Reservoir timber plan is approved

Extensive road restrictions that still don't quite meet forest plan standards, along with limited timber salvage work, have been approved by the Flathead National Forest for lands burned by 2003 wildfires west of Hungry Horse Reservoir.

A record of decision for the West Side Reservoir Post-Fire Project was released Thursday by Flathead Supervisor Cathy Barbouletos.

The plan calls for salvaging 38 million board feet of timber from 3,163 acres - about 10 percent of the 31,000 acres that were burned by a series of fires that erupted along the Swan Mountain Range in August 2003.

The decision also calls for rendering 49 miles of road unusable by motorized vehicles, along with year-round closures on 18 miles and seasonal closures of 12 miles of road that are currently open.

Like other recent forest management projects that have been largely aimed at closing or "decommissioning" roads, the West Side Post-Fire Project has touched a raw nerve with Montanans for Multiple Use.

"It's just a really significant amount," said Fred Hodgeboom, the group's president.

Hodgeboom added that the salvage harvest falls far short of the timber harvest that should be carried out on such a large burned area.

Montanans for Multiple Use will appeal the road management provisions in the West Side project. The group also will appeal a recently released decision with similar post-fire management plans for national forest lands burned by the Robert and Wedge Canyon fires of 2003.

In the record of decision, Barbouletos explained the need for balance:

"My decision needed to balance competing interests such as the recovery of merchantable wood products versus protecting habitat for snag-dependent wildlife species, and motorized access versus wildlife security."

"It's a pretty complex project," added Deb Mucklow, the Spotted Bear district ranger. "We're pretty pleased with the mix of outputs we could get."

About 90 percent of the burned area was excluded from salvage logging for a variety of reasons.

Many areas did not contain trees of marketable value that could be harvested without causing unacceptable environmental impacts.

"Some of the areas feature conditions that precluded salvage, such as high elevation, rocky soils or otherwise marginal sites, or soils that burned at high intensity," Barbouletos stated in the decision document. "Many acres were within inventoried roadless areas and I chose to propose salvage only in stands outside inventoried roadless boundaries."

Riparian areas and areas within the fire perimeter where there was little tree mortality also were excluded.

"There's not as much left out there as people would think," said Jimmy DeHerrera, the Hungry Horse district ranger, who noted that forest planners used the same approach in assessing areas viable for salvaging timber as they did after the 2001 Moose Fire.

Cutting units that were outlined in the final environmental impact statement were reduced in the record of decision. A total of 68 acres were removed from salvage harvest areas so the cutting unit boundaries would align with inventoried roadless area boundaries.

There were several alternative approaches to salvage logging available in the impact statement, and Barbouletos picked the one with the highest timber volume yield.

Despite the extensive plans for eliminating or closing roads, the project's road management strategy does not meet road density standards that are required in Amendment 19 to the Flathead Forest Plan.

Barbouletos also adjusted the road management provisions, allowing the Quintonkon Road to remain open instead of having seasonal closures. That road "is the only remaining road on the Spotted Bear Ranger District that provides year-round wheeled motorized access to higher elevations of the district," she said.

The decision also allows continued access on the Beta Road, a popular route to alpine fishing and hunting just west of Hungry Horse Dam.

Forest officials justify deviations from the road standards by citing a specific provision in Amendment 19: "site specific application (of the standards) may reveal unanticipated or impractical results" in some bear management units, and those conditions may require the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be "able to adapt to new information."

While the forest intends to fully meet road density standards in five grizzly bear subunits, it will reduce road densities but not meet the standards in three subunits.

Amendment 19 standards are based on a grizzly bear study in the early 1990s along the same stretch of the Swan Mountains where the West Side Post-Fire Project is planned. The study found that grizzly bears have less probability of displacement and mortality in areas with lesser road densities. Amendment 19 defined the appropriate road densities, with extremely controversial results.

Hodgeboom reiterated his group's position on Amendment 19.

"Our thoughts haven't changed since they passed Amendment 19," he said. "That none of these measures are necessary for grizzly bear recovery, that grizzly bears are doing just fine without them, and the costs of these measures … far exceed any speculative benefit to bears."

Hodgeboom said the Forest Service has failed to assess the "cumulative costs" of closing roads or rendering them undrivable. Forest roads were built at considerable expense to provide long-term management access for timber harvest, addressing insect or disease infestations and for fighting wildfires, he said.

Closing and obliterating roads only reduces the agency's ability to stop fires like the ones that swept across the Flathead Forest in 2003, Hodgeboom said.

"Now they are using our tax dollars to destroy these capital investments," he said. "And that is going to change the economic benefits coming from those lands."

The record of decision also calls for planting trees on 700 acres and using a variety of measures aimed at curbing insect infestations in and around the burned areas.

Forest officials expect to advertise timber sales this month.

The project was given an emergency exemption that will allow logging to proceed during an appeal period.

West Side Reservoir Post-Fire documents are available at the Flathead National Forest Supervisors Office, the Hungry Horse Ranger Station or on the Internet at:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/flathead/nepa/nepa

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com