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Commissioner urges local input on Forest Service timber-sale plan and Discovery Basin project
Summary
Commissioner Ed Beaudette told the commission that Forest Service planners are proposing continuous-yield timber sales that would affect Deer Lodge County; he urged public participation at a Helena hearing April 1 and warned that removing dead lodgepole around Echo Lake and Discovery Basin raises wildfire and recreation concerns.
Commissioner Ed Beaudette said Deer Lodge County should engage with Forest Service planners who are proposing a continuous-yield approach to timber sales affecting southwestern Montana, including large tracts inside Anaconda-Deer Lodge County. "It's where they try to have enough timber cuts so it will keep organizations and businesses like KLM in operation," Beaudette said, adding that reliable ten-year supply projections help local mills.
Beaudette, District 5 commissioner, said the Forest Service will hold a public hearing at the Delta Colonial Hotel in Helena on April 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. and that the agency will not offer electronic public comment for that session. He said the district ranger, Cameron Rasor of Philipsburg, has sought input on a planned project in the Discovery Basin and Echo Lake area to remove large amounts of dead and dying lodgepole pine.
"A fire could start easily at Echo Lake and blow all the way up to Discovery and destroy all of the infrastructure and houses and things that are in-between there," Beaudette said, describing the wildfire risk if dead trees are left unchecked. He also flagged concerns about protecting cross-country ski areas and trail corridors, saying planners must balance commercial removals with recreation and shade needs.
The issue matters to local timber businesses and community wildfire risk, Beaudette said, and he urged residents and stakeholders — including trail riders and skiers — to provide input during the Forest Service review. The commission did not take formal action on the matter at the meeting.
