Clearwater County Develops Plan for County Forest Resource

The management of county forest resources has undergone a major transformation in just a few short years.  In just the recent past, the traditional job of a county was to produce fiber for the wood products industry.  The task is now much broader with a greater number of stakeholders and interests to be addressed.  The Headwaters RDC is working with Clearwater County on their County Forest Plan to grapple with these issues and position the County to successfully move forward into the future.

Several factors will influence the management of the County’s 90,000 acres over the next three decades:

• The changing nature of the wood products industry
• The increased demand for recreation opportunities
• The increase in concerns regarding environment/habitat preservation
• The anticipated increase of development on the fringes of county forest land
• Climate change

The purpose of the Forest Management Plan is to put the County in a much better position to react to these changes by giving it a clear sense of the existing nature of its resource as well as a broadly held agreement on what it wants that resource to accomplish for its citizens in the future.  With these two critical pieces of information, the County is creating a plan that will allow it to develop a forest resource that provides more benefits to its residents than it has in the past and one that is more adaptable in a fast-changing environment.

For more information on the Clearwater County Forest Management Plan, please contact Tony Mayer of the Headwaters RDC or Bruce Cox, Clearwater County Land Commissioner.

Headwaters RDC Assists Counties in Local Water Plan Updates

The Headwaters RDC worked with both the Beltrami Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and the Clearwater SWCD over the past year to complete Priority Concerns Scoping Documents for their Comprehensive Local Water Management Plan Updates.  The Headwaters RDC’s role in the process included facilitating the public participation process, including soliciting information from local stakeholders, holding public meetings, and soliciting priority concerns from various local and state agencies then documenting the results.

For additional information on water plan updates, please contact Matthew Dyrdahl.