Forester accomplished in that first summer
All the work Moore and another forester accomplished in that first summer went up in smoke the next when all but two sections of the 13,000-acre state forest burned in the fires of 2000.
Over the course of the next year, Moore would be at ground zero for one of the largest timber salvage efforts the state had attempted up to that point in time.
The timber quota for the entire state came from the Sula Forest in 2001.
“We gave everybody else a reprieve,” Moore remembered. “I believe we cut well over 30 million board feet. Quite frankly, that really was one of the highlights of my career.”
Moore’s last day as manager of DNRC’s Hamilton Office was Friday. He spent a bit of time Thursday remembering his 33-year career with the state agency.
A couple years after Moore ended his U.S. Army enlistment in 1974, he enrolled in the University of Montana’s Forestry School while working part time in the woods as a logger.
“The logging industry back then was really big around here,” he said.
Right out of school in 1981, Moore went to work as a forest products specialist and began studying sawmill efficiencies while publishing a forest products marketing newsletter. He eventually helped with a sawmill improvement program that happened about the same time computers were starting to be used in the industry.