The Gianforte administration and the U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday that 345,000 acres in the Lolo National Forest will be added to Montana’s Shared Stewardship Agreement, bringing the total acreage jointly managed under the two-year-old program to roughly 750,000 acres statewide.
The Lolo designation marks the third landscape added to the agreement since it was formalized a year ago for a 20-year term. Under the arrangement, the Forest Service delegates day-to-day forest management responsibility to the state, allowing the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to design and oversee timber sales using its own staff rather than relying solely on federal personnel.
Program Growth and Scope
The expansion follows a May 2026 announcement in which two priority landscapes totaling more than 400,000 acres across the Flathead, Kootenai, and Bitterroot National Forests were brought into the program. Combined with the new Lolo acreage confirmed this week, the DNRC and Forest Service are now jointly overseeing three-quarters of a million acres of federal timberland in Montana.
The program’s stated goals center on improving forest health, increasing timber production, reducing hazardous fuel loads, and strengthening communities’ resilience against wildfire. Earlier expansions of the agreement have focused on similar objectives in western Montana’s heavily forested federal lands.
Governor Greg Gianforte framed the Lolo addition as a clear public benefit. “This means we’ll have healthier forests, will reduce fuel loads, we’ll have more for wildfire resiliency,” he said. “It’s a win for all of Montana.”
First Project Getting Underway
The first on-the-ground work under the Shared Stewardship Agreement is set to begin this year. The Blacktail Powerline Project, located near Blacktail Mountain outside of Lakeside, will thin timber and reduce fuel accumulations along a powerline corridor — an area where overgrown forest poses a particular ignition risk. Revenue generated from the associated timber sale is intended to offset project costs that would otherwise fall to federal taxpayers.
DNRC Director Amanda Kaster said the program positions Montana as a national model, noting that “Montana is leading the nation in this landscape-scale work.”
Federal Workforce Backdrop
The expansion comes as the Forest Service has shed roughly 3,400 employees through recent federal workforce reductions — cuts that have raised questions across the West about the agency’s capacity to manage its roughly 193 million acres. Proponents of state-federal shared stewardship arrangements argue the model is precisely the kind of structural solution needed when federal staffing is constrained, since it allows state agencies with trained personnel to step in and keep management work moving.
Montana’s DNRC has used the agreement structure to take on design and oversight duties that would otherwise require Forest Service employees, making the program potentially more relevant as federal capacity contracts. Governor Gianforte has separately pursued workforce and economic partnerships that reflect a broader strategy of positioning Montana as an active partner with — rather than a dependent of — federal agencies and employers.
Looking Ahead
With 750,000 acres now under the joint management umbrella and the Blacktail Powerline Project moving toward construction this year, state officials say additional priority landscapes are likely to be identified as the 20-year agreement matures. The Shared Stewardship model has attracted attention from other western states watching Montana’s implementation, and Director Kaster’s comments suggest the administration intends to build on that visibility.
Wildfire season in the Northern Rockies typically intensifies through July and August, lending urgency to fuel reduction work slated for this year and reinforcing the political case for the state’s expanded role in managing forests that border Montana communities.
