Beaver Creek Landscape project gets initial OK

The Flathead National Forest has released its draft decision notice for the proposed Beaver Creek Landscape Restoration Project in the Swan Lake Ranger District.

The 34,962-acre project is nine miles south of Condon and is bordered by Lindbergh Lake and the Mission Mountains Wilderness Area to the west, the Swan River to the north, Montana 83 to the east and the Lolo National Forest to the south.

Swan Lake District Ranger Rich Kehr said the project is designed to accomplish seven main objectives: reduce the risk of wildfires; improve fish and wildlife habitat; boost forest health; improve water quality; reduce the presence of invasive plant species; benefit the local economy; and assign a management framework to former Plum Creek timber lands acquired since the last forest plan was approved.

The project is four years in the making, and forest officials have selected an alternative during the environmental review process that grew out of two other proposed alternatives.

The selected alternative proposes commercial harvest on 1,865 acres and is expected to produce about 6.4 million board-feet of saw logs and 2.8 million board-feet of non-saw logs.

Non-commercial vegetative treatment would cover 1,023 acres for daylighting, pre-commercial thinning and fill planting, while fuels reduction would take place on 2,365 acres. An additional 29 acres would be treated to reduce ladder fuels adjacent to large “legacy trees” in riparian conservation areas.

The project would require the construction of 5.5 miles of temporary roads, of which 3.2 miles will be new road and 2.3 miles will use existing road templates. Temporary roads are rehabilitated after project completion.

The forest will also place 12.6 miles of existing closed roads into storage and decommission an additional 4.5 miles of currently closed road.

Timber harvest is expected to take three years, while the overall lifespan of the project is estimated at eight to 10 years.

As proposed in the draft decision, the project will require an amendment to the Flathead National Forest’s existing forest plan to assign interim management areas to 5,457 acres of private forest land acquired by the Forest Service. A portion of those lands, totaling 502 acres on the east shore of Lindbergh Lake, will be designated based on their high scenic value.

A 45-day objection process began Wednesday with the draft decision’s publication.

During the objection period, people who previously provided comments on the project may object to portions of the selected alternative.

To view the draft decision and other documents for the Beaver Creek project, visit www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=43968.

Objections can be emailed to appeals-northern-regional-office@or mailed to Objection Review Officer, USDA Forest Service, Northern Region, P.O. Box 7669, Missoula, MT 59807. They can also be faxed to 406-329-3411.

For more information, contact the Swan Lake Ranger District at 406-837-7500.