Rehberg could support phased-in wilderness plan

BUTTE — U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., said he will support designating more wilderness in the state if it's only phased in over 10 years and tied to getting more logging and restoration work done on the ground.

Rehberg took the stand on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester's Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, a bill before Congress that would designate more than 600,000 acres of new wilderness but also requires 10,000 acres a year of logging on three national forests.

Rehberg said that to garner his support for the measure, he needs assurance that logging would actually take place before any wilderness is designated. He added that nothing in the bill will prevent environmental groups from continuing to thwart logging by filing lawsuits.

"How can I in good conscience lend my support to a piece of legislation that I don't know whether it's going to work?" Rehberg said Monday to The Montana Standard editorial board.

"If you want my support, then I have to be able to look back in 2020 and say that I supported a piece of legislation that accomplished what we're all working toward, which is active management of our national forests."

Tester's bill, which was modeled on a partnership of conservation group and logging companies, would designate the wilderness areas right away. It would designate 500,000 acres of wilderness on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest while 7,000 acres per year would be treated through logging and other means to reduce fire risk, Tester has said.

Critics have said that while the wilderness is permanent, the logging provision would sunset in a decade.

Worse yet, they said, there's no guarantee that environmental groups won't shut down the logging by filing lawsuits.

Over the past month, Rehberg has held 22 meetings on the bill throughout the western part of the state.

He said the fear that the logging will never move forward while the wilderness would was among the most common comments he heard. He sees the phase-in, with regular designations as the stewardship projects occur, as a common-sense approach.

He said that if the partnership group is confident the logging will occur, it should support a phase-in approach to the wilderness designations. Rehberg added that he won't support Tester's bill as it's written unless the changes are made.

"How do you get some jobs created if you don't hold the partnership's feet to the fire?" he said. "I do not believe the bill as written will accomplish what it's supposed to."

Aaron Murphy, a Tester spokesman, would not say whether Tester would support a phase-in of wilderness areas that is tied to the stewardship projects.

"Jon wants a practical bill that can pass Congress and become law, so folks can go back to work in the woods," Murphy said.

"He's considered this idea and many others, and he looks forward to discussing them with Congressman Rehberg."

Members of the partnership, which included the Montana Wilderness Association, Trout Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation and four timber companies including Sun Mountain Lumber of Deer Lodge, welcomed Rehberg's willingness to work on the issue.

"We encourage the congressman to move forward toward a solution, to be a sponsor of the bill and to work closely with Sen. Tester," said Tom Reed, Trout Unlimited spokesman.

"Ultimately, the question of trigger language is not something that is up to the coalition. It's up to the bill's sponsors to come up with something that is going to work in Congress for all Montanans."

Sherm Anderson, Sun Mountain owner, said Rehberg's proposal could have unintended consequences that could hurt timber companies. He said the restoration work component of the bill is just as important to all the partners as the wilderness designations, yet Rehberg's proposal focuses only on the wilderness.

And Anderson questioned whether the bill could pass with trigger language.

"We spent four years working together in a collaborative effort to reach what we think is a workable solution," he said.

"What he's proposing is not a workable solution and probably would not pass Congress."

Beaverhead County commissioners Mike McGinley, Garth Haugland and Tom Rice, however, said that, while they liked the phase-in idea, it only addresses one of several problems with the bill.

They said they oppose using stewardship contracting instead of traditional timber sales to cut timber. And the wilderness proposed includes several areas the Forest Service didn't find met the criteria and weren't recommended by Forest Service officials in their forest plan that took years to draft.

"Our No. 1 comment is to use the brand new forest plan as the basis for this (bill) instead of the partnership strategy," Commissioner Mike McGinley said.