Montana Forest Consultants

06/02/2026

Montana Forest Consultants is hiring a Sales and Marketing Manager who will manage sales, marketing, and external communications efforts across all company divisions. The Sales and Marketing Manager will develop and maintain a sales pipeline for the company’s new firewood processing facility, while also delivering sales and marketing results across MFC’s other service areas. Montana Forest Consultants is Montana’s largest forestry consulting firm, specializing in practical, science-driven forest management across private, state, federal, and local government lands. We are a small, purpose-driven company growing with the demand for forest management solutions in Montana. This is a full-time, salaried position based in Missoula, Montana with a salary range between $65-75k. Full position description and application details are available below. Applications will be accepted through Sunday, June 21.

05/29/2026

At Montana Forest Consultants, we know resilient forests are built through collaboration. Our work at The Ranch at Rock Creek (check out last week's post) and is a model of how public agencies, conservation organizations, contractors, and private landowners can come together to restore forest health at scale.

We’re proud to work alongside partners who share our commitment to proactive, science‑driven stewardship on many of our projects. Here are a few highlights of the many organizations we're fortunate enough to partner with:

Montana DNRC — advancing statewide priorities for wildfire mitigation and forest health

Missoula Conservation District — strengthening watershed and protection and community‑level natural resource stewardship

Missoula County Parks, Trails & Open Lands — coordinating regional resilience and natural resource initiatives to promote recreation

City of Missoula — supporting urban‑to‑rural landscape connectivity and climate resilience

CSKT NRD Fish, Wildlife, Recreation & Conservation — advancing Tribal leadership in forest restoration, cultural resource protection, and ecosystem resilience

The Climate Trust — aligning forest treatments with long‑term carbon and climate goals

Montana Tree Farm System — promoting sustainable forest management on private lands

Trout Unlimited — enhancing cold‑water fisheries and riparian ecosystem health

National Forest Foundation — supporting collaborative, landscape‑scale restoration across Montana

Montana Lumber Mills — ensuring responsible utilization of harvested material and supporting Montana’s wood products industry

Contractors — providing the skilled labor, equipment, and on‑the‑ground expertise that make large‑scale restoration possible

Private landowners — investing in safer, healthier forests for future generations

Together, we’re implementing targeted treatments — selective thinning, fuel‑break construction, riparian protection, habitat enhancement, and slash reduction — that reduce wildfire risk, improve biodiversity, and support long‑term ecological resilience across the state.

05/20/2026

MFC's Zachary Bashoor and Erin Clark authored an opinion editorial about the United States Forest U.S. Forest Service reorganization and agency staff changes at the request of Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce's Forest Resources Committee. It's available to read for free courtesy of Missoula Current.

Erin Clark and Zachary Bashoor write, The amount of change impacting our public lands management right now is enormous, with implications for Forest Service employees, agency partners, and communities enmeshed with Forest Service lands and offices.

05/19/2026

Project Highlight: The Ranch at Rock Creek

At Montana Forest Consultants, we’re proud to lead a multi‑year forest restoration effort across The Ranch at Rock Creek’s 6,600 acres. This work is made possible in part by the Montana Forest Action Plan grant, administered by the Montana DNRC, which supports proactive, science‑driven wildfire mitigation across our state.

Since 2020, our team has implemented several treatments designed to restore ecological balance and reduce the risk of high‑severity wildfire, including:

- Selective thinning to reduce ladder fuels and overcrowded stands
- Pruning and removal of dead or diseased trees to slow insect spread and improve forest health
- Fuel‑break creation along roads, trails, and recreation corridors to support safer guest access and emergency response
- Road and trail improvements to promote better drainage
- Pile burning to reduce surface fuels and promote nutrient cycling
- Clearing to improve habitat and movement for elk, deer, and other wildlife
- Riparian zone protection to support cold‑water fisheries and enhance watershed resilience

These treatments are already improving stand structure, increasing biodiversity, and strengthening the forest’s long‑term ability to sequester carbon. The Montana Forest Action Plan grant has been instrumental in this work, allowing us to address priority areas at a meaningful scale.

As MFC founder and CEO Zachary Bashoor shared in the Ranch’s project feature, this work is rooted in long‑term stewardship:

“We’re not just treating trees — we’re restoring an ecosystem. When we reduce fuels, open up the canopy, and protect riparian areas, we’re giving this forest the conditions it needs to thrive for decades to come.”

We’re honored to help The Ranch at Rock Creek in their long-term commitment to steward this landscape for generations.

Read the full 2023 feature here: https://theranchatrockcreek.com/earth-day-responsible-forest-management/

05/12/2026

Project Highlight: Big Flat Forest Restoration Project

Over the past three years, we’ve been honored to be part of the Big Flat Forest Restoration Project, with funding from the Montana Forest Action Plan grant program. On property just west of Missoula, the goals of this project are to reduce the spread of insects, create a more fire-resilient landscape and improve wildlife habitat for the local deer and elk populations.

