Successful Local Engagement

Published: 2022
By Emily Park

MSU Extension facilitates efforts of the Mineral County Resource Coalition (MCRC) to increase the scale and pace of forest restoration, improve recreational opportunities, and develop and improve road systems across forests in western Montana. MCRC continues to provide input from public field trips, supportive written comments, and hundreds of hours on the ground on numerous projects each year. MCRC proposed the Deemer-Henry project in August of 2018 as a Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) project to complement work already scheduled with the MT Department of Natural Resource Conservation (DNRC) ReDeemer project. This project was awarded in July 2022. With all fieldwork nearly complete on the A-BLT project, we hope to see it awarded in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year. Initial fieldwork has been completed on the Superior North project and is currently in the scoping process. All combined, these three projects will treat over 20,000 acres with non-commercial and commercial treatments, creating jobs and generating millions of board feet of commercial products that will support the economic structure of our local communities and contribute to the regional and national need for timber to support our vital forest products industry. Other projects supported and monitored by MCRC through MSU Extension’s facilitation include the following: Redd Bull, Sawmill-Petty, Gold Butterfly, Bitterroot Front, Mudd Creek, Sorrel Springs GNA, Highway 83, Brewsters Kitchen, and Wildfire Adaptive Missoula. These projects represent tens of thousands of acres of treatments and hundreds of millions of board feet of commercial products. In addition to these projects, MCRC has a strong recreation committee that continues to develop and improve recreational opportunities throughout the region. Four MCRC members serve as board members for the newly established Mineral County Rails-to-Trails, a 501(c)(3) organization. Although a separate entity, it is anticipated that these two groups will work closely together to promote trails through public lands. Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) awarded a Trails Stewardship Grant due to the collaborative efforts of MSU Extension and MCRC. This grant funds the installation of two vault toilets on public land near a popular recreation area. Extension personnel and members of MCRC wrote the grant and will continue to monitor and administer it in coordination with Mineral County. In addition, MCRC solicited and wrote letters of support for three other FWP Grants prepared by the US Forest Service (USFS) that were fully funded. The largest of the three is a Recreational Trail Program grant for constructing the Route of Olympian Trailhead located at the USFS compound adjacent to St. Regis Park. The other two Trails Stewardship Grants awarded: the "Thompson Creek Trail Improvement Project" located in Superior and the "Completing the Falls Flats Trail” located in both Mineral and Sanders counties.