More trail work ahead in burned forest areas

There’s less than a month left before the remote Spotted Bear Ranger Station opens for business in the heart of the Flathead National Forest, but many trails still need significant repair after last year’s fire season.

Situated 55 miles south of Hungry Horse at the confluence of the Spotted Bear and South Fork Flathead rivers, the remote ranger station was unscathed by a pair of wildfires that burned more than 90,000 acres in the nearby forest.

But the Bear Creek and Trail Creek fires swept over about 120 miles of trails, leaving weakened tree snags along many of the wooded routes and scorching root networks that stabilize soil under the trailbeds.

“We had great progress last fall,” Spotted Bear District Ranger Deb Mucklow said. “But we still have to tackle the secondary trails off the mainline trails that didn’t get worked on.”

Dozens of trail workers from the forest and nonprofit organizations began the cleanup process late last summer, removing snags with the potential to topple over the trails, surveying burn areas and in some cases rebuilding trailbeds.

Mucklow said the crews focused on the most heavily used trails and were able to complete initial work on about a third of those that were affected.

“We were successful in getting all 19 miles to Schafer Meadows and we got about seven miles — a very difficult seven miles — on the East Side Trail toward Black Bear Creek finished,” she said. “I think we’ll still have some additional work to do when we had scoped out the level of work, retreading and building structures. I don’t think we can get it all in one season, but we’re prioritizing the loops and may have some additional work to do in 2017.”

Loop trails extending from the main paths along Meadow, Mid, Black Bear and Lost Jack creeks are not currently suitable for stock, and other trails likely will be added to that list once forest officials finish surveying the area.

The forest received Burned Area Emergency Response funding to tackle the substantial cleanup work, which included some trails extending into the Great Bear and Bob Marshall wilderness areas. The regional Forest Service headquarters in Missoula this week gave the Flathead Forest an additional $24,000, which Mucklow said could fund about two full-time trail workers for the season.

That money will also pay for monitoring burn areas for the spread of invasive weeds, such as spotted knapweed, that can quickly take hold where other vegetation has been wiped out.

Mucklow said those planning trips into the backcountry should first check with the forest to find out which trails are closed to stock use.

The Spotted Bear Ranger Station opens for full service May 16, when forest visitors will be able to pick up firewood permits and personal-use permits for gathering morel mushrooms.

For more information, contact the Spotted Bear District at (406) 387-3800 or (406) 758-5376.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.