by Kate Arpin, Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Montana
When Matt Daw walked into a community forest meeting and met local NRCS District Conservationist John George, his 157 acres of forestland north of York hadn’t been touched in “who knows how long.” At that meeting, Daw learned about Forest Service fuel mitigation work and mentioned to George that he’d like to do something similar on his property.
Let the ball roll a year and a half. Daw has started work on the first of eight phases of a $98,000 Environmental Quality Incentives (EQIP) contract for forest stand improvement and fuel breaks on his property. EQIP is a voluntary program that provides financial and technical assistance to landowners implementing a variety of conservation practices.
“Daw’s property is a perfect place and a perfect situation for what EQIP was intended to do,” says George. The property borders a 30-home subdivision, and there was a lot of dead and down timber from beetle kill. “We wouldn’t have survived a fire,” said Daw, who is a volunteer firefighter in York. “With NRCS’s assistance, we can protect our property and our neighbors.”
Daw will be completing the work himself, with a couple of hired hands. He has a sawmill on the property and will mill some of the timber, but he plans to donate most of the logs to his neighbors for firewood due to the saturated timber market. “We’re not trying to make money on this. We’re just trying to help our land and our community,” said Daw.
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Source: USDA NRCS Montana
