Ranger: Numerous projects on forest 'wish list'

Christmas is still weeks away, but Sharon Sweeney, the U.S. Forest Service ranger for the Superior District, has already compiled her wish list.

At a stakeholders meeting for the Sanders Mineral Forest Coalition at the Commissioners' Office in Superior Tuesday, Sharon Sweeney outlined the 11 projects, under the National Environmental Policy Act, the district would be proposing for funding to the Lolo National Forest Leadership Team in January.

Sweeney told the coalition that the 11 projects, which included prescribe burning, improving winter range for wildlife, Wildland Urban Interface fuel reduction, timber harvesting, post-burn restoration work and trail improvement, only represent a small portion of the work that needed to be done in the district. "In every drainage there is something we can do, but we can't do everything, everywhere," Sweeney said.

Sweeney said the Forest Service staff is still in the preliminary stages of planning for these projects and she didn't have specific details for the projects. "These aren't even born yet; they're just ideas," she said.

The largest project was the Cedar Tom project, which encompasses the area between the Cedar Creek drainage and the Thompson Creek drainage. Sweeney said the project would include watershed improvement and cleaning up the roads. She said they would also like to have an interpretive road system that looped from Cedar Creek to Trout Creek and clean up some of the trails to the high-elevation lakes in the area. She said the project would also include timber thinning. She estimated that around nine million board feet of timber could be harvested from the project.

Sweeney said that under the Forest Service's Regional Integrated Restoration and Protection Strategy, which looks at factors such as watershed values, roads, fuel conditions, communities threatened by wildfire and insect disease to determine the health of the forest, the Cedar Tom area is in need of a lot of work. "There are a lot of things out of whack," she said.

Sweeney said that there should be funding for a project, but warned the coalition that it's a major undertaking that would take several years. "We all know, you'll have to be in it for the long haul. We'll be little old people by the time we get through this," she said. She said the project would need an Environmental Impact Statement, which would take at least a year and a half to draft. "We're a long way from moving this thing forward," said Sweeney, who then asked if the coalition would still be interested in supporting the project.

"This would be the kind of project we would be interested in - where there is multiple aspects and multiple purposes… and this is one where you would probably want a collaborative approach and actually have multiple interest at the table," said coalition member Kevin Chamberlain.

The Quartz Trout project, which stretches between Quartz Creek and Trout Creek, and the St. Regis South project, near the South Fork Little Joe drainage, also included some timber harvesting. Sweeney said the St. Regis South project would include some prescribed burning and about one million board feet of timber harvest. She said in the Quartz Trout project, there would be some commercial thinning and also some fuel reduction within the Wildland Urban Interface.

Sweeney said they will also propose two projects for prescribed burning and improving winter range: the Boyd Mountain and CC Divide projects. She said in the Boyd Mountain project the Forest Service will analyze about 3,000 acres on the south slope of Boyd Mountain to determine what areas they need to burn. She said the prescribed burning will reduce fuels, improve the winter range and help restore the Ponderosa pines in the area. She said in the CC Divide project, they will analyze about 4,000 acres. She said there are a lot of dead trees in the area, which could cause a "rip-snorter" of a fire that could threaten Plains.

Two of the projects will improve trails in the west end of the county. Sweeney said the Summer Trails project will look at improving the areas' ATV trails and ultimately lead to connecting the trails with the extensive ATV trails in the Idaho panhandle. She said using GPS units funded by the Resource Advisory Council, the Forest Service will inventory all the user-created ATV trails, mainly in the St. Regis Basin. She said once the trails are inventoried, the Forest Service would like to bring interested groups together to help them plan a trail system.

Sweeney said the Hiawatha project would extend the Hiawatha Trail. She said the Forest Service purchased five parcels of land near the trail this July. She said the parcels were about 60 acres and would extend the trail nearly 12 miles. She said there was a lot of work to be done before the trail could be extended. She said tunnels need to be worked on, trestles need to be fixed and roads need to be cleared. She said it would be about three years before they actually started extending the trail.

Three of the projects will be focused on post-burn restoration from fires in 2000. Sweeney said the Forest Service will finish the work set out in an EIS. She said the bulk of the work will be focused on road clean up, improving or removing culverts and mine reclamation.

After the meeting, Sweeney said she will propose these projects to the leadership team in January and should know if they will get funded in February.

The SMFC was formed in May with the endorsement of commissioners from Mineral and Sanders County. The goal of the coalition is to bring a diverse group of people together to come up with a collaborative approach on how to manage federal lands. The coalition was modeled after Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Coalition, which was formed several years ago to foster collaboration regarding Kootenai Forest projects.