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Montana forester outlines county co‑op, direct staffing and revised suppression fund approach
Summary
Wyoming committee heard Montana Deputy State Forester Wyatt Frampton describe Montana’s county cooperative protection program, direct staffing model, and changes to a state fire suppression fund enacted by House Bill 883.
Wyatt Frampton, deputy state forester for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, gave the Joint Appropriations Committee an overview of Montana’s fire protection model and its financing.
Frampton described two primary response models. The county cooperative program is the state’s primary mechanism for protecting most acres: Montana has formal coop agreements with each of its 56 counties under which local governments provide initial attack and the state supplies training, equipment and financial backing when incidents exceed local capacity. Frampton said Montana’s co‑op supports more than 400 local government and volunteer fire organizations.
The department also uses a direct‑protection model on roughly 5 million acres, primarily on the state’s west side, where Montana staffs 55 wildland fire engines, five modified Huey helicopters (operated under a federal access property program but maintained and flown by the state), three fixed‑wing detection aircraft, and more than 150 frontline wildfire positions.
On funding, Frampton said Montana’s preparedness budget is about $14 million annually; statute requires the state to recover one‑third of that through a wildfire assessment charged to owners of forested parcels. Suppression spending is more volatile: Frampton gave a 10‑year average suppression cost of about $29 million and described the legislature’s 2013 and later actions to make the suppression fund more regenerative. He summarized the 2023 House Bill 883 change that increased the fund balance and authorized biennial withdrawals — up to $60 million — divided as $30 million for risk reduction/forest health and $30 million for preparedness. Frampton said that HB 883 allowed Montana to secure aviation contracts and to expand mitigation contracts, noting the state now has over 60,000 contracted acres of fuels work in priority areas.
Frampton cautioned that workforce change and volunteer declines remain a challenge but said the state’s layered approach — local initial attack, county co‑op support, and state‑owned resources — has generally kept fires small and costs lower. He emphasized data‑driven prioritization for mitigation, giving the City of Butte watershed project as an example of Good Neighbor Authority–enabled treatments to protect drinking water.
Ending: Frampton told committee members he welcomed follow‑up questions and said Montana is available to coordinate interstate support in high‑need periods.
