Forest project would cover 34,962 acres

Flathead National Forest will hold a public meeting Thursday to accept comments and answer questions on the proposed Beaver Creek Landscape Restoration Project south of Condon.

The project area spans 34,962 acres in the forest’s Swan Lake District, including 20,026 acres within the Mission Mountains Wilderness.

It borders Lindbergh Lake, the Flathead Indian Reservation and Lolo National Forest.

Sarah Canepa, a National Environmental Policy Act planner for the forest, said the wilderness component of the project is aimed at reducing the threat that a wildland fire could pose to nearby residences clustered along the lake.

“It’s been almost 100 years since we’ve had a large fire event in this project area,” Canepa said Monday. “You can’t stop fire, but we want to reduce the impacts to resources. If a fire were to occur, we’re looking at modifying fire behavior through different kinds of thinning, utilizing timber harvest and in some cases, hand thinning.”

Due to the limited management tools available in a wilderness, she said that work would be limited to prescribed burns ignited by helicopter.

“If we were to get a start in the wilderness, it’s highly unlikely that we would be able to let fire play its natural role, and we would be forced to suppress those fires,” she said, adding that the prevailing winds would likely push such a wildfire toward Lindbergh Lake.

Under one of the proposed alternatives, the project calls for 5,286 acres of vegetation treatment, including 2,351 acres of logging, 882 acres of pre-commercial thinning, 1,642 acres of prescribed burning and 329 acres of planting.

Another 82 acres would be subject to “daylighting,” in which officials would identify trees with higher conservation value, such as whitebark pine — a species that has been identified as “sensitive” throughout the Forest Service’s Northern Region.

More than seven miles of road would be constructed and almost 50 miles of road would be evaluated for best management practices.

Canepa added the proposal calls for some treatment of riparian habitat — the 100- to 300-yard buffer surrounding creeks and streams — to thin out ladder fuels around larger “legacy trees” that stakeholders wanted conserved.

Daylighting usually involves hand thinning around those trees to promote their growth.

After the first round pf public comments, the forest is proposing another alternative that would eliminate most treatment within riparian habitats.

Residents on Lindbergh expressed concerns about vegetation treatment around the lake affecting the view. The new alternative also removes those treatments.

A total of 4,180 acres would be treated under the new alternative, including 1,586 acres of timber harvest, 552 acres of pre-commercial thinning, 1,642 acres of prescribed burning, 339 acres of planting and 70 acres of daylighting.

Both alternatives also focus on forest management that would improve fish and wildlife habitat, Canepa said.

Both alternatives also would create a forest plan amendment to guide management of 5,457 acres of former Plum Creek land the forest acquired from 1998 to 2015.

“A very interesting part of this landscape is that only recently did we acquire these lands and have the ability to think about their future and their management,” Canepa said.

The Beaver Creek project first got off the ground in 2012, and the forest came out with an initial proposal the following year.

Late last month, the forest released the environmental assessment for the project, initiating the public comment period.

Canepa hopes a draft decision will be available by April. An objection period will follow, with a final decision possible as soon as July.

“To me, this is the fun part of it,” Canepa said. “It’s so important to have this dialogue with the public, to get their feedback on the project, what resources they have concerns with,” she said. “The best time for people to comment is now, not in April. At that point it’s more difficult for us to make changes to the project.”

This week’s meeting will be from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Condon Work Station.

The Flathead Forest is accepting comments on the project through Feb. 1.

People can email comments to: comments-northern-flathead-swan-lake@fs.fed.us, or mail them to Rich Kehr, District Ranger, Beaver Creek Landscape Restoration Project, Swan Lake Ranger District, 200 Ranger Station Road, Bigfork, MT 59911.

For more information on the Beaver Creek project, contact Canepa at 837-7510 or 837-3827 or visit www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=43968.

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