Logging projects put on hold due to muddy, thawing roads

Snowpacks in Northwest Montana and elsewhere in the state are nearing record low levels and the economic effects are starting to spread beyond ski resorts.

Logging projects across the region have been put on hold because of warm temperatures and rapidly retreating snow.

"It's very serious. We are going to be way short of logs for spring breakup unless something changes," said Ron Buentemeier, logging manager at Stoltze Land & Lumber near Columbia Falls.

Spring breakup typically arrives in March or April, with loggers shutting down operations to keep log trucks off muddy, thawing roads that are vulnerable to severe damage.

But those conditions have been cropping up across the region since Jan. 11.

"I have six projects that are on hold or we are just working short hours on them when the ground is frozen," said Buentemeier, who has worked in the Flathead most of his life.

"This is one of the lowest snow years that I've experienced in my years living here," he said.

Automated stations that monitor mountain snow are reporting snowpack that is 69 percent of the 30-year average for the Flathead and Kootenai river basins, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

That's pushing close to record lows of 55 percent of average in the Flathead basin and 56 percent in the Kootenai basin. Both of those records for the month of January were set in 2001.

Water supply specialist Roy Kaiser said several snow monitoring stations in the two basins are already setting new record lows for the month.

"Anytime you set record lows it's cause for concern," said Kaiser, who noted that spring and summer stream flows could end up far below normal if the trend doesn't change.

Ray Nickless, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Missoula, said well-above-average temperatures have caused rapid melting in the last 10 days at several snow monitoring stations. But the real problem, he said, has been a complete lack of rain or snow during the same period.

"Precipitation is the key," he said. "We're just not getting precipitation across Western Montana."

For logging operations, having frozen ground - preferably with a healthy cushion of snow on top - is the key. There were freezing temperatures and 18 inches of snow on the ground at Wayfarers State Park on Flathead Lake just 10 days ago, but it vanished shortly after the arrival of a "Pineapple Express," a rain-drenched warm front from the south.

The rapid thaw stopped a logging project aimed at restoring more natural forest conditions and reducing fire fuel loads at Wayfarers State Park on Flathead Lake.

"We're going to be delaying this because of the weather, said Gerry Sawyer, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks manager for state parks around Flathead Lake. "We were ready to go … we had perfect conditions. But then we got those warm temperatures and the rain."

Now there is barely any snow at Wayfarers and the ground is soft.

"We need at least three inches of frozen ground before we can start up again," Sawyer said.

At Plum Creek Timber Co. facilities in the Flathead, log deliveries have dropped by 30 percent over the last week, said Tom Ray, general manager for resources in the company's northwest region.

"It's amazing how quickly the snow is retreating," he said.

Plum Creek has been able to continue work on many higher-elevation sites, but logging projects have been stopped at lower elevations.

A 30 percent drop in log deliveries is not enough to have an impact on milling operations, Ray said.

But at Stoltze, the curtailment of logging projects has impacted the company's log-yard inventory to a point where sawmill operations may be curtailed during the traditional spring breakup period, Buentemeier said.

Nickless said the weather service does not anticipate significant changes in the weather for the next few days. There is a chance for some precipitation in Western Montana by this weekend, he said.

The long-term forecast does not call for any big changes in the weeks to come, he added, because of a prevailing "El Nino" weather pattern that tends to steer Pacific moisture through the California and Southwestern states, rather than the Northwest.

The balmy weather is taking its toll on ski areas across the Pacific Northwest. At Blacktail Mountain south of Kalispell, only 50 percent of the terrain is open and as of Wednesday afternoon, the temperature was 38 degrees.

At Big Mountain north of Whitefish, the temperature was 35 degrees with a 60-inch settled base at the summit and 15 inches in the village area.

"January is typically one of our snowiest months, but that's not happening," Nickless said. "We need above-normal snow from now on to have any hope of getting a snowpack that's close to normal."

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