasts and other partners in this effort should not have to wait for partisan politics and congressional delays to create jobs and improve the health of our forests.  These men and women of different political views did what Congress has all too often failed to do—set aside historic differences.  We must capitalize on their good work by beginning to address the backlog of work in the Wildland Urban Interface, the millions of acres of pine bark beetle-infested timber, and the duplicative roads and their impacts on water quality.

Montanans from all backgrounds are ready to create jobs by collaborating with your agency to design good, large projects for the forests.  As a first big step, they’ve already begun this work on the Seeley District of the Lolo National Forest.  I appreciate your ongoing support of that project.

This work would be only a small amount of what could be accomplished by enacting the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.  But it is critical that we act where we can to create jobs.  We must use all the currently available tools to protect the existing forest products infrastructure and jobs, to address our forest health, and to provide for our wood fiber needs.  The first step is to implement at least one large forest restoration project on each of these forests with stewardship contracts.

Thank you for your dedication to Montana’s forests and for considering my request.

Sincerely,
(s)
Jon Tester