West Side Reservoir Fire

West Side Reservoir Post-Fire Project
Scoping Document

Purpose of the Project and Proposed Action

February 5, 2004   FNF Press Release

BACKGROUND of the FIRES

The West Side Reservoir Fires burned a total of approximately 30,000 acres on the Hungry Horse and Spotted Bear Ranger Districts of the Flathead National Forest. Lightning storms on August 19, 2003, ignited a series of wildland fires scattered across approximately 30 miles of the east facing-slope of the Swan Range just west of the Hungry Horse Reservoir. Collectively known as the West Side Reservoir Fires, individual fires occurred in four separate fire groups: the Beta/Doris Complex, the Blackfoot Complex, the Doe Complex, and the Ball Fire. Here is some basic information about these fires, all of which burned only on National Forest System lands:

A Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) team was assigned in August 2003 to determine emergency watershed rehabilitation needs created by the fires. Some of the needs identified in their analysis included aerial tree seeding; shrub planting; hazard tree removal along trails; cleaning road ditches, culvert inlets, and catch basins; constructing diversion dips on roads; and upgrading culverts. These actions began in late 2003 and will continue in the summer of 2004.

PURPOSE of this PROJECT

The purpose of the West Side Reservoir Post-Fire Project is to harvest burned trees while it is still economically feasible to do so. Timely recovery of wood fiber will support local communities and contribute to the long-term yield of forest products. Past experience with fire salvage in northwestern Montana indicates that “whitewood species” such as spruce, subalpine fir, lodgepole pine, and western white pine substantially deteriorate within a year or so after a fire. Salvage operations would need to be completed within one to two years to ensure economic utilization of the whitewood species that burned in the West Side Fires.

Western larch and Douglas-fir resist checking and rot for a longer period of time, perhaps up to two or three years. But because these more rot-resistant species do lose some value immediately and are intermingled with whitewood species within drainages in the proposed project area, it is most cost-efficient to also begin harvesting these species in the next year or two.

In general, the species composition of the burned areas is mixed stands of spruce, Douglas-fir, and western larch at the low to mid elevations. The high-elevation forests are dominated by spruce and subalpine fir. Western white pine is an occasional forest component primarily at lower elevations, and lodgepole pine is found scattered throughout. Other species such as western red cedar, grand fir, and birch are found in minor quantities at low elevations.

In total, the West Side Reservoir Fires burned approximately 30,000 acres distributed among the following burn severities:

 Some additional mortality is expected in all burn severity areas. This delayed mortality is especially likely to occur in whitewood species and in areas of low and moderate vegetation burn severities where fire damaged many trees, but did not kill them immediately.

PROPOSED ACTION

Salvage

Salvage harvest of dead trees and trees damaged by the fire and likely to die would occur on a total of approximately 6,138 acres (approximately 20% of the burned area) within four fire groups (See attached maps):

In developing the Proposed Action, the Interdisciplinary Team proposes to salvage only those acres that meet the following criteria:

• In burned areas with dead trees.

• Outside inventoried roadless areas and the Jewel Basin Hiking Area.

• Outside areas that currently meet old growth habitat.

• Outside areas that have been regeneration harvested in the recent past.

• Outside riparian areas. An exception occurs on a relatively few acres where burned riparian areas can be accessed by existing open road; these acres would be harvested by helicopter. One reason why these riparian acres are proposed for harvest is because future firewood gathering by the public has the potential to cause resource damage in these areas.

• Within stands with enough timber volume to be merchantable considering the harvest method appropriate for the soil type, steepness of slope, and available transportation system. 

The number of acres included in the Proposed Action are the maximum that the Interdisciplinary Team considers at this time to be reasonable candidates for salvage. Further field surveys in the summer of 2004 may provide information that will reduce the total number of acres proposed for salvage harvest, may change the logging system proposed for particular units, or may cause other unforeseen reductions in total acres.

The Proposed Action focuses on salvage mostly within high and moderate vegetation burn severities:

 Mostly dead or dying trees would be harvested in all areas that burned. Some live trees may be cut to accommodate landings, skid trails, skyline corridors, or for safety reasons. Individual and variable sized patches of dead trees would be maintained to provide adequate present and future amounts of larger diameter standing/down trees across the landscape, or to provide for site protection. A total of approximately 70 to 80 million board feet could be harvested, the exact amount depending on merchantability at the time of harvest.

