No bids on trees blackened by fire

The Flathead National Forest opened bidding Thursday for 3.5 million board feet of blackened hazard trees in the Brush Creek Fire area - and nobody showed up.

"It was an oral bid and no one showed up," said Denise Germann, public affairs officer for the forest. "I don't know if we will re-advertise or what we will do."

The trees were felled within 200 feet of open roads in the 30,000-acre fire area. Work away from the roads was done by 28 saw teams assigned to the fire, while work closer to the roads or in more accessible areas was done by clippers assigned to the fire.

Ron Buentemeier, vice president at F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber, said the manner in which the logs were felled and a depressed lumber market kept the company from bidding.

"You've got burnt logs to begin with. Some are mismanufactured, and just the tremendous amount of effort that you would have to put into getting them on a truck" kept Stoltze away from the bidding, Buentemeier said.

The logs "are so tangled and put every which way that the amount of machinery time that you would need just to get them out of there makes it nonprofitable," he added.

Primarily because of declining housing starts, he said, the market for dimension lumber is at its lowest point in 35 years, accounting for inflation.

The industry publication Random Lengths is reporting dimension lumber selling for $281 per thousand board feet - far below a February 2006 peak of $416 per thousand board feet.

Cathy Calloway, the Flathead Forest's timber and silviculture program leader, said the roadside salvage package will be reconsidered next week.

"We'll look at it and see if there's some way we can repackage it … to make it more attractive," Calloway said.