Updated: Forest Service Chief in Montana to Sign Major Agreement

Here's an update to the story we shared Monday. Gov. Gianforte's office sent out a press release following the signing of the agreement.

Here are some highlights:

Governor Greg Gianforte and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Chief Tom Schultz formalized a landmark Shared Stewardship Agreement between the State of Montana and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

This historic agreement establishes a new framework to dramatically increase the pace and scale of forest restoration, wildfire risk reduction, and sustainable timber production across Montana’s national forests and adjacent lands.

The Shared Stewardship Agreement leverages federal authorities, including the EXPLORE Act and Good Neighbor Authority, to streamline project delivery and reduce regulatory delays. It commits both agencies to jointly identify and implement large-scale forest management projects, with an initial focus on a landscape of at least 200,000 acres in northwest Montana.

To view the Shared Stewardship Agreement between the State of Montana and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, see here. To view video of the announcement, see here.

Original Story Posted Monday Morning

The head of the US Forest Service is signing a major agreement with the State of Montana later today (Monday). Governor Greg Gianforte and USFS Chief Tom Schulz gave us a big preview of what is to come.

We got the notice late Friday that Schultz would be joining Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) Director Amanda Kaster and Governor Greg Gianforte "to sign a landmark shared stewardship agreement to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration at an existing Good Neighbor Authority project site."

During our conversation Monday morning, Governor Gianforte described the agreement as a historic 20-year stewardship agreement to actively manage federal lands in Montana- aiming to improve forest health, wildfire resilience, and create jobs in the timber industry.

Gov. Gianforte: "This is going to allow the state to start actively managing federal lands, no deed transfer involved. But we have a forest health crisis, and we need to get back to good stewardship of these lands. This is a 20 year agreement, so it's a long term agreement that's going to allow us to take a long term vision of what's right for our forests. It's going to create healthier forests. It's going to make them more wildfire resilient. It's going to create jobs in our timber industry. Going to increase recreational opportunities. Everybody's going to win from this. I'm excited to make that announcement later today."

The head of the Forest Service has deep family connections here in Montana. He spent 15 years working for the Montana DNRC and studied Forestry at The University of Montana. He talked about how Montana is leading the way in better management of our forests.

Chief Schultz: "Montana has definitely stepped up. Both the legislature and the governor have allocated additional resources for foresters and specialists to assist the Forest Service in managing federal lands. But this is even a step further, you know, going from having the state administered timber sales- to the state having a broader responsibility, and we'll talk more about that later, but that's probably one of the more exciting things that this administration has done. The Secretary is very supportive of working with the states and empowering the states to assist us in managing federal lands. Obviously, President Trump sees the benefits in a federalism perspective and acknowledging the role of the states in managing federal lands. There's about 17 million acres of National Forest in Montana, and you were talking about roadless, about 6.4 million acres of roadless. So having the states engaged and being a bigger partner at the table, we welcome that, and we think that they can help us be more successful."

Is this our chance to Make Mining in Montana Great Again, is this our chance to Make Our Timber Industry Great Again...we talked about that and more below.

Full audio of our chat with the Governor and the Forest Service Chief starts about halfway through the below podcast.