Logging methods to remove merchantable trees would depend on slope and soil sensitivity, and would include helicopter, cable, and tractor-type equipment such as crawler tractors, skidders, feller/bunchers, and cut-to-length harvesters. Impacts to the more severely burned soils would be minimized through the use of helicopters, winter logging, or skidding on slash mat materials (adequate amounts of available fine woody debris). Up to 50 helicopter landing areas would be proposed and reclaimed after harvest activities. Approximately 71% of the area would be logged by helicopters, 17% by cable, and 12% by tractor-type equipment.

Fuels Reduction and Planting Within Salvage Units

After salvage harvest, fuel reduction and site preparation activities are proposed for some units, depending on soil resource concerns. Planting of native tree seedlings would occur within some salvage units (approximately 1700 acres) after salvage harvest to return the site to fully forested conditions in a timely manner and promote desired species diversity in the future forest. Desired species to plant would be western white pine, western larch, Douglas-fir, and Engelmann spruce. Willow, alder, and other shrub species would be considered for planting in riparian areas.

Summary of Open Road Changes. Approximately 20 miles of open yearlong/seasonally open road would be closed yearlong to wheeled motorized vehicles within several of the grizzly bear subunits (full compliance with Amendment 19’s standards would have required 50 miles of open yearlong/seasonally open road to be closed to wheeled motorized vehicles; 39 miles of open road would need to be closed if more motorized trails were closed). Some of the most notable changes in road status involved with the proposed action are as follows:

 A yearlong closure to wheeled motorized vehicles on the Wounded Buck Road 895C and Wildcat Road 5339.

 A yearlong closure to wheeled motorized vehicles on the Lid Creek Road 2817.

A yearlong closure to wheeled motorized vehicles on Road 9796 (north of Graves Bay) that currently provides access to the Pioneer Ridge trailhead. A 1-2 mile new connector trail would be constructed to provide access to Trail 71 (Pioneer Ridge Trail).

A seasonal opening to wheeled motorized vehicles from July 1 – November 30 on the Aurora Basin Road (895H) to allow access to the Doris Ridge trailhead. 

Summary of Motorized Trail Changes. Approximately 43 miles of trail currently open to motorized use would be closed to wheeled motorized use yearlong (full compliance with Amendment 19 standards would have required over 61 miles of motorized trails to be closed yearlong; 49 miles of motorized trail would need to be closed if more open roads were closed). Some of the most notable proposed yearlong closures of trails currently open to wheeled vehicles are as follows:

 Trail 51 (Columbia Mountain to Hungry Horse).

Upper Lost Johnny Basin motorized route.

 Trail 297 – Jimmy Ridge.

 Trail 7 - Alpine Trail from south of Strawberry Lake to Jewel Basin.

 Trail 7 - Alpine Trail from south of Jewel Basin to Tom Tom Mountain.

 Trail 396 - Connor Creek.

 Road 547 - Sullivan Creek Road (currently open to motorcycle use).

 Trail 410 – Forest Creek Trail (access to Margaret Lake). 

Summary of Road Decommissioning. In addition to changes to open roads, approximately 49 miles of road would be decommissioned in several of the grizzly bear subunits (full compliance of Amendment 19’s standards would have required over 70 miles of roads to be decommissioned). All of these 49 miles of road decommissioning are currently closed to wheeled motorized use yearlong, except for 0.8 miles that are currently open yearlong. Almost half of the road decommissioning would occur in the Wounded Buck Clayton grizzly bear subunit.

Road decommissioning would include actions that would minimize the potential for future sedimentation of streams or noxious weed development. These actions would include placement of numerous waterbars, culvert removals, grass seeding, slash or debris placement on roads, planting shrubs, physical alteration of the road template, and/or spraying herbicides on existing noxious weed infestations.

Culvert removals and stream restoration would occur where roads to be decommissioned intersect streams. To reduce the amount of ground disturbed, cross drain culverts would typically not be removed, but waterbars would be placed nearby. The amount of physical altering of the road template from culvert removal or water bar creation would vary according to the sites involved.

Project-Specific Amendment. The access management strategy described above does not meet the 10-year standards specified in the Forest Plan and would require a project-specific Forest Plan amendment. The Forest Plan would be amended to change open motorized access density, total motorized access density and security core standards to the following percentages in the Wheeler Quintonkon, Wounded Buck Clayton, and Doris Lost Johnny grizzly bear subunits:

Note: shading indicates what Amendment 19 standards would be amended by the proposed action