Salvage work planned in burned area
Logging proposed on 6,485 acres
Flathead National Forest has unveiled a proposal for salvage logging on about 6,485 acres of forest burned by last summer's 30,000-acre Brush Creek Fire west of Whitefish.
The Tally Lake Ranger District will take public comment on the Sheppard Creek Post-Fire Project proposal through Jan. 15.
Public comments will be used to develop a draft environmental impact study for release next spring, outlining a variety of management alternatives for the burned area.
While some management projects have goals such as forest health or fuel reduction, this project has a practical economic objective: "The purpose of the Sheppard Creek Post-Fire Project is to salvage harvest burned trees and recover merchantable wood fiber while it is economically feasible to do so," according to the proposal released this week.
"Timely recovery of wood fiber would support the economies of local and regional communities."
The 6,485 acres identified for salvage harvesting are considered the maximum available within the burn perimeter.
That acreage accounts for about 30 percent of an overall project area of 18,000 acres, most of it centered in the Sheppard Creek drainage. The fire burned 24,700 acres of national forest lands and just over 5,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Co. lands and other private land.
The district proposal calls for most logging to be carried out with tractor, skyline and cable systems, because of an extensive road system in the Sheppard Creek drainage. Only 712 acres are proposed for helicopter logging.
"It is a roaded landscape, there is no doubt about that," said Bryan Donner, lead planner on the Tally Lake District. "There's been a considerable amount of previous harvest activity that has taken place since the 1950s. Many of the roads that we propose for the salvage harvest have been closed for a while."
About 16 miles of old, closed roads are proposed to be used. These are available largely because the fire opened them up by burning off heavy brush, Donner said.
Those roads are relics from harvests that have occurred on about 56 percent of the project area over the last six decades. Most logging occurred in the 1980s in response to a heavy infestation of mountain pine beetles.
The salvage proposal calls for construction of 9.5 miles of temporary roads that would be reclaimed once harvest is complete. Most logging is proposed for stands with high tree mortality. About 75 percent of those areas have not had past timber harvest.
A timely harvest will be crucial for the project, the proposal states.
"Past experience with fire salvage in northwestern Montana indicates that 'whitewood species' such as spruce, subalpine fir and lodgepole pine substantially deteriorate within a year or so after a fire," the proposal says. "Salvage operations would need to be completed within one to two years to ensure economic utilization of the whitewood species that burned in the Brush Creek Fire."
Donner said the district likely will release a draft environmental impact study in April or May, followed by public comment, a final EIS and an appeal period. Timber sales could be offered in time for logging next winter, he said.
Further field surveys this summer could alter the management alternatives, possibly reducing the acreage proposed for harvest or changing recommended harvest methods.
Donner said the district can't yet project an estimated volume yield of timber.
"That's a really hard thing to do on a burned landscape," he said. "That will come out as we try to make an assessment of what the economics of the project are, but at this point we haven't made that determination.
As part of the comment period, the Tally Lake District will hold an open house Jan. 9 from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the district's new headquarters just south of Glacier High School in Kalispell.
Comments can be dropped off at the headquarters, they can be submitted by calling 758-5408, or they can be sent by e-mail to: comments-northern-flathead-tally-lake@fs.fed.us
Maps and information on the proposal are available on the Flathead Forest Web site at:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/flathead/nepa/nepa.htm
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com