Скачать или смотреть Trees from Conservation Work Create Jobs

To restore southwest Montana’s sagebrush lands, conservation crews must keep forests from expanding into the sagebrush. Rather than going to waste, the trees the crews cut are being turned into lumber for homes, fences, flooring and more. Crucial for rural communities, this unique supply of wood is creating middle-class jobs in places where steady work can be hard to come by. From sawyers to mill workers to building contractors and office staff, the jobs are part of a “restoration economy"–one where conserving nature and keeping families strong financially go hand in hand.

In this video, you’ll see how Paul Rust’s small sawmill in Dillon, Montana could return to life, processing smaller trees that many larger sawmills reject. You’ll also meet Mark Stosich, whose company can use trees from conservation projects to create wildlife-friendly fencing. You’ll hear from a small mill owner about how this supplemental supply of logs kept his mill going in the lean winter months and from Sean Claffey, Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership coordinator, about how creating economic benefit for rural communities is vital to conserving nature.

Why are these forests encroaching into the sagebrush? The answer is the lack of frequent, low-intensity fires. By suppressing virtually all fires for the last century, people eliminated one of nature’s ways of keeping forests in balance. As a result, trees began steadily sprouting into shrublands outside the forests’ edges, shading out native sagebrush plants and reducing food for wildlife, such as pronghorn and sage-grouse, that inhabit the Sagebrush Sea.

Discover how the Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership is restoring sagebrush habitat and exploring biomass utilization through conifer expansion removal at https://smsp.tnc.org/pages/conifer-re...

Learn more about The Nature Conservancy’s work restoring the Sagebrush Sea at https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us....

Learn more about how The Nature Conservancy works in communities across Montana at http://nature.org/montana.

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