Second Forest Service meeting takes place

SUPERIOR – Concerned citizens and business owners packed a conference room at the Superior Ranger District office in hopes of getting some answers, or a direction on how the Forest Service can potentially increase projects in the Lolo National Forest area. 

The April 17 meeting, which is the first of many upcoming forest group-working meetings, kicked off outlining ongoing sales of forest areas, and dead sale zones of forest areas like Cedar Thom, Clear Creek and 12 Tamarack. 

Projects that are also on hold and awaiting upcoming decisions are Cedar Thom, 12 Tamarack, Jam Cracker, Swamp Eddy and Clear Creek, which has been tagged with a notice of intent to sue.

“The meeting today was a kickoff to working together, re-engaging with commissioners and the community,” said Tawnya Brummett, district ranger with the Superior Ranger District. 

Brummett also said the Cedar Thom project should have a resolution by this fall. 

Cedar Thom is a 60,000-acre forest restoration project that was proposed in 2009 and included a price tag of $22 million. The project was supposed to be completed some years ago but is still sitting on the table.

The main holdup right now is waiting on the Fish and Wildlife Department to get back the biological assessment, which is expected within a few weeks, Brummett said.

Foresters from different stations were there to present maps and research of how technology has helped control timber harvest and forest fires in different areas around the state.

Foresters used Helena, Mont. as an example of success, where using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map the terrain of a particular location, which allows Foresters to compare GIS landscapes with current conditions. 

GIS is a type of prediction model which can allow Foresters to analyze high risk fire areas, pinpoint where forest treatments have been done or keep track of current forest condition for a particular area. This use of technology was also explained as a potential tool in forestry like with simulated wildfires.

These simulations can show an area of transmitted risk, which could be useful for places like Superior, which was hit last summer by the West Mullan Fire. The Forest Service can then identify the areas of most concern, and how fires can start and spread around the county. 

Tim Garcia, forest supervisor for Lolo National Forest addressed some of the questions going around the table.

“Having just come from Washington [D.C.], I can tell you unequivocally that the leadership in the Washington office is keenly aware of everything,” Garcia said. “There is a coalition of organizations in Washington that believe strongly in what we want to do to restore landscapes.” Garcia mentioned there is also an equal number of groups that believe that nothing should be done about the condition of local landscapes.

“The leadership from the Washington [D.C.] office has had countless conversation with coalitions to try and support our effort here and restore landscapes,” Garcia said.

In the long term, Garcia wants local elected officials to keep applying pressure to members of Congress, so they understand what’s at stake in Mineral County.