Tales of a 'water logged' industry

We suspect we are not the only ones who read Tuesday’s front-page story about a creative approach to logging with a sense of irony — tinged with a bit of nostalgia.

Here we are in Northwest Montana, surrounded by the Flathead National Forest, the Kootenai National Forest, and the Lolo National Forest — and where do loggers have to go to find large-bore old-growth timber to harvest?

That’s right — the bottom of Flathead Lake!

North Shore Development has won approval from the state Land Board to salvage submerged logs from the lake. The logs date to an earlier era when loggers would float timber down rivers to the lake where it would be processed by the Somers Lumber Co.

The mill dates back to 1902, and descendants of the family who bought the mill in 1946 are behind the current proposal, which would allow them to salvage submerged logs bearing their own brand, as well as unmarked logs which would be shared with the state.

Part of the attraction of the timber is that it is old growth, and thus much larger than others on the market today. But part of the attraction is just that it is timber that’s not on a national forest.

Could you imagine the bureaucratic nightmare, not to mention litigation, that would have stymied this project if it had been under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service?

ANOTHER INNOVATIVE approach involving the timber industry involves biomass — using wood-waste products to produce power.

But the fledgling efforts to pursue a biomass cogeneration plant in the Flathead Valley may run head-on into the projected political power turnaround in Washington, D.C.

A legal specialist told the Montana Wood Products Association last week that if Republicans take over the U.S. House of Representatives next year, climate change legislation probably will be dormant for at least two years.

That, unfortunately, may present a major challenge to local enterprises that have been looking for ways to make biomass work in Western Montana.

Other policy factors ranging from EPA emissions designations to limited tax credits also may be challenges for biomass backers.