Proposed USFS plan to streamline logging on three Montana forests

Laura Lundquist

(Missoula Current) Three national forests east of Missoula are proposing a plan to require continuous logging across almost a million acres of southwest Montana for at least the next decade.

On Monday, the U.S. Forest Service released a draft plan for a Tri-Forest Sustained-Yield Unit, which would direct logging to occur on more than 925,000 acres across the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Helena-Lewis and Clark and Custer Gallatin national forests. The plan’s stated purpose is to “to support local economies and the timber industry.”

Logging is predicted to ramp up to produce 35 million board-feet of lumber annually by the end of 10 years, according to the plan. The areas to be logged were selected from the “suitable timber lands" identified in each of the three Forest Plans, which account for between 8.5% and 13.5% of each forest. That includes almost 369,000 acres on the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest; 284,000 acres on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge; and almost 327,000 acres on the Custer Gallatin.

The plan notes that logging isn’t limited to suitable timber lands. Logging can also occur on other areas of the forest but “the majority of timber volume is expected to come from these timber emphasis lands.” The plan says logging won’t occur in wilderness areas, recommended wilderness or wilderness study areas.

The Forest Service is using the Sustained Yield Forest Management Act of 1944 to create the sustained-yield unit as a way to “maintain a predictable volume commitment and a continuous supply of forest products.”

But some regional public land advocates are questioning the plan at a time when the Trump administration has pushed a number of other initiatives that favor the timber industry and reduce public comment.

Mike Bader, Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force consultant, said the Sustained Yield Act isn’t the only law the Forest Service should follow.

“They’re reaching back into the WWII era. It ignores the Multiple Use Act of 1960, which establishes that there are multiple uses on the forest. This plan says that timber production is the only use of the national forest,” Bader said. “It’s rip and run. Those are dry, high-elevation eastside forests, and if you log them, they’re not going to come back at least for decades and then they don’t come back very well. So people have to understand that this is a one-and-done thing. There’s nothing sustainable about it. It’s a one-time yield. It’s asset liquidation.”

Keith Hammer, Swan View Coalition chair, said he’s concerned that the plan did no analysis of wildlife or other environmental factors. The plan only addresses socioeconomic factors. Plus, the Forest Service map included in the plan shows the planned logging areas overlap many grizzly bear connectivity corridors between the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems that Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks scientist Sarah Sells has modeled.

“This is bad news for grizzly bear corridors, but it’s also bad for lynx and bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. When they start talking about sustained yield of timber, you know that what’s getting ignored is the sustainability of these species,” Hammer said. “There are already Forest Plans in place, and they set sustained yield and how much logging there can be but (Forest Plans) also include things like how they need to manage roads for wildlife. So, this is just one more layer of bureaucracy and pressure. Because it’s about yielding timber, it’s not about preserving fish and wildlife.”

A number of public land advocates question why the Forest Service needs a sustained-yield plan if these  areas are already laid out in the individual forest plans. When the plan is coupled with some other Trump administration initiatives, some see it as another way to push logging through without public oversight.

On March 4, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production,” which prioritizes industrial logging over all over forest values or characteristics and orders agencies “to fully exploit” federal forests for timber production. In particular, the order tells agencies to find ways to circumvent the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, which ensures public participation.

A month later, in a follow-up to Trump's order, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a secretarial memo to expand American timber production by 25%. The memo empowered the Forest Service “to increase timber outputs, simplify permitting, remove National Environmental Policy Act processes, reduce implementation and contracting burdens, and to work directly with states, local government, and forest product producers to ensure that the Forest Service delivers a reliable and consistent supply of timber.”

The Tri-Forest Sustained Yield Plan is a response to Rollins’ memo.

“They’re coming at it from multiple angles to up the cut. They say (the sustained-yield plan is) consistent with the Forest Plan so why not go with the Forest Plan?” Bader said. “(The plan says) it’s not exempt from the NEPA process but what NEPA process? The White House (executive order) - it calls for expedited review. So NEPA without review isn’t NEPA. They’re just boiling it down to a checklist, rubber-stamp kind of thing,”

Also in April 2025, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that they were planning to change their decades-old policy that included habitat modification or destruction in the definition of harm to a species related to the Endangered Species Act. The agencies have yet to make a decision.

“They proposed to remove the definition of ‘harm,’ which basically means you can trash the habitat and it won’t violate the Endangered Species Act. (The change) would limit harm to killing the animal, and that’s not how most of the damage is done,” Hammer said.

According to the Sustained-Yield Plan, inventoried roadless areas were not included in the areas to be logged, but Rollins has also promised to rescind the Roadless Rule. The Forest Service has already held a public comment period and the vast majority of comments opposed rescinding the rule. While awaiting the decision, the public has asked for public meetings on the proposal. Getting no response from the Forest Service, many are holding public meetings of their own in Montana. If the rule is rescinded, many expect that the acreage of the sustained-yield unit will be increased.

Bader is concerned that other sustained-yield plans will follow.

Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.