Forest in Focus Initiative treats lands near Bigfork

A forest project in Bigfork is helping a mill in Columbia Falls and keeping a homeowner’s property safer from wildfires.

Dr. John Christiansen is using grant money from the Forest in Focus Initiative to improve the forest on his land.

Started in 2014, the Forest in Focus initiative, driven by Gov. Steve Bullock, sets aside $2 million for work on private, state and tribal lands, and another $1 million for federal lands. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is tasked with dispersing grants.

The goal of the work being done on Christiansen’s 7.3 acres is fuel reduction and restoring the forest’s health.

“We’re thinning out the trees with the goal to reduce fire hazard and improving the health of the forest,” said Jerry Okonski, owner Great Northern Land Services. Okonski spearheaded the Christiansen project, as it is being called, and has also worked on several other projects in the surrounding area. After reaching out to Dr. Christiansen and other landowners, Okonski developed a project proposal and requested the funding being used for this project when Forest in Focus initiative funding first became available in 2014. He was granted $148,407 for his proposed work on 121 acres of private forest land. The Christiansen Project received $8,760 of this grant.

F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company has been a major purchaser on the project, taking saw logs off of the land.

“It’s been a great benefit having this project available,” said Chris Damrow, a forester for Stoltze. “We have the ability to treat stands that ordinarily would be uneconomical.”

Damrow said the project, and the wood it provides the mill, has been beneficial to the company.

“It’s helped create and sustain jobs, and it produces usable product for many facilities and sustains those jobs as well,” he said.

Non-merchantable trees, including those that are rotten, are being directed to Willis Mill in Bonner to become pulp.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship. We’re able to do this work and get rid of the product, and it supports the industry,” Okonski said.

Maintaining the forest’s health is a concern for both parties.

“Maintaining species diversity is important,” Damrow said.

Okonski listed a dozen species in the area, including birch, mountain maple, cottonwood, lodgepole and ponderosa pine, white pine, Douglas fir, western larch, western red cedar, hemlock, alpine fir, and grand fir.

Okonski’s partner and co-owner of Great Northern Land Services, Chris Evans, devises the forest plan for the project.

“I look at what needs to go, what needs to stay, and areas where I can fall everything and minimize impact,” Evans said. He added that his goal is to leave green spaces.

“We feel like that really helps with recovery,” he said.

Aesthetic also goes into planning.

“Lots is rotten, so I take that out and leave it with a natural flow. I’m trying to create a natural landscape and break up the viewshed,” Evans said. “The people we’re working for care about the forest and the health of the forest, and Jerry and I do a good job of delivering that.”

Wildlife also plays a role in managing the woods.

“If I see a nest in a tree, it stays. There’s falcons, hawks, raptors ... the land owners like their birds, and it adds value to the project,” he said.

White pine, a once abundant species that has succumbed to blister rust across much of its range, is also benefiting from this project.

“We’re finding a lot of white pine, and we’re collecting cones from the ones that are resistant to blister rust,” said Rick Moore, a Service Forester with the Montana DNRC.

When more grant money became available this year, Okonski was granted another $50,725 to continue working on 53 additional acres of land in Flathead County.