Tester's forest bill could be pilot project

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By The Associated Press

Story Published: Mar 7, 2010 at 4:11 PM MST

Story Updated: Mar 7, 2010 at 4:11 PM MST

DEER LODGE - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the Obama administration could support the logging mandate proposed in U.S. Sen. Jon Tester's forest bill as a pilot project.

Speaking Saturday in Deer Lodge, Vilsack said the agency would consider Tester's bill as a trial run to see if it's effective in improving forest health and helping rural economies.

Tester, a Democrat, is pitching the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act as a consensus-driven balance between preserving the environment and creating new jobs with a steady source of timber.

Tester's bill would create more than 600,000 acres of wilderness, mostly in southwestern Montana's Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, and open 70,000 acres in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge to logging over the next decade.

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