MFC started working with this landowner because the property was infested with numerous insects, including Douglas-fir tussock moth, Douglas-fir beetle, flatheaded wood borer, and Douglas-fir pole beetle. Due to high tree density on the property, these insects were able to migrate and infest the stand. MFC implemented a lop and scatter treatment, felling infested trees and those directly adjacent to infested trees, then felling, bucking, and delimbing the trees. After doing some pile burning to reduce the amount of large fuels on the ground, MFC executed a prescribed broadcast burn this spring as the final step to reduce fuel loading and promote a fire-resilient landscape within the treatment area.

Additional project stats:

2023:
54 acres of pre-commercial thinning via hand crews
14 acres of commercial thinning mechanized logging equipment
Generated an estimate of 120 tons of pulp wood
Recontoured 0.5 miles of old skid trails
Reconstructed 2 miles of access roads and landings
Reseeded old skid trails from previous operations

2024:
Surveyed 700 acres for forest assessments
22 acres of pre-commercial thinning via hand crews
12 acres commercial thinning via mechanized logging equipment
Generated 320 tons of saw logs

2025:
23 acres of pre-commercial thinning via hand crews
27 acres of pre-commercial thinning via machine masticator
70 acres of commercial thinning via mechanized logging equipment
Estimated 1,785 tons of logs harvested
Reforested 89 acres with 26,000 ponderosa pine seedlings

2026:
30 acre prescribed broadcast burn of grasses, shrubs, and small diameter logging slash in 2023 pre-commercial thinning treatment units
Reseeded 70 acres from commercial thinning operations

05/11/2026

MFC's Director of Strategic Development and Partnerships, Erin Clark, was featured on KPAX-TV's Community Spotlight. We are privileged to have Erin on our team. Check out her segment below!

Montana Forest Consultants, are not just forest management enthusiasts, but lifelong learners dedicated to the restoration of our landscapes and communities.

05/06/2026

Today marks 10 years of Montana Forest Consultants. A decade of serving Montana’s forests, landowners, agencies, and communities.

MFC's success has stemmed from the people and organizations who trusted us, worked with us, challenged us, supported us, and gave us opportunities to prove ourselves along the way. This milestone is an opportunity to recognize and honor each of you.

Whether you partnered with us on a project, trusted us with work on your land, collaborated with us across agencies or organizations, were a member of our team, helped open a door, gave advice, referred us, or simply believed in what we were trying to build — it mattered. Thank you for the trust, support, partnership, and friendship you have shown.

Over the coming month we'll share reflections and intentions for the future. Here’s to the next decade of stewardship, resilience, and good work in the forests we're lucky enough to call home.

04/24/2026

🌲This Arbor Day, we're celebrating our roots in forest stewardship. We're grateful for the opportunity to help Montana's forest thrive for generations to come by caring for the land, restoring forest health, and planning for the future.

How are you celebrating Arbor Day? 🌲

04/23/2026

On Monday and Tuesday afternoon, the eyes of many Missoulians were drawn across the valley to the Horseback Ridge area where visible plumes of smoke rose from forested private land. The smoke was a prescribed burn led by Montana Forest Consultants to reduce wildfire risk for the Horseback Ridge and Big Flat area.

It was an exceptional weather window and opportunity, but executing a burn of this size and proximity to homes is always a complicated endeavor. Here’s what it looked like for Montana Forest Consultants:

🔥A year and a half of planning and preparation
🔥Consistent communication with fire departments
🔥Helicopters monitoring the fire activity daily

From the outside, it looks like a giant plume of smoke, a fire that is out of control. From the inside, it is controlled, monitored, and deliberate. Trained and knowledgeable professional practitioners intentionally working to meet a very detailed prescription and exhaustively coordinated operational plan.

And how did it go? Very well.

40 acres were treated with low severity prescribed fire. Not a single tree torched. No fire crossed control lines. Hazardous fuels (downed woody debris, shrubs, pine needles and duff, and dry grass) were adequately burned and consumed. Green grass, trees, and green shrubs did not burn.

In the 24 hours following the prescribed burn, nearly an inch of rain fell on site – just as forecasters predicted. This precipitation effectively put out nearly all the remaining smoke. Crews are on site now addressing any remaining smoke. Our weather conditions continue to make this easy.

Many partnerships were needed to achieve this outcome. This included grant funding from Montana DNRC’s Forest Action Plan and Missoula County, Montana - Government. Montana Forest Consultants communicated and coordinated with organizations and agencies such as the Missoula Rural Fire District, Lolo National Forest, Bureau of Land Management - Montana/Dakotas, Five Valleys Land Trust, and many very valued contractors.

Thank you to the Missoula community for understanding that a few days of smoke now, can save us from months of that same smoke later.