Forest Service gives update to commissioners

SUPERIOR – The Forest Service’s latest projects and fire risks for this summer were one of the main topics of discussion at the weekly county commissioner’s meeting.

Tawnya Brummett, district ranger of the Superior Ranger District, said things have been very busy at the Forest Service. The update to the commissioners was on the tail of a big meeting held with representatives of the area’s various ranger districts. This included the areas of Plains, Thompson Falls and Superior, which are all part of the Lolo National Forest region.

“It’s kind of amazing the amount of projects everybody is working on,” said Brummett.

The update included news on two projects currently being worked on. The Twelve Tamarack project is progressing. This is a resource project where work will be done on vegetation management, big game range maintenance and watershed improvements among others. Brummett said most of the reports have been completed and it is in the second phase of drafting environmental analysis.

Plans for the Jamcracker project has also seen some updates. Jamcracker is a landscape restoration project, similar to Cedar Thom. The project will involve controlled burns, timber harvests, repairs to roads and watershed work, among other work.

The project will be done near Johnson Creek and up around the Nine Mile divide. Brummett said the Forest Service employees were surveying the area and getting an idea of the land in preparation for work to begin.

There was also an update on the Forest Service’s progress on the Route of the Olympian recreational area. The area would be a recreational pedestrian, bike and motor vehicle path following the route of an old railway where the Olympian locomotive ran.

The implementation of the route is currently underway. While the bulk of the work has yet to be approved, Forest Service crews have been working on small projects involved in the set up and organization of the project.

“We will continue to work on that and get some trailheads in and some graveling done and stuff like that,” said Brummett. “But with the season we’re in, that one’s a little bit quieter right now.”

Another area this addressed was the progress of the Saltese Trestle. The Friends of the Olympian, a non-profit group supporting and helping the Forest Service with the Route of the Olympian project, have begun to draft a grant to get the money to repair the trestle. The short-term goal for the trestle has been to repair it enough so it will not collapse.

“If we can just make it more stable now, that’s kind of our short term goal,” said Brummett.

There were also concerns expressed over the drought potential of this summer. While there were already drought concerns, it was estimated it would be fairly dry later in the year and the risk of wildfires in the area would be high. The Forest Service was concerned about their ability to deal with fires this season.

While the drought conditions in Montana were expected to be bad, further west would have it far worse. Brummett recalled a map she had seen of drought and fire risk where most of California had a very high risk. She said this would likely result in firefighting money being directed to the California Forest Service branches.

There was concern for whether there would be enough money in the Montana firefighting budget to adequately protect the area when the time came.

“We are concerned that before we even reach fire season all the fire money will be gone,” said Brummett.