• Kemmerer Ranger District used as an example area

It’s called Good Neighbor Authority and it’s program showing signs of success in forest management as local forest districts are developing programs to harvest small amounts of timber while cleaning out heavy growth.

The Good Neighbor Authority is coordinated with the Wyoming State Forestry Office and was highlight as part of a visit from State Forester Kelly Norris this past week with presentations in Kemmerer and Afton.

RELATED: RADIO INTERVIEW WITH STATE FORESTER KELLY NORRIS – 

Earlier, Gov. Mark Gordon and Tom Schultz launched the program with a February signing of a working agreement.

Adam Calkins, Kemmerer District Ranger with the Bridger-Teton National Forest has been selected as area to highlight  projects.

“This is a shared stewardship agreement and really just says that both the state of Wyoming and the United States Forest Service are going to work closer together, more hand in hand, if you will, to create healthy landscapes out here on the Bridge Teton and across the state of Wyoming. Demographics,” Calkins explained.

He further explained linking in the Good Neighbor component from the state, “We’re really excited about this partnership.” Calkins said. So first to begin with is the Good Neighbor Authority. “It allows the federal government, and the Forest Service as an example, to work much closer with the state, specifically in this case of state forestry, where we are able to use the state funds to help us get a lot of our timber sales out the door.”

The program allows for more work with limited staff , Calkins pointed out.

Calkins noted the opportunity that comes with the projects in western Wyoming.

“We were fortunate down here in Kemmerer to be selected, the Kemmerer Ranger District, as one of two pilot programs across the state to really start showcasing how the United States Forest Service and how Wyoming State Forestry Division can work together to create healthy landscapes, to do more timber sales, and really just to see that a lot more active management can take place across the landscape.

Calkins said the changes will bring opportunity. One thing that really stood out to me during the presentations last week on this was the amount of lumber harvests that the Forest Service is pushing for,” he said. “We’ve talked about some small timber sales and some things like that, but I mean, we’re really  talking about going back to maybe the way things were if people remember 20, 30, 40 years ago on these districts, It is going to be a big difference.”

He added, “And the underlying thing that all of this is about is just to make our forest healthy. We’re seeing some insects and disease and infestations in some of our local areas. And so we’re really focused on how can we make our forest healthy again.”