Laura Lundquist

(Missoula Current) When Americans hear the words “public land sale,” they often think about the loss of native grass prairie or forested areas. But the sale of urban public land could represent a different loss, according to public land advocates.

The Lolo National Forest this week announced it would accept public comment for 30 days on an environmental assessment of the sale of 12.4 acres used as a Forest Service storage facility within Missoula. Lolo Forest supervisor Benjamin Johnson announced the proposal to sell the Regional Field Service Facility in a July 28 letter, which is included among the project documents.

Johnson can’t use categorical exclusion because this project involves selling public land. However, no environmental assessment was available on the Lolo Forest website as of Thursday evening.

The Forest Service can sell the property directly to a purchaser or through competitive bidding. The method of sale will be determined at a later date, according to Tuesday’s announcement.

Located between S. 14th Street West and North Avenue on the northwest side of the Bitterroot Trail pedestrian path, the property has 19 structures, including an Engineering Shop, Dispatch, Lolo National Forest Hotshots Shop, the Forest Sciences shed, and various warehouses and storage buildings.

In his July 28 letter, Johnson said the site was identified in the Forest Service’s 2019 Missoula Area Facility Master Plan as surplus to future needs. Johnson followed that up in Tuesday’s announcement by saying selling the site would “consolidate services and storage across Missoula” but didn’t say where services such as the Hotshots shop or dispatch would be relocated to.

A year ago, the Trump administration announced it would be reorganizing the Forest Service to include eliminating regional management of the national forests. This past April, the plan was refined to include moving the Forest Service headquarters to Utah from Washington, D.C., and moving the national forests to a state-based model where regions were eliminated and state directors are created and stationed in 15 state capitals.

In Montana, the regional headquarters in Missoula would be closed, although some of the functions currently housed in regional offices will be moved to six operational service centers across the nation, one of which will remain in Missoula. The state director will operate out of Helena and will oversee Montana’s seven national forests. It’s uncertain what will happen with national forests like the Bitterroot, which overlaps into Idaho.

The elimination of the Regional Field Service Facility in Missoula is in keeping with the reorganization. However, some citizens argue that the land shouldn’t be sold into private ownership.

The first Trump administration tried to reorganize the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and moved its headquarters to Colorado, similar to what the second Trump administration is doing now with the U.S. Forest Service. The reorganization was reversed a year later when the Biden administration took over, although the BLM had lost many highly experienced employees.

Many Americans see the U.S. Forest Service reorganization as a plan to diminish and essentially eliminate the agency and would like to see it reversed. For that reason, property shouldn’t be sold off if the Forest Service is ever to return to its previous strength.

Will and Jim Pattiz of the organization More Than Just Parks have created a webpage to help citizens submit comments in opposition to the sale. They argue that once public land is disposed of, it cannot easily be returned to public ownership. Also, the disposal of National Forest land “should require a compelling public benefit, not just administrative convenience.”

The Lolo Forest is accepting comments on the proposed environmental analysis until Sept. 3. Electronic comments may be submitted at: https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?project=297552. Written comments may be mailed to: Robin Edwards, Realty Specialist, USDA Forest Service, 26 Fort Missoula Road, Missoula, MT 59804. Include “14th and Catlin” in the subject line of mailed or hand-delivered letters.