Blowdown piles up trees at Big Creek

The Flathead National Forest is advertising a special timber sale following a storm last year that blew down or uprooted trees containing 153 tons of timber at Big Creek Campground up the North Fork.

“It was a big storm that came through the Friday after Thanksgiving. We had some cold weather and snow, and then it warmed up and rained a lot after that,” said Paul Donnellon, a forester with Flathead National Forest. “That area is kind of a vortex, a lot like Columbia Heights.”

He said a number of companies have expressed interest in the estimated 25,000 board-feet of timber (about five truckloads), with the bidding period ending April 7.

Most of the trees are Douglas fir, and there are also are lodgepole and Ponderosa pine trees.

The forest hopes to get the work finished by Memorial Day, typically a busy weekend for the popular campground.

However, “there are conditions out there that might warrant an extension,” Donnellon said. “Right now the county has weight limits on the North Fork Road, and if we get a lot of rain and the roads are wet, we won’t be able to operate.”

The campground covers 55 acres on the bank of the North Fork of the Flathead River 20 miles north of Columbia Falls.

Donnellon said the blowdown extends beyond the boundaries of the campground, but only the downed and hazardous trees within the campground will be salvaged.