Note: An earlier version of this story stated the Land and Water Conservation Fund budget would be reduced by 90 percent. That number has been revised to 98 percent.

HELENA, Mont. – Public lands and natural resources take a big hit under President Donald Trump's 2019 budget proposal released Monday. Funding for the Interior Department would fall by 17 percent and Trump's infrastructure proposal would make it easier to sell off public lands.

The budget would also cut the Land and Water Conservation Fund almost completely, reducing funding by 98 percent. The fund uses royalties from oil and gas drilling on public lands and offshore to fund everything from sports fields to conservation projects.

Becky Edwards, director of the group Montana Mountain Mamas, says a lot of projects in the Treasure State would miss out without that funding.

"Children not having soccer fields or swimming pools to swim in, to some bigger-picture migration corridor protection projects, water stream access sites, river access sites," she says. "Any new continuation of those projects would not be able to be put forward without that LWCF funding."

Edwards points out that more than 50 percent of Montana's fishing access sites were paid for by LWCF.

The National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service would also lose funding. However, the budget includes $18 billion for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's plan to reorganize Interior, which he says will make the agency more efficient.

In the wake of these proposed cuts, eyes turn to Zinke, who supported LWCF as a Montana congressman and promised to continue that support in his confirmation hearing.

Edwards is disappointed that Zinke isn't honoring his past commitments. But, she hopes he will stand up for public lands, which she describes as vital to the state's economy.

"Secretary Zinke grew up in Montana, hunts, fishes, recreates on all these same lands that we do, and fully understands our dependence and our outdoor history that are reliant on these public lands," she explains.

Montana public lands generate more than $7 billion in consumer spending and more than $2 billion in wages and salaries annually, according to a Headwaters Economics report.

Note: an earlier version of this story stated LWCF's budget would fall by 90 percent.


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State and federal agencies are collaborating to increase the use of prescribed fires in the Northwest.

Prescribed fire is the controlled use of burns to minimize the larger risks of wildfires and smoke. It is seen as an increasingly important strategy as wildfire seasons pose greater threats to the Northwest.

Casey Sixkiller, Northwest regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said authorities want to work together to maintain forest habitats.

"Prescribed burn is one of the best tools we have for making our forests more resilient against catastrophic wildfires and they help to manage and target hazardous fuels and make for healthier forests," Sixkiller explained.

Sixkiller pointed out the EPA is involved because wildfire smoke poses risks to people's health. The collaboration is between federal agencies, departments in Oregon and Washington, and tribal governments.

Sixkiller noted the collaboration needed a formal agreement to move forward.

"That is what we've been able to do here with this agreement," Sixkiller emphasized. "To get federal land managers and states and us all in the same room, making sure that we're all on the same page about what success looks like."

Sixkiller added the collaboration has another advantage: It helps drive engagement with communities potentially in the path of prescribed burns.

"They have the confidence that the effort that's gone into planning that activity has been thought out from soup to nuts," Sixkiller acknowledged. "And that they have a seat at the table and are being engaged and their concerns are being addressed as we go forward with that activity."


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A new study in the journal Nature Communications by Montana researchers said suppressing small wildfires is leading to larger, more intense and damaging blazes.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, about 98% of wildfires are fully suppressed before they grow to 100 acres; most of them within 72 hours. In Montana, the latest data show crews kept 95% of wildfires in Montana to no more than 10 acres in 2022.

Mark Kreider, a doctoral candidate in forest and conservation science at the University of Montana and co-author of the report, said the strategy leads to what is known as fire "suppression bias."

"Removing more of one type of fire than the other, what we're left with is bias towards the higher intensity fires, these more extreme fires," Kreider explained.

Montana state policy calls for crews to extinguish fires as quickly as possible, even small ones. Kreider pointed out researchers recommend letting low-intensity fires burn where possible to reduce the risk and damage potential for larger, hotter-burning and more catastrophic blazes.

Kreider acknowledged as the population grows along the urban-wildland interface, letting fires burn is not always possible, but argued it might be the best strategy for heading off catastrophic fires later.

"Especially in the western U.S. where people live close to forests, fire suppression is very important and we still must do it," Kreider noted. "But this research helps to show when possible in places where it's safe to do so, we really may benefit from allowing more low and moderate intensity fire to burn."

The National Interagency Fire Center said the number of acres scorched by wildfire has doubled since the 1980s, and the cost to battle the fires has risen to nearly $3 billion a year.


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The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has awarded $3.1 million for 13 projects to reduce wildfire risk to communities and improve forest health.

The funding money is part of the $15 million Montana Forest Action Plan, which takes a big-picture approach to reducing the risk of wildfires.

Wyatt Frampton, deputy division administrator of forestry and trust lands for the Montana Department of Natural Resources, said the money will be used to foster fire-management cooperation between state and private landowners across 3,200 acres of forest.

"Through a variety of activities, such as prescribed fire, logging, mechanical thinning, hand activities as well as tree planting," Frampton outlined.

The 13 most recent restoration projects are spread across the state, including in Lewis and Clark County, the Bitterroot and the South Swan Valley.

Frampton said the DNR is aiming to create a cohesive fire-reduction plan across Montana's landscape, which has until now been inconsistent because of different sets of land-management practices.

"Right now when we see a patchwork of treatments across some of the landscapes in the state, from a fire-management perspective, it doesn't create a clean or effective barrier for trying to stop the fire in that area," Frampton explained. "Where, if we had a cohesive landscape-level treatment, that would help."

Frampton added having a statewide cohesive fire-management plan would also allow the DNR and other agencies to slow the spread of potentially destructive insects in Montana's forests.


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