The first questioner at Sen. Jon Tester's Monday public forum in
Missoula wanted to know how the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act was
coming along.

"My wife and I just drove over through Lincoln, and there's
crystal-clear evidence we need to manage in a different way,"
Tester said of the beetle-killed acres of forest. "We need to give
the Forest Service some different tools to work with."

Sally Mauk: For new wilderness to succeed, next generation must have interest

By SALLY MAUK
for the Missoulian | Posted: Friday, July 16, 2010 9:30 pm

In another life, I was a wilderness ranger, and to this day
there's a certain trail in a certain wilderness where I am most at
peace with myself and with the world.

Although the conservation challenges facing others across
Montana vary, the fact remains that grassroots efforts have sprung
up where folks have chosen to set aside their differences and work
together. They say all politics is local and that's certainly the
level where the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act originated. The
compromises and agreements forged by the many folks involved were
done so in an open fashion, through years of hard work, lengthy
debate, and input from many different types of people.

Sen. Jon Tester reported progress on his Forest
Jobs and Recreation bill, affirmed support for Secure Rural Schools,
and again tried to quash the rumor about a federal land lockup in
Montana.

He made the remarks during his monthly teleconference with Montana newspaper reporters on Thursday morning.

I have been following Sen. Jon Tester and his proposed changes to the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act; this bill has some things in it I really like and some things I disagree with, but the truth is he's showing it for Montanans to see as it moves through Washington, D.C.

That was Tester's promise when we elected him and he's keeping that promise. "Tester said in a conference call with reporters, ‘It's going to streamline the process to make it work better, faster and more flexible.' " (Missoulian, June 18).

A borrowed bit from an otherwise dead-on-arrival discussion
draft could make Montana Sen. Jon Tester's Forest Jobs and
Recreation Act work better, the senator said on Thursday.

"This is more like the sports car avenue, to identify projects
and get those done that are not controversial," Tester said in a
conference call with reporters. "It's going to streamline the
process to make it more work better, faster and more flexible."

A deal's a deal.

That's the message Montana Sen. Jon Tester has for the U.S. Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee. And, in reality, he has
little choice.

Tester's forest bill came out of a delicate compromise among
diverse forest user groups. It would create some 600,000 acres of
wilderness - mostly here in Southwest Montana. But it would also
set aside areas for motorized recreation and require the logging of
10,000 acres of forest in each of the next 10 years.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has dismissed a proposed rewrite of his forest bill as "dead on arrival," and promised to publicly post his counteroffer that is expected next week.

Tester's bill would create new wilderness in parts of Montana, while increasing logging requirements and establishing permanent recreation areas.

A Senate Committee recently came up with its own version that does away with the logging and other mandates that are central to a deal crafted by a group of Montana loggers, environmentalists and others.

KALISPELL - Heal the forest, clear the stream, kill the weeds
and build the trails. Pay the logger, help the wildlife, fight the
fire, save the mill.

"That's the way forward, is to look at our forests and our
communities at the landscape level," said Scott Brennan. "That's
the only way out of gridlock."

I do not like to forest plan. I do not like it, Stan the
man!

Would you, with a Forest hat, write and write on
habitat?

Or wax poetic what you see, for species viability?

I will not work on habitat, for potato bean or Indiana
bat!

I will not write them, don't you see? I don't like
viability!

- Phil Sammon, with apologies to Dr. Seuss, posted in
the New Century of Forest Planning humor section

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