A third landscape has been added to Montana’s cooperative forest management program with the U.S. Forest Service, bringing the total area under joint stewardship to well over 700,000 acres — with the overall agreement now covering nearly one million acres statewide. Governor Greg Gianforte and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation announced the expansion on June 4, adding roughly 345,000 acres in the Lolo National Forest to the program.
Background on the Agreement
The foundation for this effort was laid in June 2025, when Governor Gianforte and then-Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz formalized a 20-year cooperative agreement between the State of Montana and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The deal was designed to align state and federal resources for wildfire risk reduction and forest health work across jurisdictions that have historically operated independently.
In March 2026, the first two priority landscapes were selected, together covering more than 400,000 acres across the Flathead, Kootenai, and Bitterroot National Forests. The addition of the Lolo landscape brings the managed total to more than 745,000 acres under active coordination.
What the Agreement Does
The Shared Stewardship framework allows state and federal land managers to plan and carry out forest restoration and wildfire mitigation work across ownership boundaries rather than treating adjacent lands as separate problems. The state’s DNRC acts as a partner rather than a bystander on federally managed forests — using tools like the Good Neighbor Authority to facilitate timber sales and restoration projects on Forest Service land.
In 2025 alone, DNRC used that authority to support Forest Service work covering more than 40,000 acres in timber sales and forest restoration across the state.
Governor Gianforte called the latest announcement a sign the agreement is producing results as intended. “This progress is exactly what we envisioned when we signed the landmark Shared Stewardship Agreement — partners working across boundaries to better reduce wildfire risk and restore healthy forests,” he said.
DNRC Director Amanda Kaster emphasized the long-term nature of the work in western Montana. “This new landscape gives DNRC, the Lolo National Forest, and local partners a shared foundation for coordinated, long-term work in western Montana,” she said.
Why It Matters for Montana
Montana’s forests have faced persistent pressure from drought, beetle infestations, and the accumulated fuel loads that decades of fire suppression have left behind. Wildfire seasons have grown longer and more destructive across the Northern Rockies, and both state and federal officials have argued that managing forests in isolation — with each agency constrained to its own boundaries — has slowed the pace of restoration work needed to reduce risk to communities and watersheds.
The 20-year horizon of the agreement is notable. Forest management projects typically span multiple administrations and budget cycles, and a long-term framework is intended to provide continuity regardless of shifts in state or federal leadership. With the 2026 election cycle now underway — Montana’s June 2 primary reshuffled legislative representation across the state, and several incumbent senators lost their seats in contested Republican primaries — questions about policy continuity across administrations are increasingly relevant.
What Comes Next
Officials have not announced a specific timeline for reaching the full scope of the nearly one million acres contemplated under the agreement. With three landscapes now designated, land managers are expected to begin development of coordinated treatment plans for the newly added Lolo acreage. The partnership’s progress will likely be a point of discussion as Gianforte’s office heads into the latter half of his second term and the state’s broader federal lands policy draws continued scrutiny from both conservation interests and the timber and ranching communities that depend on active forest management.
Montana has one of the largest concentrations of national forest acreage in the Lower 48, and the Shared Stewardship model — if it continues to add landscapes at this pace — could eventually influence how other western states structure their own relationships with the Forest Service.
