Montana resolution urges federal attention to forest management and wildfire strategies

Representative Jedidiah Hinkle opened the hearing on House Joint Resolution 35, which asks federal and interstate leaders to reexamine U.S. Forest Service wildland fire and forest-management practices. Hinkle, a former Forest Service employee, said the resolution urges greater emphasis on timber management, road maintenance and more aggressive initial attack to reduce the risk of large crowning fires.

"Forest management and wildfire are so very interconnected," Hinkle said, adding that he observed decades of changing practice in the Forest Service and believes the lack of active timber harvest and decommissioning of roads has contributed to higher fuel loads.

Proponents included Jason Todhunter of the Montana Logging Association, who said HJ 35 is ‘‘about pro resource management’’ and maintaining roads as access for suppression and timber sales. Charles Henkel, a retired county commissioner and former forester, described specific fires and said he believed some Forest Service fire treatments had unintentionally increased burned acreage in certain incidents.

Committee members questioned trade-offs. Representative France asked whether the resolution should explicitly address cost-effective road maintenance; Hinkle noted road upkeep historically was paid for with timber-sale receipts. Representative Marler and others pushed Hinkle on the need to recognize historic fire regimes and indigenous practices. Hinkle responded that the resolution aims to raise awareness of management choices and stressed that contemporary priorities differ because people and homes now occupy previously unsettled landscapes.

Hinkle closed by recounting field experience and arguing the resolution seeks only to prompt attention from new federal leaders and the Forest Service chief. The committee did not take final action at the hearing.