Montana RC&D's Fuels Reduction Projects Get Huge Boost from Grant

Reducing hazardous fuels on private lands in western Montana has received a big boost in funding from the federal government.

Bitter Root Resource Conservation and Development received a check for more than $880,000 Thursday, from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. It was the formal presentation of money guaranteed to the resource conservation group in March, said Byron Bonney, community forester with the group.

The money came to the state through the National Fire Plan and the Western States Fire Managers Wildland Urban Interface Grant Program and is only part of the total amount Montana received for work in the wildland urban interface, according to a Wednesday DNRC press release.

"This year, DNRC's Forestry Division will receive approximately $2.9 million - more than was received in the first three years of the program combined - for projects statewide," read the release.

Montana was awarded 15 percent of the total funding available nationwide. The money was distributed to Resource Conservation and Development areas all around the state, according to the release.

Nearly $340,000 of the money given to the Bitter Root RC&D is earmarked for hazardous fuels reduction in Ravalli County, said Bonney.

The RC&D began taking applications from private landowners in Ravalli and Mineral counties in March after they were assured they would get the funding, said Bonney. The application process closed in May and the RC&D began ranking the projects.

The projects were ranked on some specific criteria like: was the land in the wildland urban interface zone, was it in an area at high risk for wildfire, were multiple landowners involved, and were the landowners willing to go through the whole process of hazardous fuels treatment, from cutting down fuel to slash removal?

The RC&D approved the majority of the 54 applications submitted in Ravalli County.

"We've got 46 landowners for around 600 acres that we're going to be treating," said Bonney. "What we've tried to do is spread the money to as many landowners as possible."

The RC&D will fund up to 50 percent of each project. The rest is up to the landowner, he said.

Each funded project went through an assessment.

"After they get accepted we go out to the land and meet with the landowner and explain the program and we walk their ground," said Bonney.

During the assessment, the RC&D forester would prioritize treatment on the property, and then work up an agreement with the landowner.

"We establish a price on what we'll pay on each acre of ground," he said.

The landowner can either do the work themselves, which would be considered an in-kind donation toward their 50 percent matching contribution, or they can hire a contractor to do the work, said Bonney.

The projects approved and funded by the $880,000 are in Ravalli, Mineral and Missoula counties, according to the press release.

But the Bitter Root RC&D will administer the money for each county, said Bonney. Plus, newly formed RC&Ds around the state - Bozeman, Joliet, Roundup and Shelby - will also get part of the Bitter Root RC&D money to help get them going, he said.

"They're relying on us as kind of a mentor, you might say, to kind of get them started," said Bonney.

Story by Greg Lemon, Ravalli Republic.