Agencies pursue salvage logging

Planning wheels are turning for timber salvage projects following the 2007 fire season, with different speeds for different agencies.

The Montana Department of Natural Resources has an aggressive schedule for timber salvage in several fire areas that collectively covered about 10,500 acres of state school trust lands in Western Montana.

"We've got a lot of boots on the ground right now looking at and assessing those burned areas," said David Groeschl, the state's forest management bureau chief.

In planning salvage operations, foresters are checking burn severity, accessibility and the potential for erosion and tree regeneration, among other considerations.

Groeschl expects initial salvage proposals to come before the state Land Board at its October and November meetings. The initial proposals will focus on burned areas where there aren't complications with threatened and endangered species or potential threats to nearby streams.

"Most of them will be in areas where the issues tend to be pretty straightforward and we are able to develop mitigation for minor issues," Groeschl said.

More complicated salvage projects will involve environmental assessments that will take more time to develop, he said.

On the Chippy Creek Fire north of Hot Springs, state foresters are estimating a potential salvage of 9 million to 12 million board-feet of timber. The fire burned almost 100,000 acres, including 2,638 acres of school trust lands with the rest on Lolo National Forest, Salish-Kootenai tribal and Plum Creek Timber Co. lands.

Groeschl said the Tin Cup, Mile Marker 124, Black Cat and Jocko Lakes fires are expected to yield an additional 12 million to 13 million board-feet in timber salvage. About 9 million to 10 million will come off the Jocko Lakes burn alone.

Tribal foresters have been sizing up timber salvage opportunities on the Chippy Creek Fire, which burned across 32,069 acres of tribal land.

Foresters are expected to brief the tribal council and make initial salvage project recommendations on Thursday, tribal spokesman Rob McDonald said.

The Flathead National Forest will have a more protracted planning schedule for any timber salvage proposals on the Brush Creek Fire, which burned nearly 30,000 acres southwest of Whitefish.

"We're in the process of trying to establish what we have for salvage opportunities," said Bryan Donner, planning leader on the Tally Lake Ranger District. "It turns out to be just less than 25,000 acres that burned on the Flathead National Forest, so that is a pretty daunting task."

The remainder of the area burned by the Brush Creek Fire was on Kootenai National Forest and Plum Creek land.

Foresters have been assessing burn severity from one stand of trees to the next.

"A casual observer may see green trees out there, but we need to get under those canopies to see what happened," Donner said.

In places where fire burned for a long time on the ground, Donner said, there may be severe mortality for trees that burned from the ground up and left green canopies intact.

Initial assessments also are accounting for soil conditions and the potential for erosion as a result of salvage operations.

Donner said the district probably will come out with a "proposed action" in the next few weeks. Public comments on that proposal will be used to develop a formal environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement.

It took more than a year to develop environmental reviews for salvage operations on the Flathead Forest following the 2003 fire season.

But any salvage on the Brush Creek burned area may have fewer complications than the 2003 salvage projects, which involved prime grizzly bear habitat and inventoried roadless areas that led to the forest requiring most salvaged trees to be removed by helicopter.

Donner said the Brush Creek Fire burned in an area with a more extensive logging history and better accessibility.

"The need for building roads, we try to minimize," Donner said. "But this is more of a roaded landscape, so that is something that we will be considering."

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