Commissioners review letters to Forest Service
<p>County Commissioner Duane Simmons, Cindy Grimm and Dennis Hildebrand look over a series of letters to be delivered to the Forest Service. The letters were composed by MCRAG and addressed the commissioner's concerns about the West Mullan Fire cleanup and the Cedar Thom project.</p>
SUPERIOR – A series of letters to the Forest Service regarding various projects and concerns of the County Commissioners were the topic of discussion at the commissioner’s final meeting of November.
Josef Kuchera, representative of the Mineral County Resource Advisory Group, presented the letters. The commissioners reviewed the letters for errors as well as changes to ensure the right message was sent to the Forest Service.
The first letter was about attempts to bring more forestry projects to the county. According to the letter, a meeting at the end of September discussed how the Forest Service would come to Mineral County to work with the commissioners on how to start the projects. The commissioners asked to begin arrangements.
“We would like to expedite this meeting to ensure the stability of our community,” the letter said.
The letter was approved with only minor changes to grammar. The second letter was in regards to the Cedar Thom project and acted as a follow up to a letter sent earlier in November, which never saw a response.
According to Laurie Johnston, commissioner for Mineral County’s central region, the commissioners requested a decision on the project be made by the end of December. The commissioners wanted to remind the Forest Service of the upcoming deadline to provide an update on the Cedar Thom project.
The project has the goal to remove forest debris and maintain roads in the Cedar Creek area. However, the project has seen multiple delays due to claims the project will contaminate the creek with sediment. According to Johnston, the concern is that logging truck traffic will knock dirt and other contaminants into the stream where it will cause complications for bull trout populations. It was decided the Forest Service would investigate the situation and have biologists look into the validity of the claims.
This was not the only project discussed in the letters. The final letter was in regards to the salvage of the West Mullan Fire area. The letter described how the public had voiced a desire to see the Interstate 90 viewshed near Superior cleaned up and use any salvageable timber. This is a goal the commissioners were in favor of. It would also give the public a much-needed example where the Forest Service has taken action.
“Inefficiency and waste is all the public has seen for too many years now,” the MCRAG letter said.
A proposed project would see the dead, or soon to be dead, trees removed and put to various uses. The salvage teams would leave any healthy trees to begin to replenish the area in the spring. However, new information about roads to the area also needed to be discussed.
The commissioners made recommendations on how to manage the roadways leading to the salvage area. It was said some access roads may not have been found, allowing different options of what machinery could be brought in. However, specific rules would need to be followed for how the roads were used and treated.
“It will be imperative that the Mineral County Resource Use Plan be especially followed in reference to its section on roads,” said the MCRAG letter.
Specifically, the roads utilized would then be part of county infrastructure and could not be closed or destroyed after the project’s completion. However, these roads could remain as pioneer roads and would not need to be actively maintained. Pioneer roads are dirt roads, which have not been graveled, paved or had boundaries marked.
The letter also discussed where resources could be pulled from and redirected to the West Mullan Fire clean up. The commissioners did not like this plan and requested a series of alternatives.
It was suggested more personnel be brought in to work on the salvage. This would include administration to manage the project. These recommendations would allow workers already on other jobs to finish the projects in progress while the salvage was completed.
According to the letter, the commissioners hope for these changes to improve the community’s stewardship of the land and its relationship with the Forest Service.
“This project in particular might be shown and held up as a watershed moment for more quality management for both the people and the land in Mineral County,” the MCRAG letter said.
The letters were marked for grammatical corrections. Some areas were also reworded slightly to clarify the desires of the commissioners before the letters were approved for delivery.