MISSOULA - Members of the Missoula Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) voted to recommend proposed fee installations and increases at Missoula County sites within Lolo National Forest during their Sept. 8 virtual meeting. Later they allocated more than $150,000 for project proposals including $30,000 to projects on the Seeley Lake Ranger District.
RAC members included Chair Ben Horan, Zachary Bashoor, Mike McGrew, Kristen Baker-Dickinson, Scott Kuehn, Jack Rich, Dr. Seth Wilson, Dr. Steven Gaskill, Christine Hastings, Sawyer Connelly, David Strohmaier, Alisa Wade, Dr. Jim Burchfield, Janet Krivacek and Chris Fellet.
The proposals to the RAC included 14 fee increases and two new fee proposals. Lolo National Forest Supervisor Carolyn Upton said after reviewing public comments and speaking with rangers, day use and nordic site fees were withdrawn and not a part of the proposal.
Upton said the fees can be seen as "tools" to help pay for maintenance, signs, visitor education and daily staffing. Different fee intervals will help fund the maintenance for different amenities.
The committee voted 12 to 1 to recommend the proposed fees as presented with Bashoor dissenting. He said while he believed increasing campsite fees was necessary, he thought that the issue should be revisited with more consideration of public interest. Connelly was not present at the time of voting. Wade chose to abstain despite being in support of fees to allow for more conversations around financial fairness.
Several of the members who voted in favor of the fee increases stipulated that they would like to engage in further discussions and/or have the fees enter in through a phased process. Because the original motion passed the fee proposals as presented, an additional motion was made to forward the committee's conversations and concerns to decision makers for consideration at their discretion. The new motion passed unanimously with the original vote still standing.
Following this vote, the RAC will work on a recommendation letter to send to the Regional Forester. The Forester will then consider this letter in coordination with Upton before moving forward.
The Lolo National Forest will present the fee proposal to the Mineral and Tri-County Resource Advisory Committees in the near future. The Lolo is working toward implementing the fee proposal for the 2021 summer season.
The committee then discussed which of the 17 project proposals they received would share a portion of the RAC's $151,537 available funding. Projects were ranked based on what RAC members thought was the best project or most worthy of funding.
Horan said 50 percent of the funding needed to go towards projects related to road maintenance, road decommissioning, watershed improvement or ecosystem health. Projects must be initiated by Sept. 30, 2022. This required 50 percent comes from the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, which provided the funding.
The Act was reauthorized by Congress through 2022 and is intended to provide transitional assistance to rural counties. Counties receive federal funds based on calculations including the percentage of land in federal ownership, funds generated through multi-use activities such as timber harvest, grazing permits, special use permits and per capita income.
The RAC was deciding on Title II funds for projects on Federal lands. Title II funds may be used for the protection, restoration and enhancement of fish and wildlife habitat, and other resource objectives with at least 50 percent of all project funds used for projects primarily dedicated to road maintenance, decommissioning, obliteration or stream and watershed restoration.
Following a discussion about the universal definition of watershed, the committee unanimously voted to convert the New Invader and Biological Control and Multijurisdictional Noxious Weed Crew projects into the watershed improvement category.
Before the RAC made their final discussion on which projects to fund, a motion was made to fund the highest ranked eight projects and designate which ones are and are not considered watershed. The motion passed 14 to 1 with Kuehn dissenting. Kuehn was concerned that not enough time was given to lobby for lower ranked projects to be funded.
The RAC unanimously voted to fund the projects they had selected within the allotted $151,537.
On the Seeley Lake Ranger District, the Morrell Creek project with Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited received its full $15,000 funding and was the top prioritized project on the list.
The project involves restoring a bull trout and westslope cutthroat stream through Seeley Lake. Bull trout spawn in the tributary. By reconnecting the stream with its floodplain, installing willow cuttings and relocating a road that runs along a portion of the stream, less sediment will be in the stream system which will improve habitat conditions.
The Seeley Lake Bear Attractant Removal/Conflict Reduction project with Defenders of Wildlife and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks also received $15,000 of the $30,000 they requested.
The funding would go towards assessing different sanitation needs in the community. Sites with known conflicts would be prioritized with sites in need of bear resistant containers or bear proof structures coming in second.
Other projects that the committee unanimously voted to fund included:
• Upper Lolo West Fork Creek Road Decommissioning: $15,000
• Missoula Front Country Ranger: $10,000
• Ninemile Ranger District Trails Project: $16,200
• New Invader and Biological Control: $15,900
• Ninemile Front Country Ranger: $5,200
• Montana Biocontrol Coordination Project: $10,000
• Wallman Trail Reroute: $11,000
• Multijurisdictional Noxious Weed Crew: $11,618.50
• Roadside Treatment in Upper Ninemile: $11,618.50
• Rennic Stark Road Decommission: $6,000
• Avalanche Forecasting and Education: $9,000
Frenchtown Face Prescribed Burning, Petty Creek Big Game Proposal, Placid Gold Phase 1 Herbicide and Seeley Lake Stewardship Initiative did not receive funding this year although representatives were encouraged to resubmit proposals in the future.
For more information regarding the Missoula RAC visit fs.usda.gov/detail/lolo/workingtogether/advisorycommittees/?cid=fsm9_021467
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