Yaak Valley Forest Council

The highlight of our work over the last year was our success defending black ram in court. The black ram project encompasses over 95,000 acres of the northern Yaak Valley and proposes logging in 4,000 acres of mature and old-growth Forest within designated grizzly core habitat. After seven years of engagement and advocacy, a federal judge ruled in our favor finding that the kootenai national Forest (knf) violated at least six laws in their proposal. The knf has since appealed the decision and so once again we are working with our national partners to prepare for the next phase of this case, which will involve extensive ground-truthing. We are committed to protecting this vital Forest and continue to lay the groundwork for permanently protecting this climate-resilient, carbon-storing habitat as a climate refuge. Yvfc hosted many events to bring national attention to the Yaak Valley and increase awareness of the climate refuge. In june, we hosted ada limn, poet laureate of the united states. She wrote about her experience in her poem "the origin, revisited," which was published in the atlantic and later read to president and first lady biden by limn. We also partnered with ecoflight to fly over the proposed climate refuge (which includes the black ram project area) and facilitated flights for several members of the local press which generated a great write-up in the flathead beacon that received wide circulation. The climate refuge was also the topic of a recent piece published in scientific american. We organized the first annual climate aid event, held in portland, Maine, which brought together terry tempest williams, bill mckibben, and maggie rogers, who played a custom guitar made from an old-growth spruce tree salvaged from within the proposed climate refuge. The actor and musician jeff bridges has commissioned six more "black ram" guitars through his "all in this together" sustainability campaign with breedlove guitars, and we will be coordinating this effort in support of the black ram climate refuge.

Headwaters restoration partnership on the ground in the Yaak Valley, our field crew continued long-term programs, working with agency and community partners to assess water quality, monitor stream temperatures, and detect the presence of aquatic invasive species. Over the 2023 season, our crew conducted testing for aquatic invasive species throughout the kootenai river watershed, confirming that the Yaak river remains free of invasives. In partnership with the university of Montana's flathead lake biological station, we tested 22 locations in the watershed for key indicators of water quality. Our monitoring expanded to include selenium testing at six sites. Yvfc's independent testing confirmed that selenium levels in koocanusa reservoir and the kootenai river are near the maximum allowed by the epa, posing a serious threat to aquatic species. Private land restoration: yvfc's private land restoration program made significant progress toward addressing nonpoint source pollution in the south fork of the Yaak river, one of the few impaired waterways in the Yaak Valley. Our staff 2023 big sky watershed crop member conducted comprehensive erosion surveys on the entire south fork river and identified 16 privately owned riverbanks where restoration projects would measurably improve water. We partnered with one of the landowners to restore 100 feet of highly degraded riverbank, restoring critical habitat for sensitive aquatic species.

Forest watch community Forest watch: yvfc's presence on the ground as a voice for conservation has been crucial to maintaining high-quality habitat on the landscape. The knf has continued to move forward with logging projects that impact climate-resilient old-growth forests and critical grizzly bear habitat. As we know, maintaining old and mature forests, specifically within the Yaak Valley's inland temperate rainforest, is the most cost- effective way to store carbon in the landscape while preserving ecosystem function. Yvfc has engaged on four projects: black ram, knotty pine, norman mccedar (libby), and trojan defense (troy). For each project, we conducted ground monitoring, assessing potential impacts on watershed health, sensitive species, wildfire risk to the community, and climate impacts. Grizzly recovery: we continue to monitor illegal motor vehicle use in the knf, where despite agency claims that designated grizzly core habitat is sufficiently protected, yvfc continues to document illicit use. During the 2023 field season, yvfc assessed road barriers at more than 30 sites across six knf project areas and produced formal reports for three projects. Each report has been shared with the usfs in an attempt to remedy insufficient barriers and secure grizzly bear habitat. We expect these reports to play a critical role in ongoing litigation. Pnt: yvfc's communications director, ashley south, was appointed to the pnt advisory Council, as a direct result of our legal effort to enforce the requirement for a comprehensive plan for the trail. As a member of the committee, ashley has been advocating for widening the planning corridor, which is the first step toward routing the trail out of critical habitats. Climate refuge: as we lay the groundwork for permanently protecting the northern Yaak as a climate refuge, we have expanded our partnerships with scientists and national organizations to develop management guidelines for the climate refuge. We have been working with dr. dominick dellasala, chief scientist of wildheritage, to conduct an ecoregional conservation assessment (eca) for the Yaak Valley to identify key attributes that function in a rapidly changing climate and propose effective conservation strategies for maintaining biodiversity. Work on the eca is set to begin in september with the gathering of scientists and tribal representatives at a workshop in missoula.

Conservation education conservation education: yvfc attended more than 30 events during 2023, where we advocated for sustainable land management, offered bear spray training, and educated the community about how to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. We held presentations at two local schools and hosted two wildness walks, which were well attended. We also organized the second annual lincoln county city nature challenge bioblitz, where our community made 126 observations and documented 78 species. Bear aware: over the year, we spoke with hundreds of people about the importance of securing bear attractants, carrying bear spray, and engaging ethically with bears. We partnered with the troy high school outdoor club to organize a bear spray demonstration for students and their families and conducted over 30 trainings at community events. Our program to provide bear-safe garbage cans and electric fencing to Yaak Valley residents is more popular than ever. In 2023 we were contacted by over 30 people seeking assistance and were able to offer four electric fence energizers and eight garbage cans. We are happy to report that yvfc has welcomed long-time board member and staunch advocate for the Yaak, rick bass, as full-time executive director in november 2023. With all positions filled, our dedicated staff has hit stride as we expand our capacity to serve our community and raise the Yaak's profile in the national consciousness.