Sen. Tester's Plan for Wilderness, Logging Roils Big Sky Country

Trying to satisfy everyone from wilderness advocates to timber companies, Sen. Jon Tester has proposed a new model for managing national forests. The Democrat's controversial proposal, which he has dubbed the "Forest Jobs and Recreation Act" to emphasize its economic aspects rather than its wilderness components, would guide how federal agencies manage large swaths of land in his home state of Montana. S. 1470 (pdf) would designate hundreds of thousands of acres as wilderness, while releasing other lands that have been protected as wilderness study areas. The measure would permanently open certain national forest areas to motorized recreation. And -- in the most contentious proposal -- it would require timber harvest on a minimum number of acres each year. The proposal, long a hot topic in Montana, will garner the Senate spotlight Thursday when the subcommittee that oversees forests takes it up. The panel will hear from federal officials as well as Montana mill owners, county commissioners and the environmental community that has split over the measure...read more