Executive Vice President
Ellen Engstedt

FOREST MANAGEMENT  

Best Management Practices

Montana's Best Management Practices are explained in a beautifully illustrated 32-page booklet developed by the Montana Department of State Lands. In well defined sections, it discusses the impacts of roads and road construction, how to design low impact timber harvest, and why protecting water quality and streamside fish and wildlife habitat is so important. The booklet is a 'must read' for anyone interested in the on-the-ground interface between logging, forestry and environmental regulation.

Although the regulations described in the booklet apply to all Montana forest landowners, the booklet is designed primarily to serve the information needs of smaller private forest landowners unable to afford the cost of employing foresters, wildlife biologists and other specialists that work for public land management agencies and large industrial forest landowners.

Stream Classifications

Montana uses the same Class 1, 2 and 3 stream classification system used in other Pacific Northwest states. Under this system Class 1 streams are afforded the most protection. Within Class 1 SMZ's, at least 50 percent of all trees 8 inches in diameter, or larger, must be retained to protect soils and provide thermal and hiding cover for fish and wildlife. Here are the basics of the three classifications.

Class 1 stream segments: Support fish; or do not support fish but flow at least six months of the year, and contribute surface flow to another stream, lake, reservoir or pond covering an area greater than one-tenth of an acre.

Class 2 stream segments: Do not support fish, but do contribute flow to another stream, lake, reservoir or pond covering at least one-tenth of an acre; and flow for less than six months; or do not contribute surface flow to another stream, lake reservoir or pond, but do flow at least six months of the year.

Class 3 stream segments: Have no fish, rarely contribute surface flow to another body of water and normally do not flow more than six months of the year. 

Streamside Management Regulations

At least 11 western Montana communities get their drinking water from forest watersheds, so there is a great public interest in maintaining the purity of groundwater stored in forest drainages. For this reason, and to protect streamside fish and wildlife habitat, strict rules limit harvest activity in designated "streamside management zones." Montana's Streamside Management Zone Law prohibits activities that pose a threat to water quality, soils, or fish and wildlife habitat. Among them: broadcast burning; operation of wheeled or tracked vehicles, except on established roads; clearcutting; road construction, except when necessary to cross a stream or wetland; storage, use or disposal of hazardous wastes in a manner that pollutes streams, lakes or wetlands; or dumping gravel, dirt, rocks or logging slash into streams, wetlands or watercourses. 

By definition, streamside management zones, or SMZ's, are mandated 50-foot buffers on both sides of protected streams. An SMZ can never be narrower than 50 feet on one side of a stream, but it can be wider if there is a need to protect an adjacent wetland, marsh or bog. SMZ width is automatically increased to 100 feet if the streamside slope is greater than 35 percent.

Soils found along stream provide ample evidence of their own need for protection. Here, beneath lush plant growth, the soil consists of layers of decomposing plant matter, plus live roots put down by small plants as well as trees. These layers of living and dead plant tissue act like a sponge, collecting water during spring runoff, then releasing it into the stream during subsequent dryer summer months.

Heavy machinery can damage these soil layers, impairing their ability to collect and store water. Careless timber harvesting can also damage soils, especially if streambank trees are removed. Thus, the need for strict controls on the kinds of harvesting permitted in SMZ's, even on private forestland.

SMZ's are not no-harvest areas.  Trees that are selected for harvest can only be removed by machines capable of reaching into the zone, without actually entering it, or by the use of cables.  As noted earlier, clearcutting is forbidden in SMZ's, and at least 50 percent of trees 8 inches in diameter or larger must be left in each side of the stream, to protect water quality, fish and wildlife habitat and soils.