Bud Moore grew up in the shadow of the Bitterroot mountains. He hunted, trapped, and explored the Lolo and Lochsa drainages--east and west of the Bitterroot crest--and knew all the stories local mountain men had to tell about that country by the time he took a job with the U. S. Forest Service in 1934.
During his forty-year career as a forester, he became even more knowledgeable and attached to the land. He is the principal architect of the Forest Service's current wilderness fire management policy, and is known as one of its "greatest fire experts," according to his good friend, the late Norman Maclean, who wrote Young Men and Fire and A River Runs Through It. In addition, Moore knows a great deal about other forestry issues such as water quality, sustainable use of resources, and the "wholeness" of the land now termed "ecosystem management."
Since retiring from the Forest Service in 1974, Moore has turned his attention to managing Coyote Forest, an 80-acre plot of land in Montana's Swan Valley, plus another 167 acres farther south, near the town of Ovando. The centerpiece of the operation is a sawmill that produces lumber from their "light-on-the-land" approach to logging in the Swan Valley. He uses an "even-flow" system--balancing the rate of harvest with the rate of forest regeneration and growth.
Moore is profoundly dedicated to the forest and all of the natural elements, including people, that make it whole. He believes anyone who works with the land must have a feel for it. "When in doubt, go slow," he advises. "Be humble. Learn from your mistakes."
