Conservation District rolls out study
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POLSON — Lake County Conservation District supervisors launched the Swan Resource Management Study at an April 15 meeting with Lake County Commissioners Bill Barron and Gale Decker. Also present were Lake County elected officers, candidates and members of the public.
Jim Simpson, LCCD chair, said the SRMS would explore the possibility of establishing a conservation forest initiative. The initiative proposes to manage a forest, to reduce the volume of forest fuels, to support the agriculture community and to expand conservation projects throughout the district.
The forest selected for the study is in the Lake County portion of the Swan River Drainage on United States Forest Service land. In the very northeast corner of Lake County, the forest borders the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Wilderness Area and the Mission Wilderness Area.
The LCCD proposed to replace the federal management structure that is currently in place and manage the forest.
“We are in a study, so everything can change,” Simpson said. “The model can change, but we won’t change our objectives — to manage fuels and encourage landowners in Lake County to manage soils so we don’t damage soil quality, and to provide a steady stream of resource dollars for conservation work throughout the district.”
The key to the model is being able to manage the forest. The sale of timber would provide the revenue streams and pay for conservation projects.
An example of conservation works would be fuels reduction through controlled burns to eliminate downed trees, litter, and excess shrubs.
Another example would be introducing soil moisture meters to determine precisely when irrigators need to water.
“Our purpose for supporting (moisture meters) is for water quality purposes,” Simpson said.
Other conservation projects would be creative solutions for encouraging people to update their septic tanks, dust control on private and county roads, wastewater treatment plant upgrades, culvert and bridge improvements, pasture management, riparian zone restoration and upgrading fertilizer systems.
SRMS will hold four open-house style meetings in St. Ignatius, Polson, Condon and Swan Lake to gather comments from Lake County citizens.
Also DeVries and Simpson will speak to groups in Lake County to spread the word and gather comments.
After the last meeting, the LCCD committee will be discussing the results. One end of the spectrum would be to discontinue the project, Simpson said. If the comments are positive, the first step is to work with Montana’s congressional delegation in a bill to allow those lands, in the Swan, to be managed by LCCD.
“(The initiative) would be an opportunity for the Forest Service to reduce costs, and Lake County would benefit with what’s growing right here in Lake County. In the Swan, it would reduce the intensity of fires in the Swan, make them more easily contained,” Simpson said.
For more information, visit the LCCD website at http://lakecountyconservationdistrict.org
