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On a damp spring day in June, fog shrouded the Mission Mountains on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana. Silver beads of rain holds on to blades of yard and purple lupine. On a ridge neglecting St. Mary’s Lake in the southeastern corner of the booking, the land was mainly cleared of trees after state-managed logging operations. Some trees stayed, primarily firs and pines, spindly things that when grew in close quarters and now looked exposed without their next-door neighbors.
Seen from the sky, the logged parcel was noticeably square in spite of the mountainous surface. It stood in contrast to the nearby, tribally handled forest, where lumber operations followed the topographic shapes of watersheds and ridgelines or mimicked fire scars from lightning strikes. “It’s not that they’re mishandling whatever, however their management approach and plan do not line up with ours,” stated Tony Incashola Jr., the director of tribal resources for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, or CSKT, as he watched out the window of his Jeep at the landscape. “Their methods often do not line up with ours, which in turn impacts our ability of handling our land.”
This almost specific, 640-acre parcel is state trust land and is a little part of the 108,886 state-owned acres, above- and belowground, spread throughout the booking– this in spite of the tribal country’s sovereign status.
The Douglas fir and ponderosa evergreen that stayed in the square would prosper on the periodic fire and regulated burn after logging operations, benefiting the next generation of trees. Rather, the location was unburned, and shrubs crowded the ground. “I see this stand right here looking the specific very same in 20 years,” stated Incashola. It’s his very first time being on this land, in spite of a life time on the booking– since it’s state land, eviction has actually constantly been locked.
A clear line divides forest handled by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe and just recently gathered state-owned land. Tailyr Irvine/ Grist/ High Country News
A clear line divides forest handled by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe and just recently gathered state-owned land. Tailyr Irvine/ Grist/ High Country News
Tony Incashola Jr., director of tribal Resource management for CSKT, watches out at state-owned parcels from an aircraft on August 8. Tailyr Irvine/ Grist/ High Country News
Tony Incashola Jr., director of tribal Resource management for CSKT, keeps an eye out at state-owned parcels from an aircraft on August 8. Tailyr Irvine/ Grist/ High Country News
Just recently collected wood rests on a parcel of state-owned land west of the town of Hot Springs, Montana, on the Flathead Reservation. In 2023, Montana made nearly $162 million from activity on state trust lands.
Tailyr Irvine/ Grist/ High Country News
State trust lands,