Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) is poised to log a portion of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area.
FWP has released a supplemental environmental assessment of the Doney Lake Forest Habitat Improvement Project, which would log or burn more than 1,100 acres north of Ovando in the Ovando Mountain Unit of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area. FWP is accepting public comment until March 27.
The more obvious portion of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area extends northeast of Clearwater Junction along Highway 200 in the Blackfoot River Valley.
The Ovando Mountain Unit is separate and lies 10 miles farther east along the North Fork of the Blackfoot River. FWP acquired most of the Ovando Mountain Unit between 1957 and 1965 and another parcel in 2009. The wildlife management area is managed primarily as elk winter range.
The Doney Lake project would log mainly lodgepole pine, Douglas fir and subalpine fir to enhance woody-browse understories and aspen stands that provide winter forage at the base of Ovando Mountain for migratory populations of approximately 500 elk and 200 mule deer, according to the project document. There are no plans to log the 1,100-acre parcel in the valley south of Doney Lake.
The Fish and Wildlife Commission endorsed the proposal in October 2021, after FWP administrator Ken McDonald told the commission the project was planned for 268 acres. In December 2022, a 1,500-acre project was proposed, but public comment prompted FWP to put it on hold.
FWP managers had done a minimal analysis called a Checklist Environmental Assessment but then decided to do a full environmental analysis after commenters raised concerns.
More than 40 comments raised questions about road building and removal, tree density objectives, funding, effects on various wildlife species, and the method of identifying trees to be cut.
In the meantime, FWP was working on its revised statewide elk management plan, which was published in 2023, so that added some delay. Based upon aerial survey data from 2013 to 2022, the elk population in the wildlife management area is estimated at 650 to 950 animals, with 850 counted in 2022.
The elk management plan set a goal of winter aerial counts between 900 and 1,100 but points out that elk in the area are migratory, wandering over approximately 120,000 acres throughout the year from the Blackfoot Valley bottom into the Scapegoat Wilderness.
“The largely migratory nature of the elk using HD 282 and fluidity of movement with winter range in neighboring districts must be accounted for when interpreting survey trends,” according to the elk plan.
The Doney Lake project would use two different methods to log the area with the goal of opening up the canopy to improve understory browse.
Regions along the northern boundary of the area, dubbed Stand 2, originally belonged to the Plum Creek Timber Company and were logged in the mid-1980s. So the tree species are mainly younger lodgepole pine and Douglas fir that have grown back thick with few if any dominant overstory trees.
The plan for Stand 2 is to remove larger trees that have grown tall and skinny due to crowding, although any ponderosa pine or western larch survivors and larger snags with nesting cavities would be spared. Larger vigorous understory trees with dense crowns would be retained while the rest would be cleared.
The rest of the area, dubbed Stand 1, was acquired between 1957 and 1965, so the stands are more diverse with towering ponderosa pine and western larch surrounded by lodgepole pine and Douglas fir in the middle and lower canopy layers. So the plan is to remove all overstory trees with crowns that have been suppressed by crowding and leave dominant trees with ponderosa pine and western larch having priority. Small understory trees will be thinned.
To mimic a natural character, trees will be retained in a “clumpy, variable pattern.” Openings would be created around aspen clones and larger snags will be left for nesting.
The project has received a Montana Forest Action Plan Grant of $300,000 and is scheduled to run from July 2025 through the summer of 2030. Logging work will be carried out from July 15 to Oct. 15 and Dec. 1 through March 15 to avoid spring conditions and the general rifle season. Ground-based logging equipment will be restricted to operations during the winter when soils are frozen.
According to the proposal, larger mobile wildlife such as grizzly bears, wolverine and Canada lynx will be able to relocate to surrounding areas while operations are underway. Smaller, less mobile species aren’t as lucky but “population-level impacts are highly unlikely and any adverse direct impacts to such species would be limited,” according to the proposal.
The proposal’s discussion of whether it’s better to retain forest cover or to open things up to improve browse availability indicates the answer is probably in the middle. A good forest canopy reduces the amount of snow below, making it easier for animals to move. Elk have an easier time in snow than mule deer. Shrubs and conifers are a big part of the mule deer diet during winter while elk eat primarily grasses and forbs, which require more light.
“Thus, quality winter habitat will contain a diversity of microsites of cover and forage,” according to the proposal.
Two other logging projects are planned on either side of the Doney Lake project. If work occurs on all three projects, a 6-mile stretch of the foothills of the southern Swan Range would be affected.
Just to the west of the Ovando Mountain Unit, the Blackfoot Challenge is planning a fuels reduction project on its 5,600-acre Blackfoot Community Conservation Area Core. Similar to the Stand 2 area in the Doney Lake project, the land formerly belonged to Plum Creek Timber and was transferred to the Blackfoot Challenge in 2008.
Just east of the Ovando Mountain Unit, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has proposed the Doney Gal timber saleto log 3 million board feet from the 640-acre parcel. That project was proposed in 2023 and is still in the scoping phase.
The Montana Environmental Policy Act or MEPA mandates various levels of agency review and public participation. Notably, the proposal says “MEPA is procedural,” although that claim is contested in committeesand the courts.
Written comments can be emailed to fwprg22@mt.gov or mailed to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Attn: Doney Lake Forest EA - Liz Bradley, 3201 Spurgin Rd., Missoula, MT 59804.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.
