Forest Service hands Montana more authority
U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, speaking in Montana, pointed to a growing trend of states assuming more responsibility in the management of federal lands.
An informative article from the Daily Inter Lake and repurposed at Yahoo News covers some of his remarks about the importance of states tapping more federal land for revenue and how it might aid in wildfire mitigation.
In Montana’s case, that means expanding timber harvesting on federal land, a move Schultz noted not only supports the timber industry but also reduces wildfire risks. Anything that lessens the devastation and costs of catastrophic fires is a positive step.
Schultz called the arrangement “cooperative federalism,” stressing that it represents genuine decentralization by giving Montana real decision-making authority.
From the article:
Schultz alluded to several strategies to increase timber supplies, including stripping down federal regulations and “driving decision-making down” to the local level. One example of that, he said, is the Shared Stewardship Agreement that the state of Montana and the U.S. Forest Service signed in June. Under the agreement, the state will assume responsibility for managing at least 200,000 acres of federal forestlands in Montana “with a focus on areas with marketable timber.”
This approach works to address a persistent problem with federal bureaucracies: their tendency to be paralyzed by decades of regulations and guidelines. Wildfire experts often point out that better forest management, which includes thinning, trimming, and active stewardship, is desperately needed across much of the West.
So far, this work looks like a promising example of a federal agency not merely waiting out an administration’s directives, but actively implementing the president’s agenda by expanding timber supply and empowering states and localities to be problem solvers of land management within their border. If it can help spark economic growth and opportunity all the better.
For those watching federalism, Washington recognizing that states may be best positioned to manage the lands inside their own borders is a positive step forward.
— The Federalism Beat